Improvement in Post Harvest Attributes of Nerium (Nerium oleander L. cv. Red)

Oleander (Nerium oleander L. Apocynaceae) is a Mediterranean evergreen shrub widely grown as an ornamental for its abundant and long-lasting flowering as well as its moderate hardiness. Widely used for ornamental purposes in India, nerium flowers have a very limited life after they have been cut off from the mother plant, as survival on their own reserves is generally low due to the special morphological and physiological characteristics of their tissues. In this present study, the evaluated using different chemicals treatments viz., boric acid, citric acid, GA₃ and sucrose to study the longevity of the flower viz., flower blooming, freshness, colour fading, physiological loss weight and shelf life. This experiment revealed significant influence, when flowers were treated with GA₃-200 ppm polybag packed in (T₁₀) and when treated with sucrose solution 2% and polybag packed in (T₂), on the flowering characters of nerium.