<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>To add a bit on what Julian Archer said about cold ;-

1. I don't know how the Umbrian / Tuscan -15 C winter got into
circulation but it seems to go round and round without any basis.
Fortunately we don't have that sort of temperature here very often as it
would destroy the olive industry. The last big one was in 1985 and they
seem to occur at about 25 to 30 year intervals. The classic olive
varieties are certainly not resistant to that sort of temperature.
About -8 ° C causes serious damage but to the leaves and young wood so
the tree recovers in a year or two but lower temperatures can kill all
the top growth and the whole tree needs to be rebuilt from suckers.

2. Snow does not cause damage from cold as it is rarely more than a
couple of degrees below. "Wet" snow can cause damages as Julian says
through breaking of branches but over the last ten years we have had
about thirty snow falls of more than 2 cm and only 2 have been wet snow.
The rest have been dry and powdery.

3. The time of exposure is crucial. An overnight -8° C is unlikely to
do any damage as the minimum is reached for only an hour or so. Our bad
year was 1996 when the temperature was below zero for 48 hours and below
- 4° C for long periods, When it dipped to -8° C for some hour and
serious damage occurred. This makes the normal max / min figures of
doubtful value. One needs an hourly record which is rarely available
except from major met stations.

4. All this applies to winter frost. In Oz and to a lesser extent NZ
spring frost is a problem. Olive growing tips are much more sensitive to
frost than the dormant tree in winter, Here we are lucky. We have few
spring frosts as the air is more humid and we have very heavy dews.

It is pointless to compare with vines, They are much more resistant than
olive in winter and are grown much further north in Europe - in
Switzerland and Austria - but less resistant in the spring.

Cheers Brian Chatterton
</pre>
</td></tr></table>