I Love This Oleander || Potting Oleander and Cold Hardy Types to Try

Oh hey pumpkin! Coming to be my helper? Got a big bag of potting soil here. Topo Chico. Let's go repot a plant. I just got some plants in the mail from Proven Winners and one of them wasn't rooted into its container all that well. Even though this isn't the most ideal time of year to be repotting something, I thought well hey if it pretty much came out of its container completely let's go ahead and just put in something that looks a little nicer. Get it out of its nursery pot. Hi kitten. Okay fine bye. Didn't want to talk to you anyways cat. Oh this lighting. This is just wonderful. I mean not really. It's that time of year. It's winter right? So lighting's difficult to work with. Pardon all the shadows. There's not much I can do about it. I'm sorry. Slightly different angle. Maybe a little bit better. Anyways I figured since I have to repot this I would film it. We can talk about oleanders. Briefly go over caring for them as a house plant. What I mostly want to talk about was their cold hardiness. Go over some different varieties. This one right here is the Austin Pretty Limits from Proven Winners. Goes about four to six feet tall, four feet wide, hardy zones eight to eleven. We'll talk about that more when we start talking about the hardiness of oleanders and some things you can do and varieties to pick that are more cold hardy. Full sun. These are very drought tolerant plants. Once you have them established this one is supposed to have a very nice form to it and it flowers profusely. I actually I really like this. I have one I've grown for several years. I will have talked about this in a vlog when I unbox these and uh what happened is I turned off the camera to move them into the greenhouse and packed them right here and pulled them over there into my cold frame. When I went to lift this one up I noticed that this was loose and thought oh maybe I should just repot it. You already know. You have the background right? Yeah been through all of that and of course I just took my razor blade inside and this potting mix from Proven Winners. They have a very nice tight seal on their bags. I probably shouldn't have done that. Probably should have kept my blade with me. Is there anything sharp nearby? That's fine. I just gotta muscle through it. The problem is yeah their bags don't always open as nicely as some of the other potting mixes so with the white you just go and the whole top pulls off. With these it just goes right down the side so I prefer to use a blade so you get a nice tear. See it just wants to go down the side. That's okay I don't need to open this up all the way. This is an all-purpose potting mix that drains very well. That's why I like it. Oleanders they really appreciate good drainage. So that's the main thing to know is that they like good drainage. If you have a high pH then you probably want to make sure you're adding your dolomite or whatever you need to if you're doing a homemade mix to help keep things more on the neutral side to combat that. But uh yeah if you just use a bag mix just make sure it drains really well. That drainage plays a big role in your overall success with these as a house plant and also how they'll perform outdoors for if you live someplace with a cooler climate. You definitely want to use a mix that drains well so that water doesn't get retained and then you have a bunch of rot right. Don't want too much moisture down there in the winter time. Likewise don't want too much moisture sitting around those roots when they're inside because they want something that flows freely. They don't want to be in swampy conditions. And then even though these can be considered a very drought tolerant plant because they are they are very drought tolerant doesn't mean that they don't appreciate some organics. So if you have some compost or something you can add into your hole when planting them that would be nice they will appreciate it. And uh in the house or in a container your monthly fertilizing is generally enough but honestly these guys are pretty tough you don't really have to I'm just talking about to get the like ideal growth out of them. This soil has not been pre-moistened so I might go ahead and add in some extra. It's gonna seem like there's a lot in here but when I water this in later on today chances are a lot of that's going to settle down. There we go. You can always add extra perlite. Easiest thing to do if you want to increase drainage but you know it does have a tendency to float so that's up to you. Just something with some grit. Make sure that water moves. Oh I don't think this lemon cypress is doing all that well out here. I thought it'd be okay. Oh I knew I was missing a couple of those when I was cleaning up out here putting away the ornaments. Good to know. Found them. Let's scoot this back here for right now. A little bit less shadow. We can talk about it. Mostly about the hardiness of these plants. So your oleanders are typically going to be considered hardy zones eight and up and that's being conservative. That's even what Proven Winners says here right? They said yeah eight through eleven. The reason I like this one which I mentioned in the video where I unboxed the plant is that when I had this just up next to my other oleanders, oleanders that I had picked up as tropical plants relatively cheap just you know they're with the hibiscus and things at the garden center during the summer. These guys showed no cold damage next to those at all for two winters in a row. The calypso pinks just dead around 15 degrees. These guys nothing and they're all in containers so that's something to keep in mind too. They're more exposed when they're in a container so awesome pretty limits. Pretty tough and they've taken some snow. By they I mean I have one and I now have three because I ordered two more. One's in the greenhouse. One is right here. The one that I have that's really big, well it's big now, is probably a little bit bigger than this. That first winter that I had it had snow on it and there may have been minor leaf burn down lower on the plant. I think that's probably from the wind. Otherwise there's really nothing significant nothing that I can say that's definitely winter damage. Perhaps a good option for those of you in zone 7a and zone 7b who want to experiment with your oleanders and there are other oleanders to choose from other than this one for that purpose. But first before I go into those varieties I'm just going to talk some about winter protection with these guys. It's already covered drainage. They need to go someplace that drains really really well. If you want to pick a variety that is said to be more cold hardy I would suggest going to Plant Delights website plantdelights.com. I don't know if they have any for sale right now but you can just type in nerium n-e-r-i-u-m and it'll come up or oleander maybe it'll show up and they have several to look at. They probably have an article written about them and they say for each one of those plants what kind of cold the parent plant has taken and that's usually pretty significant. Now even though oleanders not super cold hardy with the foliage right not all of them anyways where I live here in zone 6b 6b on the line of 7a really bad winters well pretty much all winters will kill an oleander to the ground here but they almost always return from the ground and you'll get like anywhere from three to five stems that go up about I don't know 30 inches to 36 inches high and they'll flower for you by generally mid to late summer just depending on how warm your spring was. It takes a lot of heat to wake them up when they get killed down to the ground. So the 7a people even 7b if you think that your oleander might die down to the ground put a lot of mulch on it protect that root ball and chances are it'll just come back for you just fine once things warm up. They do like as much sun as you can give them though they will be okay in a part sun situation but their growth might be more leggy might be more spacing between the leaves and probably less flowers. I know that has nothing to do with the cold hardiness but I forgot to mention it earlier so I thought I should. They like a lot of light. Types that can take a good amount of cold. There was one that used to be called hardy red I haven't seen it for sale in years. A similar looking flower to this one which I don't really talk about. Austin Pretty Limits has a kind of fuchsia-ish colored flower on it. It's a red but it's a reddish pink in person. I get more of a deep pink vibe from it than I do red. The hardy red was very red. I remember the one I had I had for several years until it just got too big. It was like nine feet tall in a container and I was like yes this is too much. It had gotten a big open habit to it and just unruly looking. These maintain a much nicer shape to them and four to six feet tall much more manageable if you do need to keep them in a container and move them in and out of the house or into a cold frame. It's just a better size right? But the others there's the hardy pink which I believe Plant Delights said they had a freeze in sometime in the 80s I believe where it was like minus nine Fahrenheit and that one survived it. I think it had plenty of damage but it survived it and that's what we're looking for right? It didn't kill the plant back. That one has pink flowers and then the other two that come to mind. One of them I think is just called hardy white. I think there's a hardy yellow too. I don't know much about that one. The hardy white I believe has gone down to zero degrees with minor tip burn on the foliage and then there's one that's called Matilda and well I don't really remember her story. I think it was similar to the hardy pink where it had taken that extreme cold and that's pretty much gonna be the case with all of them right? But I know hardy pink, the Matilda white, hardy white and like I said I'm pretty sure there's a hardy yellow. I haven't seen hardy red in a very long time so I'm not sure if that was ever a thing or if it was a bit of a plant scam. I don't really know because at the time you could only find them for sale on eBay from like two different sellers and I think it was actually the same seller and that seller disappeared after a few years just vanished. So I don't know I kind of wonder if that was just a gimmick because the hardy red that I had I fell for the gimmick right? I was a well I don't know 17-18 years old and I fell for it. I wanted it. They said it was cold hardy. I wanted to try it and it could take cold but it got plenty of damage on the foliage and to the teens. I like to have oleanders that I can keep outside well past all my other tripod. Go ahead and bring you guys back there. Sorry about that. I like to be able to have oleanders that I can keep outside with a lot of my other evergreens but they have to go inside about same time I take my windmill palm inside. So when it's going to be around 15-10-15 degrees Fahrenheit since they're a container I'll move them in. When I say move them in they're either going to go into my growth space or into my cold frame. Cold frame is preferable. That's where they'll be going this year now that I have a large one that will fit them. So plants in some place that good draining soil plenty of sun sheltering them from wind is very helpful because these get uh scorched wind burnt very very easy the foliage can desiccate the cold dry air from winter winds blowing on you end up with some brown tips and everything so that's something to keep in mind if you have a sheltered spot plant them near a brick wall or something like that makes a huge difference near pathways and cement and rock structures makes a good difference for usually emitting some heat at night time in case you get some really crazy cold temperatures but hopefully have some sun during the day that can help get them through some cold periods. You can mulch them heavily don't let the mulch go too high up the trunk during the winter time it's useful to just bag them usually just use a frost bag paper bag whatever you want to do some people will build wire cages structures put a lot of leaves in them just prune them back to make them fit inside those structures pull them back once you have warmer temperatures returning not too soon don't get too excited about it you want to pull them back when it's going to be consistently warm so we have a lot of fall springs here heck I'm freezing right now it's 42 degrees because it's been in the 60s and 70s most of January which is very unusual my bulbs are coming up and that'll probably happen again early March but I'm not going to fall for it I'll know to keep my mulch down and everything because if you pull it back too soon that can cause a lot of problems but at the same time it can cause too many problems a lot of problems actually if you leave it too long then the plant can rot so you just have to get in there and check feel the plant I think it's useful to use a compost thermometer in those types of situations so you can just stick them right in at least a foot long stick in there see how warm temperatures are in the center you have the sun baking down on something that's wrapped up it can get pretty toasty so when I used to do this method like leaves and bags and things around my crepe myrtles to try and just preserve their lower third or so of their trunks during the winter time what I would do is I would use that soil thermometer go in there and once those temperatures were pushing like 75 80 I would start to just lightly pull some of those leaves out or make sure to go in and fluff them up so my air could flow because they compact over the winter time anti-transpirants usually useful so something like uh what is it wilt proof or is it wilt stop one of those things it's one of those names there was freeze proof I don't know if that's still around but good option help preserve some of the moisture inside of the plant but read the direction of them because it does say there are some plants you're not supposed to use them on I don't remember it ever being an issue on my oleanders but it's been a while since I've since I've tried I think it's fine pretty sure it's good on the oleanders always use on my acubas the oleanders and I would even spray it on the bark of some of my plants like the fatsias which isn't bark but you know what I mean the thicker parts of the stems I think they're fun because they just have that really nice really beachy vibe to them they move with the wind really well they tend to even when they're nice full plants they still have an openness to them just the shape of the branches and everything just lovely plants and they will flower profuse at least the Austin pretty lemons will flower profusely I don't know what the hearty white the Matilda white the snow white and the hearty yellow I don't know about those but this one profuse flowering I don't know what plant delights has to say about it this hasn't been through that winter of 1983 right but I know for me in a container the one that I have in my greenhouse behind me for the last two winters has taken cold down into the single digits in a container and shown no signs of stress at all I didn't let it take those conditions for more than a day though right because I was going oh shoot all right I don't want to push it too far and then move it inside but it did it and it looks great there are things keep in mind though there's no ice right and I still always make sure they're set someplace where there's not a lot of wind blowing on them all those things I was just talking about so even though it's getting down to those temperatures outside I only have like a soil probe so you know maybe it was like 15 inside those containers not sure but up next to the calypso pink and there's a little petite salmon one I've tried that before with them they showed damage just tons of damage even death I think on the calypso pink where is this which stand up next to it looking like it's completely unbothered so I would highly recommend giving this one a try if you're trying to grow an oleander but you're just not quite warm enough and if you are warm enough I still think this is a great shrub so it has a nice shape and it really does flower abundantly super sturdy plant very vigorous plant and uh yeah it might be a nice addition if you're trying to grow something unusual in an area that gets a little bit more chilly but not like too chilly you know what I mean this is for cuspers you're right on the cusp of zone seven and eight somewhere in there or a warmer zone 7a and if you're like me where you're a six into baby 7a then you can grow them but just be prepared to have to cut it back and mulch it heavily and just start over every year kind of like you would with a buddleia I was going to mention indoor care the main thing about these guys in the house is well one I need to mention the toxicity people always argue if I talk about the toxicity I can't control you but I think it would be a terrible idea to eat this plant or for any living creatures around you to eat any parts of this plant that's all I'm gonna say on that I'm not gonna argue about it either okay it's an oleander it has toxins in it that's that's just science I don't know what to say other than that has it been overblown I don't know maybe but it's it's not good for you I know that much right so keep away from curious mouths in the house as much sun as you can possibly give them in the house that's going to be good for them reduce watering during the winter time they're going to want things more on the dry side unless you have them in a very warm location in your house so the more warmth the more water I say warmth I'm talking like over 74 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit and a lot of light they're probably still going to want to grow actively so you're probably going to want to keep that watering going I don't know if I want to say it's the plant where you need to keep the soil consistently moist I don't know if I would go that far even if it's winter time because your day lengths are still gonna be shorter unless like you're down there right by the equator or within the you know the tropic zone but for most of us here in North America I would say just be mindful of your watering never let them sit in water and uh you know that whole thing about avoiding drafts and everything that's mostly true with these only like you want to follow that I mean only because they show leaf burn fairly easily if the air is dry even though they outdoors they do find in a very straight climate but in the house they can be more prone to having some leaf burn and just some brown tips they will also drop their foliage pretty quickly in the house kind of like a croton or ficus it's always been my experience anyways and you know you just got to pick them up sweep them up and generally pretty much always they'll flush back out you may have some desiccation along the ends of the tips when that happens it's like the plant went into a little bit of shock and started to have some die back but like I said typically if you give them enough light they will bounce back from it and keep them more on the dry side during the winter time otherwise keep them consistently moist if it's warm and they're you know long day lengths go ahead and water them don't let them sit in water I think I already said that fertilizing yeah yeah I usually use a continuous release with mine and then a liquid all purpose would be fine maybe go ahead and use a fertilizer that's made for acid loving plants if you have a high ph and you are tap water they would appreciate that as well they do want things more on the acidic side typically in the ground they can really you can get away with a lot more than oleander in the ground than you can in a container I would by no means consider it to be a hard to keep house plant my main gripe with them as a house plant is that mealy bugs really like them and there's lots and lots of little areas for the mealy bugs to get down inside of them so you just got to be on top of your spraying you're just hitting them with alcohol and then you know wait a few minutes and give it a rinse and you're fine I would do a test patch on a leaf before you do that because sometimes it might scorch the plant leave a little burn mark that's not always the best thing to do but it kills the mealy bugs you don't have to use anything that's really really harsh in your house right want to avoid that's better to avoid that outdoors period especially this is a flowering plant so it's not one that you would want to use a systemic on because that wouldn't be good for the pollinators in general we want to be careful with our systemics period make sure you're using them correctly I'd say that's uh that's about it that's the rundown really fun plants I love oleanders I'm looking forward to spring getting here which we're almost there by the time this video comes out we'll be somewhere around mid-march I think maybe I don't know when I'll decide to release this but yeah yeah really fun plants give them a try oh I should mention before we go because I always get asked this when I talk about oleanders at least in like two dedicated oleander videos I've done in the last 10 years yeah go ahead and deadhead them just cut those flowers off because they will usually go to seed and start to form a pod and that will reduce their flowering now I don't know I would think that it would stay on here if they don't want you to do that it doesn't tough pretty neat dense habit vigorous disease resistance year-round interest yeah blooms to the landscape yeah we'll bloom year-round in the right climate one thing I will say that is here on the tag that I should have mentioned they do have high deer resistance so good option might be a nice container plant for those of you who can't grow it outside but you want something maybe on your front stoop or you have deer I know where I live we can't have fencing on our front yards so the deer just eat everything in the front yards and that's you know it's not that unusual well-drained soil four to five to four to six feet tall yeah we talked about all of that it does say under pruning infrequent this one's supposed to have a really nice tidy habit to it so for this one specifically you probably don't need to prune it all that often but to encourage it to keep blooming I would prune off the dead flower sets because they will usually become fertile and start to set these like bean pod looking they're really cool things kind of looks neat but it does inhibit flowering although I don't I'm having trouble remembering but I don't remember my pretty limits this one right here the big one in my greenhouse I don't think it was setting seed as much as my others like the calypso pigs and my little salmon one would but I don't know I would say still deadhead it why not wear gloves the sap can be an irritant to your skin definitely don't want to get it in your eyes and at that I'm gonna go comment down below anything you have to add always appreciate it fun varieties of oleanders there are actually tons and tons of oleanders with really really beautiful flowers on them and it's just an area of gardening that I don't see getting a lot of attention for some reason you know you go to a nursery center you typically you know you might see a white you might see a yellow maybe a double flower and a pink sometimes a red but that's about it but there are a lot of different flowers on these some are just absolutely breathtaking and stunning maybe they have really crappy growth habits or something and that's why they're not more popular I don't know but just hey let us know what you do with your oleanders where you're growing them and uh yeah hope everybody's doing well having a great day a great life and everything's just going absolutely beautifully for you