Anyone can buy plants. However, growing beautiful plants yourself from seeds or cuttings is an interesting hobby that is a lot of fun and has a lot of surprises in store - especially if you just plant seeds and see what happens.
How can I grow oleander from seeds or cuttings?
To grow oleanders from seeds or cuttings, soak the seeds in water for 24 hours and sow them in potting soil. For cuttings, remove all but the topmost leaves and place them in lukewarm water. Both methods require warm, bright conditions and covered vessels.
Grow your own oleander plants
Especially when propagating seeds, you don't know what you will end up with. In contrast to cuttings, which are cut from the mother plant and are therefore only clones of the mother plant, with seeds you do not know which genetic material from the ancestors will prevail. Basically it's like with children: Here too, during pregnancy you don't know what the child will look like or what character it will have.
Growing oleander from seeds
Oleander seeds can be purchased or collected yourself from the ripe pods of an existing plant. Soak the seeds in lukewarm water for about 24 hours and then sow them in a bowl filled with low-nutrient potting soil (€6.00 on Amazon). Oleander is one of the light germinators, which is why you should not cover the seeds or only cover them very thinly with sifted soil. Cover the tray with a translucent cover (such as perforated plastic wrap) and keep the substrate slightly moist at all times. The cultivation container should be in a warm and bright place.
Rooting oleander cuttings
Rooting oleander cuttings is even easier than growing them from seeds. To do this, cut non-flowering shoots about 20 to 30 centimeters long during the summer months and remove all but the top two leaves. The cut surface to be rooted should be kept as slanted as possible to make it easier for the cutting to absorb water. Now place the cuttings in an opaque (Important! Roots develop in the dark!) container with lukewarm water and place them in a bright and warm place. Put a cut-off plastic bottle or a plastic bag (such as a freezer bag) over it and you have a mini greenhouse.
The right care for young oleander plants
Whether they are grown from seeds or cuttings, the young oleanders should immediately be planted in a pot with low-humus oleander soil and placed in a warm and bright location. In the hot summer months, the plants can be placed outdoors, but you should move them into their winter quarters as early as possible - before the first frosts. Older oleanders can easily tolerate temperatures down to minus five degrees Celsius for a short period of time, but young plants are much more sensitive.
Tip
You can also divide older oleander bushes into several parts and grow new bushes in this way.