Oleander is one of the oldest ornamental shrubs in cultivation, grown around the Mediterranean since antiquity and carried into the American South for the same reasons: the plants bloom for months in heat that flattens everything else, shrug off drought and salt wind, and ask for almost nothing. A hedge of oleander along a hot drive or a coastal lot will flower from late spring until frost in white, cream, salmon, pink, and deep red, single or fully double.

One honest caution comes with all of that, and belongs stated plainly: every part of an oleander is seriously toxic if eaten, and the smoke from burning prunings is dangerous too. Site the plants well away from pastures, play areas, and anywhere clippings might end up on a fire, and wear gloves when cutting. Handled with that in mind, few shrubs give so much for so little water. The selections here are the hardier ones, which in the upper South means expecting dieback in a hard winter and strong regrowth from the base.