Re: Oleander question

Hi Barb,

Oleanders are very easy to grow in a well drained soil in full sun. Although
here they're fully hardy and then grown in the ground, I've seen beautiful
specimens in England grown in wonderful Italian terracotta pots; I would
grow them better in clay pots than in plastic, as -as you sure know- clay
'breathes'... and anyway the plants look much nicer!
Of course they can stand dry spells!. I guess they love heat!. In my area we
have far too rich and humid soil and too wet climate, so they produce lots
of green but few flowers. I'm convinced these plants prefer a meagre diet
and in winter you better keep them quite dry: remember they need a lot of
light (hope you got a greenhouse or a sunny room) as they will certainly
freeze in your Z 5...
Do not use a fertlizer with more Nitrogen (N) than Phosphorous (P) or
Potassium (K). Better use a balanced fertilizer or a flower/tomato special
fertilizer.
Oleanders do not need to be pruned, but if you find your plants get lanky or
whatever, they can be cut hard once the frost danger is over to rejuvenate
the whole bush. For the cassual missplaced branch you can cut it at
flowering time or whenever. You can use this material to propagate them from
cuttings: they are SO easy to root!. Remeber Oleanders are POISONOUS.
Although adaptable, they prefer soild on the alkaline side, so add some lime
if your soil is too acid, and avoid peat based composts. Potting mix for
Mediterranean stuff must be very well drained with the adition of gravel
chips. You can mix some bark to the soil too.

Enjoy! :-)

Jose
Basque Country, Northern Coastal Spain, 43º19N
Very hilly, very green, very beautiful!!! :-)
Zone 9. Humid oceanic climate.
EMail: almand@arrakis.es



-----Original Message-----
From: WHTROS@aol.com <WHTROS@aol.com>
To: perennials@mallorn.com <perennials@mallorn.com>
Date: miércoles 3 de junio de 1998 21:59
Subject: Re: Oleander question


>G'day, y'all --
>I really appreciate everyones comments, help & suggestions.
>Last year I rescued 4 Oleanders that were being thrown out.
>I managed to keep them over the winter & now have them outside.
>I'm hoping its perennial somewhere so someone can tell me something about
it.
>They are about 3 feet tall & one is starting to bloom.
>Should I have cut it back, either last fall or this spring?
>How much sun should it get?
>Can it dry out between waterings?
>I have them in brown plastic pots & want to put them on my patio.
>It faces SW so gets a lot of sun!!!
>Fertilzer?
>Thanx for everything!!
>Barb
>whtros@aol.com
>Zone 5, Rock Island, IL
>@}-->-->-------------
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
>message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index