Say oxalis to a gardener and half of them flinch, remembering some weedy little sorrel they spent a summer pulling out. The kinds we sell are the other sort, the well mannered cousins, small bulbs from Chile and the Cape that stay exactly where they are put and give an astonishing amount of flower for the room they take. All of them carry the family’s shamrock leaves, which fold themselves away at dusk, and all of them worship the sun. For a bright pocket of the rockery, a trough or a pot by the door, there is little to touch them.
When Does It Flower
The honest answer is most of the year, if you plant all four. Versicolor is first, its candy striped buds unrolling into white flowers in April. Adenophylla takes over in late spring with lavender pink trumpets above silver leaves, and Autumn Pink sees the season out, still flowering while the borders are packing up. They all keep the same daily habits. Sun opens them and dusk shuts them; even the clover leaves fold at night like little umbrellas. None grows much above ankle height, which is exactly where a plant this detailed belongs, close to the path where you can stoop and look.
Where Should You Grow It
In full sun, in gritty, sharply drained ground, and in as warm a spot as the garden can spare. A south facing rockery pocket is the classic home, a raised bed or a stone trough close behind, and every one of them is content in a wide pan of sandy compost out in the sunshine. Adenophylla, the Chilean one, is hardy and will take an ordinary winter outside without complaint. The Cape kinds, versicolor, Golden Cape and Autumn Pink, appreciate more shelter: give them the warmest corner you have, or the safety net of a pot that can stand somewhere dry over winter.
Spend and Save
The more you plant, the more you save. The discount applies to your whole order, and delivery is free over £100.
How Do You Plant It
Autumn is the time. Adenophylla goes in shallow, five centimetres or so; the Cape kinds go deeper, ten to fifteen centimetres, tucked into the warmest pocket you can offer them, and all of them like a layer of grit under the bulb where the soil is heavy. After that, restraint is the whole art. One watering to settle them in, no feed, no fuss, and above all no waterlogged winters. The clumps thicken on their own year by year, and when one grows crowded you lift it as the leaves fade, pull the little bulbs apart and plant the best of them back. Pots just want fresh compost every second autumn.
Which Oxalis Should You Grow
Adenophylla is the neat silver one, a low cushion of pleated, grey green shamrock leaves under lavender pink trumpets with a dark mauve eye, and it does not wander an inch. Versicolor is the famous candy cane, its buds spiralled crimson and white like a stick of seaside rock before they open to pure white funnels edged in red. Golden Cape plays the same trick in gold, its yellow flowers striped pillar box red on the reverse. Autumn Pink finishes the year in a soft pink that deepens towards the petal edges. Between the four of them a single trough can flower from spring to the first frosts.
Plant These With Your Oxalis
Oxalis asks for the same home as the classic small bulbs of the rock garden: sun, grit and a spot that never lies wet. The three below take the earlier shifts in the very same ground, so plant them together and the pocket is never bare for long. Generosity suits every one of them.
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