Variegated Oleander Nerium oleander Variegated

Variegated Oleander takes one of the toughest flowering shrubs grown in Australia and gives it foliage worth looking at when it is not in bloom. The long, narrow leaves are edged and streaked with creamy yellow, so the plant reads lighter and brighter than the plain green oleander through winter, and from late spring into autumn it carries clusters of pink flowers at the tips of the branches. Heat, drought, wind, salt and poor soil barely trouble it once it is established.

It is also poisonous in every part, to people and to animals, and that has to be weighed before it goes in. Next to a play area, a dog run or a horse paddock, choose something else. Away from those, it is a hard working screen for the sites where softer plants give up.

Hot, dry and exposed sites

Plant it in full sun. Oleander flowers on the current season's growth and needs heat and light to do it, and the variegation stays sharpest in an open position; in shade the plant grows sparse and leggy, with few flowers. It suits inland New South Wales and Queensland, the Adelaide and Perth plains, and the coast, where it stands up to salt wind better than most flowering shrubs, though the variegated form keeps cleaner leaves a row or two back from the most exposed beachfront. Any free draining soil will do, including sand and poor gravelly ground. It takes light frost, though variegated forms are usually a little less vigorous than the green one, so in cold tableland districts a warm, north facing position is worth finding.

Left unpruned it becomes a dense, multi stemmed shrub well above head height and nearly as wide, which is why it is used for boundary screens and windbreaks. More plants for the same job are in Privacy & Screening Plants, and the guide to coastal planting covers what else survives on an exposed site.

Handling a poisonous plant safely

All parts of oleander, including leaves, flowers, stems, seed and sap, contain cardiac glycosides that act on the heart. Small amounts can seriously poison children, dogs, cats, horses and cattle, and dried leaves stay toxic. The sap irritates skin and eyes, so wear gloves and long sleeves when pruning and wash your hands afterwards. Never burn the prunings, because the smoke is harmful, and never leave clippings where livestock or pets can reach them; put them out through your council's green or general waste instead. Do not use cut stems as skewers or garden stakes. Oleander is listed as an environmental weed in South Australia and New South Wales, and as a minor or potential one in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. Seedlings come up along creeks and in bushland, so keep it well away from watercourses and bush edges.

Pruning, pests and keeping the variegation

Prune in late winter or early spring, before the new season's growth that will carry the flowers, cutting just above a leaf node. On an older, woody plant, take out a third of the thickest stems at the base each year to renew it from below. Watch for shoots with plain green leaves, which grow more strongly than the variegated wood and will take over if left; cut them out where they start. Feeding is rarely needed, and too much nitrogen gives soft growth and fewer flowers. Water regularly through the first summer, then only in long droughts. Yellow oleander aphids cluster on new shoots and bring sooty mould behind them, scale settles on stems, and the knobbly galls of oleander knot, a bacterial disease, should be cut out with tools wiped clean between cuts. The striped caterpillars that sometimes strip a few leaves are the young of the common crow butterfly, a native, and are usually left alone. Where children or animals share the garden, a bottlebrush such as Callistemon Kings Park Special makes a tough flowering screen without the poison, and gentler choices again are in Flowering Plants.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 45L, at $379.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to fast growing screening plants.