Nerium oleander 'Salmon'

Few shrubs carry as much history as the oleander, grown around the Mediterranean and across the warm world since antiquity. The name Nerium traces to the Greek neros, meaning moist or watery, a nod to the streamsides and dry watercourses where oleander naturally takes hold, while the old name oleander seems to braid together olea, the olive, and the leathery, lance-shaped leaves the two plants share. Those dark green leaves stand in tidy whorls of three along long, sparingly branched stems, giving the shrub a poised, upright architecture even out of flower.

This particular selection is a Woodlanders introduction, a double-flowered form with soft salmon-pink blooms propagated from a cultivated plant in Argentina. Robert Christian reports that 'Salmon' has proven winter hardy in Birmingham, Alabama, a welcome note of toughness in a genus usually pinned to the Deep South and the coast. Through much of the summer the flower clusters open in loose, ruffled profusion, lightly fragrant and carried well above the foliage.

Oleander has always been admired at arm's length. Every part of the plant is poisonous, a fact folded into old cautionary lore, including the grim warning against ever whittling an oleander branch into a skewer for cooking over a fire. That toxicity is also why deer leave the shrub alone, and why oleander has served for centuries as a fearless, undemanding plant for hot, difficult places.

In the garden, 'Salmon' earns a place as a large, sun-loving evergreen for hedging, screening, and seaside plantings, shrugging off salt spray, drought, and reflected heat once established. In colder regions gardeners grow oleander in containers and shelter the shrub over winter. Pair with other Mediterranean companions such as rosemary, lavender, and agave for a planting that reads warm, dry, and effortless.