Mission Olive Tree

The all-purpose California classic: a hardy, self-fertile olive that gives you table fruit, fragrant oil, and a silver-leafed evergreen that anchors a Mediterranean garden.

The 'Mission' olive traces back to the Spanish Franciscan missions of 18th-century California, where it was planted for both fruit and oil. It produces medium, oval black olives prized for their rich, mellow flavor when cured and for a fruity, slightly peppery oil. The tree itself is a graceful evergreen with narrow gray-green leaves and a silvery underside that shimmers in the wind, making it as much a landscape feature as a producer.

Why growers choose the Mission

• Dual-purpose harvest. Pick green for milder table olives or let the fruit ripen to black for a deeper cured flavor and quality oil.
• Self-fertile. A single tree will set fruit on its own, so you do not need a second variety to get a crop.
• Cold-tolerant for an olive. Mission is among the more cold-hardy cultivars, holding up well in zones 8 through 11 where many olives struggle.
• Evergreen, drought-tough beauty. Once established it shrugs off heat and dry spells, and its silver foliage stays handsome year-round.
• Long-lived and adaptable. Thrives in lean, well-draining soil and rewards patience with decades of productivity.

Given room, it matures into a 20 to 30 ft. specimen or screening tree; kept pruned, it suits a courtyard, a sunny patio container, or a Mediterranean-style border where its form and color carry the design.