Growing Olive As Bonsai

This is an olea sylvestris, or wild olive, bonsai of mine obtained in 2018 as a yamadori, originally collected in Mallorca. Wild olives from this Spanish island are particularly sought after for their deadwood and the smaller leaves than the more common European olive. These wild olives are particularly drought resistant, receiving as little as 2 litres of moisture a year. Today I'm wiring and styling the new growth on the tree after a particularly hot and sunny summer here in the UK. Leaves at the base of branches are pruned away to enable wiring and hopefully stimulate some back budding. As the tree has been styled on previous occasions, today's work involves detailed wiring and placing the new growth at the tips of the branches. The tree has strong movement towards the left, so I'm dropping the branches on that side of the tree as though they were growing towards the light. However, branches emerging from the right-hand side of the tree are placed so they lift upwards in an effort to catch rays of light that make it across the top of the crown. Notice that the crown itself is made from a whole series of upward-growing branches that create a pleasing naturalistic appearance. In recent years, I've planted some sempervivum into the deadwood and a cedar known as London Pride at the base of the tree. One of the main challenges with this tree was the large slab of flat deadwood on top of the trunk, created, I assume, when the tree was separated from its larger parent with a chainsaw. Artificially creating deadwood using power tools to match the natural deadwood was not easy. Olives are a fantastic species to work with. Even here in the relatively cool and wet climate of the UK. There are, however, a few important tricks to learn with looking after them to ensure they thrive. Firstly, they are cold hardy to at least -5°C, if not colder. What they really don't like is the cold wet of our winters. As a species that has evolved to thrive in an arid environment, Letting them sit with their roots in wet soil over the autumn and the winter is not a good idea. Make sure you protect them from excess rain from October through to April. Secondly, never repot in the spring. Olives must be repotted during the summer when their roots are active and they're able to respond to your work. Use a fast-draining soil mix and they can be watered daily throughout the growing season without a problem. The tree has 2 distinct live veins running up the inside of the trunk, and due to this, the tree has an almost human appearance, as though it is an old man carrying the weight of the world on its back. And that's why I call it the Old Man. I hope you've enjoyed this video. If you have, please like and subscribe.