Mary Sue, thanks for your details on Oxalis. Is it necessary to unpot them
during dormancy? It's so hot and dry here in Central Texas I wonder if the
tubers would shrivel if left exposed?

Cynthia W Mueller

trouble getting them to bloom for me. What am I doing wrong and/or what
do I need to do to get these lovelies to be a little more forthcoming with
their blooms? HELP!

as synonyms in this post.

contributed to growing and flowering a number of them. I have the best luck
with the ones that bloom in fall, but also Oxalis purpurea and Oxalis
obtusa have long periods of bloom. I suspect we all have different
experiences and since they grow in different areas of South Africa with
different conditions probably there is no advice that works for all of
them. You will no doubt get different advice from different people.

I remember how generous some of you were sharing yours with me and pay it
forward. A few species are in my raised beds that are in pots, nestled in
pots, and those don't get repotted very often. A few species disappeared
with this treatment, but a few others have been very successful left
alone. One of the Oxalis luteola forms blooms a long time every year and
for the first time this year Oxalis palmifrons bloomed in my raised beds.
That was exciting as it had never bloomed before when I repotted it every
year so perhaps not being disturbed may have been to its liking. Who knows.

open the bags every now and then and when I see signs of activity I pot
them up and water them. This is usually in August. Some of them can start
blooming in August or September. Fall blooming is perfect for my climate
since it hasn't started to rain yet and we have less fog. Unless there is
sun and warm temperatures the flowers don't always open. Many of the
species I grow do better in deeper pots. Oxalis melanosticta 'Ken Aslet'
was a shy bloomer until I started potting it in a deeper pot. This year the
first flowers appeared in August and new ones continued into October.

August to September and some still going strong: O. commutata, O. hirta,
O. pardalis, O. imbricata, O. bowiei, Oxalis pulchella v. tomentosa, O.
peridicaria, O. zeekoevleyensis, O. versicolor, O. engleriana, O. assinia,
O. caprina. O. massoniana, O. depressa.

satisfying than days or weeks as is the case for some of the other bulbs I
grow. O. bifurca, O. callosa are two in this category. Other species start
to bloom later like Oxalis luteola and O. compressa, but may last for many
months (five months for O. compressa last year). If it starts raining a
lot, some of them are done, but others like O. purpurea continue. Last year
when we had two "atmospheric rivers" I had some serious problems with many
of the species that got such heavy rain so plan to shelter them from a lot
of rain if we get it this year as predicted. Some years I've put the pots
in a cold frame and closed it when we got a lot of rain. I grow several
forms of O. flava and some do better than others (one to three months of
flowers in the fall). O. polyphylla is not in flower for me as long as
other species and O. glabra is a bit weedy so I don't have a pot of it
anymore although it is appearing in
other pots and usually flowers later. O. obtusa starts later (December to
February and lasts until March).

instance there was a Topic of the Week on Oxalis with this introduction.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/…

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/…

ideal for growing these and as you go farther north it is probably more
challenging. In our four years of drought I think they have been happier.

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