The oleander, originally native to the river meadows around the Mediterranean, is a popular container plant for patios and balconies. The shrub blooms extremely profusely and lasts for a long time: the mostly white, red, pink or yellow flowers can be admired from June to September.
Faded flowers should be left on the oleander
Do not cut off faded inflorescences
With many flowering shrubs, faded parts should be removed in order to encourage the plant to form new flowers again and again. This is not the case with the oleander: since the buds for new ones are already at the top of the old flowers, removing faded shoots would also cut off the new flowers at the same time. It is therefore better to leave faded flowers on the bush; in addition, dried flowers fall off by themselves after a while anyway. Only the seed pods, which are reminiscent of beans, should be removed, as their formation costs the plant a lot of energy.
tips
Check your oleander regularly for signs of infection, such as Pseudomonas or Ascochyta; these tend to attack faded shoots. In the event of disease, affected parts of the plant should be cut back.