Thanks to both of you for the advice. I believe the seed I've collected is very fresh, so hopefully I'll have some success. ONE LAST QUESTION: after I've removed the pit from the fruit, should I plant the cleaned pit, or crack open the pit and plant the seed inside? Or is the pit the actual seed? I know this is probably a dumb question, but I have no experience with olives. Thanks. cd

Well, more leaves have been yellowing, so I am becoming more alarmed. I'm a little paranoid because I had a beautiful potted lime last year. For some reason it got infested with scale, and despite my best efforts, I lost the plant. So I really don't want the same thing to happen to my olive. I noticed a clear, sticky substance on the undersides of some still green leaves, usually at the very tip of each leaf. I assume this is the result of some insect sucking the juice out of the plant. So I sprayed the whole plant with insecticidal soap, and also removed the yellowed leaves. That was this past Friday, and so far only a few more leaves have turned yellow. Overall, the plants still looks fantastic, so hopefully I'm on the right track. I've researched various olea pests and diseases. I don't think it's verticillium, as I've read this usually causes problems in the spring when the weather warms up. Being a cactus nut, I'm not prone to overwatering anything, but I usually water when the soil feels dry to a depth of about 1 inch. As for light, it's in a sunny location, so I don't think that the problem either. I really do think it's scale or mites or something like that. The leaves that are yellowing have been on the same 7 branchlets. So if this keeps up, maybe I should prune off those branchlets (?). Anyway, I'll just keep monitoring the plant. Thanks for your help. Regards, cd

Hi, I'm interested in 5-10 seeds of the following which are listed in order of importance to me. Hope you'll find SOMETHING in my seed list of value to you. Quite an impressive list you already have. Brugmansia Charles Grimaldi, Versicolor Peach & Moonflower Datura metal double purple & Wrightii Regal Alcea Hollyhock doubles Passiflora incarnata,quadrangularis,ligularis TY-Sandy

I neglected to emphasize that the olive trees are in clay pots and come inside during the winter. They cannot survive below 25F no matter what, and through trial and error, I've learned that fact. Even if they survive, when the sap rises, the stems all split and the plant will die, just like my big bay laurel that was in the ground this past winter, and the mission figs (but the Celeste fig had no damage at all.) Last year i didn't take the olive trees out soon enough and the flowers arrived while inside and quickly got burned up by too much heat. This past year, the trees came inside in late November and went out in late February. It was a cold spring, but not below 25F after i took the trees outside (but I was closely watching the weather station.) The budding started very late this year - about three weeks ago. Most years, the buds appeared in March or April. This year, very late. I was told that someone else had trees in the ground in St. Michaels for the last ten years, and those had survived many winters. But not 2013/2014 - this was the lowest temp since 2002 for me. About 5F, and in 2002, it was -5F. Again - 25F is the lower limit that I have been able to count on.