Nerium oleander 'White'

Nerium oleander is among the oldest shrubs in cultivation, grown around the Mediterranean since antiquity and named from the Greek neros, watery, for the streamsides and washes where oleander grows wild. The dark green, leathery, lance-shaped leaves sit in tidy whorls of three along long, sparingly branched stems, lending the shrub a clean, upright presence in every season.

This form flowers pure white, the clusters opening in early summer and continuing over a long season, softly fragrant and luminous at dusk. White oleander has a cooling, formal quality that plain green foliage sets off beautifully, and the color reads especially well in bright seaside light.

Oleander has always been kept at arm's length. Every part of the plant is poisonous, a caution carried in old folk warnings against whittling oleander wood into skewers for cooking over a fire. That toxicity is also what makes the shrub reliably deer-resistant and one of the most trouble-free plants for hot, exposed ground.

In the landscape, white oleander makes an excellent large evergreen for hedges, screens, and coastal plantings, tolerating salt spray, drought, and reflected heat once established. In colder regions grow the shrub in containers and move under shelter for winter. Pair with silver-leaved Mediterranean companions such as lavender and rosemary, or use as a bright backdrop to deeper-colored borders.