Q.Are Oleanders Quickly Loosing Leaves After Hurricane Storm Surge Salvageable?
Approximately 22” storm surge on the oleanders. They were well established, at least 25 years old. They began dropping leaves after just a few days. Very few leaves left 15 days later. Anything I can do to help them would be appreciated.
Oleanders are salt tolerant but you will probably need to prune the stems just as if they had been killed by a bad freeze and see if they return. Avoid fertilizing. You can water often and deeply to try and alleviate some of the salt but do water deeply when the top 1-2 inches feel dry. If you water too much and too often, you run the risk of getting root rot. I would discard the mulch to remove some of the salts and to temporarily facilitate soil evaporation. Put new mulch when the soil has dried out a little or wait until Spring 2022 if the mulch is sold out. Watering is probably the most important thing now. I would look for new growth either later this year or in Spring 2022. If nothing happens by May 2022 (no new growth), it may have lost.
