Nerium oleander is often an evergreen shrub of varying height and appearance with a flexible, poorly woody stems. Leaves lanceolate, leathery, 3 whorls. Flowers from white to dark purple, simple and double, sometimes fragrant (they have a delicate smell of vanilla or almond, a little bit with bitterness), collected in the apical paniculate inflorescences; bloom from July to early autumn. In hot weather, without rain, the flowering oleander is abundant.
Thanks to the beauty of fragrant flowers, Oleander was valued and widely cultivated in ancient times. The image of its flowers was found on the frescoes of Pompeii and in the stone carvings of ancient Indian temples.
Oleander is a heat – loving shrub; especially demanding to heat the young who have not completed the growth of shoots, which when the temperature is lowered to -6 ˚C, are already damaged . More sensitive to low temperatures, the double varieties of the oleander. Adult specimens frosted over to the root if temperatures below -12˚C.
Most varieties of Oleander grow well in Sunny places, protected from the wind, and fertile, moist, carbonate soils. Forming a Bush is sanitary pruning-removal of frost-damaged shoots in late spring. If there is no need to collect seeds, after flowering, remove the top of the generative shoot.
The plant tolerates pruning well, quickly restores the crown. Oleander resistant to pests and diseases, but in shading, unventilated places they can be affected by fungal diseases and damaged by insects.
The best way to vegetative reproduction oleander – cuttings in the summer, in August. In addition, it can be propagated by seeds.
It is used as a tapeworm, in group plantings, in the design of alleys, edges, stairs, terraces, balconies and interiors.
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