I've never seen olives here. People have been growing figs here for a long time, but they get some sort of protection. Once they go dormant, they are either layed down in a trench and buried or wrapped with insulating material and plastic, etc. No heat source is used. The other option is to plant them in a large container and bring them inside in a cool, dark place to keep them dormant as long as possible. There is a fairly large Italian population here and the "old timers" grew some fig trees that they could sit under in the summertime! Loads of figs too.

My own fig tree is still alive, and comes back every year from the roots. I am not able to do the elaborate covering it needs, so I let it grow for the leaves. Surprisingly this year it is growing from last years wood instead of from the ground, so who knows if I may see a fig this year!

Hey yard man I have one being in chicago I searched around and found one called hardy chicago. I have had it the past two years. Its supposed to be from the mountains of Sicily. It was supposed to have been brought here with immegrants way back. It drops leaves like the other trees in winter has lots of new growth when temps warm up. On problem is the parrots in the area and squirls will eat all the fruit if you dont cover protect it some how

Im also in a zone 7 and most of the figs I see go unprotected, some are pretty tall. Never seen any olives though and even if they were, I doubt that we have that dry heat they need to make good fruit (not to mention the cold winters).

Good luck!
-Alex

My area is rated zone 7, coastal NJ, so maybe that helps, but my fig has been in the ground a long time, unprotected, through some pretty harsh Winters. I think these guys are very tough once hardened off. Protect initially, then leave to its own devices. Thing is...I don't eat figs, and I get a bountiful supply every year. They are given away, tossed in my compost, or manna for the local wildlife. I prune this tree each Fall, and it just comes back like wildfire. Looks like I might get 2 blooms of fruit this year as well...i.e. a lot.

{{gwi:1138249}}

My figs are doing great. My first crop is nearly ready. This is much fun. I will need to look up the fig tree from the mountains of Sicily. Could be a fun next adventure.

Anything colder than zone 7 requires you to protect your fig (wrapping it). For a deciduous tree, fig wood is not that hardy.

Figs are pretty cold sensitive to anything colder than zone 7 winters but Im sure large ones will recover in a mild zone 6b with a good microclimate. But there are some people who do still protect there figs here even though they do not have to be protected. I think figs are probably only a little more cold tolerant than windmill palms but thats not accurate since figs are dormant in the winter and therefore fare better in protection so can be grown easier in colder zones.
Osmanthus fragrans can handle down to 5F so they are probably about as cold tolerant as figs, but the downside is they are not true olives and dont really look amazingly similar. Im not even sure if they are related.

Im more curious about the parrots living in zone 6b. I would venture to say that if there are parrots flying around stealing fruit off of trees, then you dont live in 6b.

i wouldnt doubt it because there are naturalized parrots in many cool areas. Brooklyn is a zone 7 and has parrots thriving in some communities. They are in abundance too but arent very widespread and live together. Just like all other city birds they eat a lot of food that is on the ground but will eat a lot of other foods too. They dont look like tropical parrots, but can be trained to talk, but probably will never do so in the wild. Definitely not those beautiful tropical looking parrots you see as pets or in the zoo, but they do have nice green colors to them. But as far as stealing fruit, there are lots of other much more common birds that will do that job a lot quicker than these parrots in brooklyn (I believe they are called quaker parrots and are from argentina). I think they are also in other areas but Im really only familiar with the ones in Brooklyn.

Good luck!
-Alex

We have this infestation, 1000's of nests, of the same exact parrots as they do in brooklyn. There called quaker parrots. They nest in every telephone pole, cell tower, street sign and very tall tree. There nest is like a huge be hive all the birds live together in there version of condominiums lol. Any way they eat anything from leaves, tree bark fruit nuts grass and dandelion flowers.

Ok, that makes more sense to me now. When I think parrots, I think $1000 birds.

There is some colonies of these quaker parakeets in the Shelby & Utica area northern (burbs) of Detroit.

There nests almost look like a mass of darkened spanish moss. They are beautiful though, but eat most of my grapes in the late summer. Argh!

They make great pets too, but you need a permit to get them in a lot of states because of how they can take over an area if set free. I think that they are very nice and should be introduced more, but there nests are very ugly. Still they are beautiful birds but with a big appetite.