Nothing's normal this year because the weather's been so incredibly variable in the last 6 months.
How long have you had the plants and have they been in the same pots since you got them?

I have had them for a year and pot size was recommended by nursery that supplied them .They are still in same pots

A year in the same pots is okay. Probably the symptoms you've seen are weather related, specially as there's now new growth coming, but I'm interested in the feed you're using - what's the NPK? This should be shown on the label somewhere, and it'll be 3 figures, for example, 6:6:6 or 12:6:10.

I have a potted olive tree which I've had for five years. It suffered really badly this winter, lost all of its leaves and did a pretty good impersonation of being dead...

My nursery man told me to cut it back and not to expect any real re-growth until the end of June or even July...he specialises in olives and a lot of his looked pretty much the same.

Mine looks like a skeleton right now, but I guess I'll just have to be patient...

Thanks will try that

Also, I have stopped watering so much and only feed occasionally...they like to feel warm dry earth and live on sun-baked hill-sides in their natural environment.

I hope that they recover for you, Goodrum... :)

Okay, Goodrumc, you've not responded to my question. I don't know what the NPK is of whatever feed you're using, but olives in pots do need regular feeding during the late spring and summer, so you are doing the right thing, but with a balanced feed, which means something like 6:6:6 or at least, all the numbers equal. Stop feeding, though, when we get to mid June.
As our winters here are never, or not usually, as bad as those Karenfrance sees, your potted olives should, hopefully, never get to the 'skeleton' stage... but they often do look a bit worse for wear after winter, and the weather this spring has been particularly cold and dull.

They really don't like having wet feet, though, do they, Bamboo?

Shouldn't be possible for them to have wet feet when they're potted, assuming there are drainage holes in the pot and its not contained in a tray or outer pot without drainage.

Well, I'm no expert, Bamboo - but Monsieur Bluteau is, and watering three times a week seems a bit too much - especially in a non-mediterranean climate...they like dry scree-like conditions.

3 times a week during the heatwave we've just had is something I'd recommend, in fact, they may have needed daily watering, it was so hot. I was certainly having to water my wall basket twice a day, and the troughs and pots daily, even though the plants hadn't been in long, the compost was bone dry by the end of the day, and even the very large pots needed water every other day. Fortunately, the heat has now passed, but we were hotter than Ibiza for a good few days, wilting mature shrubs everywhere because of the intensity of the sun... maybe you didn't get that where you are.

With respect, Bamboo, your wall basket is not an olive tree...and, believe me, your heatwave is on the edge of what we have here.

I shall continue to follow Monsieur Bluteau's advice, in the meantime, he has never let me down yet...

It may well be that olives behave differently in a cooler, wetter climate! :)

Certainly, in the ground, olive trees do not like wet feet, they prefer thinner soil, not heavy clay, don't like wet/damp and cold in winter, yet tolerate drier cold well - and I'd guess where you are you might even get a crop of olives, which is next to impossible in UK.
The pots I had to water every other day during the heatwave (37 deg 5 days running, overnight temps 24 deg) are 2 feet deep by 18 inches wide, so pretty big pots.
That daytime temperature was in the shade - my thermometer in the sun on the balcony was reading high forties centrigrade, at one point it went to 50.5...

I just noticed your remark that you will be following Mr. Bluteau's advice - I hope you weren't feeling I was trying to make you accept my advice - I certainly wasn't. My advice is based on RHS information and is aimed at olive trees growing in pots in Britain, so very much aimed at Goodrum and not you. And Goodrum, too, has the choice of following your advice and not mine - all I can do is state my own knowledge and advice, and its either followed, or it isn't, it's the questioner's choice, as it should be.

Absoutely, Bamboo!! :))