Oleanders in our backyard and along freeway medians

Funny the things that you remember, or that things, images, scenes conjure.  I'd seen this Van Gogh print before a dozen times, but this time it reminded me of how when I was a kid that Dad warned me to be wary of Oleanders because he thought they could cut and were a bit poisonous, citing an instance where he was cut by them before.  We were standing in the kitchen looking out the kitchen window at the row of oleanders at the back fence as he told me the story that elevated them in my mind.  

Vincent van Gogh - Oleanders, 1888. Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 29 in. (60.3 x 73.7 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA pic.twitter.com/O9YCV0cWam

— Olga Tuleninova 🦋 (@olgatuleninova) December 9, 2022

Oleanders growing along highway medians had long been a tradition in California.  Where are they today?  We live in a brutal concrete jungle.

Here is a scene on the highway between Bakersfield and Red Bluff, 2019.  They may have been prevalent along coastal towns, like Mission Viejo, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, and inland from Santa Cruz.