Frozen oleander: what to do if it is damaged by frost?

oleander give every garden a Mediterranean charm. However, those who do not adequately protect frost-sensitive plants in winter often have to contend with frost damage in spring. But what to do when the beautiful oleander has frozen to death?

oleander

Oleander (Nerium oleander) are quite demanding garden plants. They are native to the Mediterranean and Eastern regions and are therefore used to warm temperatures. For a short period of time, the oleander can withstand a maximum of minus 5 degrees Celsius. Longer cold periods, on the other hand, affect the wood. The cold winters in Germany therefore often result in frost damage, especially for oleanders that are overwintered outside. The frozen shoots then look brown and dried up.

Note:Frozen and dried up oleander are similar. So make sure that your oleander doesn't just suffer from a lack of water.

Oleander frozen to death: what to do?

If you notice frost damage to your oleander, you should first move the wood to a frost-free place and warm the roots well. After a one-week regeneration phase, you can then use a vitality test to find out how far your oleander has frozen. To do this, simply scrape off the bark of several non-frozen areas with a knife or fingernail. Is the plant tissue under the bark

• green: wood still alive, only leaves / shoot tip dead
• brown to black: branch irrevocably dead

The frozen parts of the plant should then be trimmed with clean and sharp secateurs just before the plant sprouts. Depending on the severity of the frost damage, proceed as follows:

• with few leaves: cut to a healthy branch
• individual frozen shoots: cut back to the healthy, green initial shoot
• entire plant frozen to death: radical cut up to 10 to 20 centimeters above the ground

As long as the roots of the oleander are intact, it can regenerate again and again. However, if the roots are also frozen, the shrub has irreversibly died and should be disposed of. However, you can simply cut off individual brown roots.

After pruning, place the oleander in a sunny spot and take good care of it. Ideally, you plant the Oleander also in a new pot. Then there is definitely the possibility that after a few weeks a strong shoot will begin and the oleander will bloom in the same season.

Tip: After pruning, the oleander needs a lot of nutrients. So fertilize it vigorously as soon as the new shoots are about 10 centimeters long.

Prevent frost damage

As with all plants, the same applies to the oleander: Prevention is better than aftercare. To prevent your plant from suffering frost damage at all, you should consider the following things before the first frost:

• protect against ground frost
• Pack the planter with warming material like flow
• outside: in a protected corner e.g. B. put on the house wall
• In mild winters, the shrub can be buried with a container in the garden
• better: overwinter in a bright, frost-free room at 5 degrees Celsius

In this way, the oleander does not have to struggle with consequential damage again in the following year and can fully recover.

frequently asked Questions