Acceptable Oxalis

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
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


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