Acceptable Oxalis
Jane McGary (Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:12:25 PDT)

Mary Sue mentioned the Oxalis photos Ron Vanderhoff had put on the wiki.

I've tried a few times to elicit an article for the Rock Garden
Quarterly (which I edit) on Oxalis species that are reasonably
winter-hardy and not invasive threats, and thus suitable for
small-scale planting in garden or trough. Is anyone out there
interested in submitting such an article?

Just now the only OXalis flowering here is in the bulb frames -- O.
obtusa in a warm pink hue. It IS an invasive one, swarming around in
the plunge sand among the pots, but its foliage is so small and its
flowers so large and pretty that I let it go. There were a few tiny
plants of it in the open garden, but they seem not to have survived a
slightly colder than average winter this year. Telos Rare Bulbs is
the source, and I think Diana Chapman, the proprietor, has different
color forms.

Next winter I hope to revisit the really hardy and wonderful Oxalis
species of Patagonia, all but one of which are growable (that one, O.
erythrorrhiza, has been grown well in one place I know of -- Nova
Scotia!). The Andes have a great number of well-behaved Oxalis, most
of which we never encounter in gardens or even alpine houses. O.
adenophylla is the one everybody grows, but the color form usually
seen in gardens is inferior to many in the wild.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA