Stick with your cuttings, to my knowledge there are no fragrant oleanders. FYI the red and white oleas are stem hardy to 15 degrees where as the newer ones like peach are stem hardy to 30 degrees.

Went to oleander.org and saw some hybrids from Turners. Now I have been to Turners in Corpus but never noticed the oleanders. Then I was not looking. I found some hybrids that were very fragrant. They smell like sweet rose with maybe a bubble gum undertone.

I went home with 12 of the Flirt Hybrids (fragrant) and 4 Nerium giant whites. (Non fragant). Now with only 1.5 inches of rain this year only my Oleanders look good and they are almost never watered and in the full sun. I think I will start collecting fragrant oleanders. I have a couple acres around the house that I keep fenced from the livestock so the is plenty of hot and dry areas. LOL It is nice to see flowers even if they are Oleanders.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Turners

Do not know about your livestock but keep in mind they are posion.

Some oleanders are extremely fragrant, especially the white!

I know of a stand of them at Indianola Beach, (in Calhoun County) across from the old Taylor's bar. That is where I go for cuttings, and they have always been very easy to root, very hardy, beautiful bushes. There is also a dark pink one there that is of the same size and age, and also is fragrant.

The fragrance is intoxicating. When I get within smellin' distance, I am like a cat on catnip!

Someone comes and whacks them down with chainsaws every so often, the county guys, I think.

Janie

Thanks Janie, I might have to take a short trip up there. I live in Aransas Pass. Now that I am not just taking Oleanders for granted I realize was a truly amazing plant they are for this area.

I would be more than happy to trade anyone some of my Confederate rose, Chalice vine, brugmansia or Plumeria for some fragrant Oleanders.

Just for fun, we took a ride this morning. We dropped off a load of stuff for the Senior Citizens resale shop in Port lavaca, then headed to Indianola to look at the oleanders.

Taylors is gone, and a lot has changed since we were there last. The oleanders are in not so good shape, and I don't know why, unless they caught that virus that affected so many of them the last few years.

Anyway, they have new strong growth, and we took a lot of cuttings, white and pink.

If you would like, I would be glad to share them with you. I will be potting them up this evening, when it cools off, and it usually takes them about 3 weeks to root.

From Indianola, we drove on down to Seadrift for lunch at Barkette's, a treat for us!

BTW, a plaque at Indianola told us that the oleanders were brought fron Galveston. Are they natives?

Janie

That would be great. I can send money,postage or send some plants. Seadrift is just a stones throw away. Natives ? I think Galveston's came from Jamica. I read that from Oleander.org.

How do you start them? I never tried to do proper propagation with them. I just cut them and stuck them 10" in the ground. LOL they did grow.

Jim

Yes I do know they are poisonous. Most of my plants are. The livestock only eat a little of the poisonous ones except for my brugmansias they love to munch on them.

Jim

I just stick them in potting soil and keep them moist. They root easily. Mama used to set them in a bucket of water in the shade.

Our County Commissioner lost 2 horses to oleanders when he tied them to the bushes and the horses had them for lunch. They died. So he chopped the bushes down in a fit of pique and threw them out in the pasture. Three of his heifers ate them and died. Yes, they are very poisonus!

Also, my friend almost lost her dogs because leaves from her brugmansia fell into their water and they drank the water. They were at the vets for a long visit.

Janie

Hi Jim,
I like oleander but, not many of them are cold hardy for N TX. I grow Calypso- it's very fragrant and cold hardy too. I started mine from a 3" cutting. It is in bloom here from late April through July. Calypso has fuschia colored blooms.

Wow I need to add that one to my collection also. Fuschia is such a bright color and very pretty on flowers. I love fragrant plants.

quoted from wiki:

"In the past, scented plants were sometimes treated as a distinct species N. odorum, but the character is not constant and it is no longer regarded as a separate taxon."

It is a shame that the Nerium Odorum species is not still classified. If you ever want to trim it let me know. I will send postage, trade or what ever you prefer.

Janie where exactly in Indianola are the Oleanders ? I am in full swing propagating them. My first batch is just now coming out of the water.

I am collecting. I really like the whites but have found none that are fragrant around here. I have a bunch of Reds that are fragrant and some pinks.

LMK and i can bring somethis that way.

Here is a link that might be useful: Indianola beach

If you lived near Austin I'd give you a cutting from my fragrant yellow double oleander - got it from Plant Delight's years ago. If you're interested check out the photo on this blog post from a couple of summers ago.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Here is a link that might be useful: Fragrant Oleander at Annie's Garden blog

Ah Jim, the oleander rustling bug has struck has it? Oleander rustling is a favorite pasttime on the island. You wait until they are in bloom, then drive slowly down the streets until you see one, or smell one you like, then you jump out, snip a couple of branches and jump back in the car. They root so easily. Theres a great book the Oleander society puts out on them. We went around one year and took cuttings from the ones in the book, since we knew where they were and that way we knew WHAT they were. A lot of the pics are in Galveston, Kewpie Gaido (of Gaidos restaurant fame) was big in oleanders & her & her gardener-Clarence- used to drive all over the island rustling them.

I'll have to pull out the book and see where they are native to, it's not Jamaica, I think it's the Asian continent. And yes, Galveston got them from Jamaica and the Caribbean after the 1900 storm as part of the replanting. Sorry to say we lost a lot of the old ones along with the trees.

We made leis from these as kids.

I wouldn't believe the guy who said his horses and cows got sick and died, it wasn't the oleander, they taste far too bitter. There has NEVER been a documented death from ACCIDENTAL ingestion of oleanders, even by a horse, they just taste too bad. There was a case a couple of weeks ago where some horses got sick, the oleanders were chopped up and mixed in with their feed. My dog has eaten so many brugs in her life, she chews on the sticks, my cuttings, never been sick. Another thing about toxic plants, it might be toxic in one area and non-toxic in another. A lot depends on the soil, water, etc. Anyone grow castor bean? One bean chewed up will kill you. And in India people are known to commit suicide by chewing the sees from thevetia peruviana-the yellow oleander. A gorgeous plant by the way.
TallyHO!

I have been so busy and it is sooo hot and dry that my rustling has been limited. I have a bunch of reds that are fragrant that were water rooted. Like 50+ since the bug hit me.

My purchased hybrid dwarfs have held their blooms through transplant and almost a month. They are setting new buds now. Quite a magnificent plant. I can smell them faintly 30 ft away at night.

I see a bunch of pinks but they are all at real public places like banks. I need to scope some more obscure locations. Since I am only collecting fragrant ones I have to be able to smell them 1st. I have a lawn maintenance guy looking out for some also.

I am just starting my quest to fill in the hot, sunny 1/3 of an acre that nothing else likes to grow in. I figure about 100+ plants will do it. I need some fragrant whites. The ones I bought are not fragrant and do not hold their flowers long.

I might have to drive up to Indianola with a ice chest and sniff, and snip. I need some whites and pinks of the large variety. Maybe start some scientific research into the effect of salt water on the smell of coastal wetland oleanders to give some legitimacy to it other than I just wanted it. Every good rustler needs a story.

I made it to Indianola Beach. Poor Oleanders looked really bad. I wanted to borrow a fire truck and water them. This drought is even killing big trees here. No sap when I cut them and when i got home they floated in their big barrels. Now that is dry.

I now have all the whites I need. Hope they are fragrant.

Now after some yellows.

Oleander may not be a great plant for your landscapes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Oleander Leaf Scorch

Thanks for the heads up Saltcedar. I love to propagate so if I have to start over someday it will be ok. There are so many perils other than heat and drought here. One of my beautiful hybrid oleanders was completely defoliated last night. I knew who the culprit was cutter ants. I just came back from a flashlight search and destroy mission. Armed with 2 gallons of potent Diazinon I followed their trail from my oleanders 100 feet to the street and down the street about 500 feet to the nest. The nest got boric acid. I must have killed 10,000 ants along the way. I have seen them go max 75 yards before never over 500 feet. They passed up a bunch of good foliage along the way and choose my hybrid. These candy sweet smelling oleanders have a bad dedicated pest now.

If its not one thing it another at least with oleanders I know the summers will not kill them and they take very little care and propagate easily. My kind of plant now that I know there are fragrant varieties.

Hi, what is the longest branch that anyone has gotten to root. I have several long branches and I think I'm goin g to have to try air layering them.
I think double oleanders are my favorite plants.
Mickey

One dark pink flowered variety I have has sweet-scented blooms. Here are its photos:

I will really appreciate it if people tell me its cultivar name.