Oleander Plant: Planting, Growing, and Care

Oleanders are stunning, massive, flowering shrubs which are excellent for screening and privateness. Robust and drought-resistant, they usually develop in hotter areas; nevertheless, there are additionally winter-hardy varieties. Be taught extra about planting, rising, and caring for oleanders.

About Oleander

Oleander (Nerium oleander) is a fantastic decorative shrub with enticing star-shaped flowers. It will probably have a shrubby, open-growth type or be educated right into a small single or multi-trunked tree. It’s additionally referred to as Rose Bay or Rose Laurel. 

These shrubs are drought tolerant, deer resistant, and do nicely in salt spray. They’re a comparatively rapid-growing flowering shrub, usually placing on 2 ft per 12 months, and are hardy in USDA zones 8 to 10. Nevertheless, there are additionally extra cold-hardy varieties (see beneath). An early spring chilly snap can injury oleander, so shield it with 2 to five inches of mulch. 

Oleanders bloom from late spring by late summer time, they usually have a great deal of five-petaled flowers in pink, white, purple, magenta, and salmon. Their foliage is generally darkish inexperienced, continuously with a pale stripe down the middle. The leaves are spear-shaped and normally 4 to six inches lengthy however lower than an inch in width.

Whereas oleanders are fairly on their very own as a specimen planting, they actually shine as a privateness display screen. Their evergreen nature, dense foliage, and development after pruning make them excellent for nearer plantings to type a hedge, pure privateness fence, or visible block. In the event that they’re hardy the place you reside, planting oleander can considerably add to your yard’s privateness and serenity whereas offering a lift of coloration.