Flowering Oxalis
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 21 Nov 2015 10:35:04 PST)

At 07:29 PM 11/20/2015, you wrote:

Hi Cynthia,

The one thing I have learned from all the contributions from this
list is there is no one correct way for success. We all have
different climates, use different potting media, etc. I've followed
advice given here with mixed results, but have always been grateful
people were willing to share what works for them. Obviously
conditions in Northern California are different from Texas. As I get
older I am downsizing my pots, but I still have too many and
repotting is a chore. Finding all the Oxalis in a pot is very time
consuming. So giving the excess to the BX is actually very labor
intensive. Spreading out over the months is helpful. I could repot
the Oxalis as I unpot them as Karl does, but we often have no rain at
all between June and any time from September to November and not much
in the fall. I don't repot everything every year and it is a long
time before the soil in the ones I haven't repotted (or if I repotted
them in May or June) absorbs moisture. Even if I water the water
rushes out the sides of the pots and the soil remains dry and I feel
I am wasting water during the time of year when it is precious.
Someone on this list once suggested watering from below, but that
wouldn't work if you have as many pots as I do. Putting the Oxalis
bulbs in a small bag and all the small bags in a bigger bag and
storing that in my house hasn't led to losses. I rarely find any I
have to throw out because they are shriveled, but the bulbs I keep
are the bigger ones. It may depend on the size of the bulbs. I'm not
suggesting all genera would survive with this treatment. I found
Irids I was trying to move from one hemisphere to the next and didn't
pot when I got them and waited for the correct time to plant often
did shrivel. The way I do it I can plant the Oxalis when they show me
they are ready to start growing and plant them in soil that isn't
dried out and then when I water them the soil gets moist. This way
they bloom at the best time for them in my climate. If they start too
late into growth, they often don't flower. And lack of flowering was
Mike's problem.

Mary Sue