Our Olive Tree Nursery Story

In 1961, a non-fruiting olive cultivar was discovered near the town of Swan Hill in Northern Victoria Province, Australia, by Dr. Hudson T. Hartmann, Ph.D., a Professor of Pomology on sabbatical from the University of California, Davis.  According to the orchard owner, the tree was at least 30 years old and while it had flowered, no fruit had ever been observed.  Recognizing the value of a non-fruiting olive tree for ornamental horticulture, Dr. Hartmann sent cuttings to UC Davis, where he grafted them onto fruiting olive rootstock and continued to study them.  In 1972, Dr. Hartmann and the University of California’s Office of Technology Transfer applied for and were awarded Federal Plant Patent #3197 for the ‘Swan Hill’ olive variety based on its unique non-fruiting qualities.  Swan Hill Nurseries, LLC purchased propagation rights in 1979 and began growing the trees for commercial landscape production.  When the plant patent expired in 1989, Tom Russell, Ph.D. and Swan Hill Nurseries, LLC applied for and were granted a United States Registered Trademark No. 2,001,332 for the Swan Hill Olives® tree.  The Swan Hill Olives® trademark was acquired by Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery in 2020, and Swan Hill Olives® trees are now produced with great care and pride at their Farmington growing ground in California’s Central Valley.