Re: Re. Re. Olive understory

Miriam,
It sounds like you have the same South African Oxalis pes-caprae in your area that we have here in California.  I suppose appreciating its soft verdant qualities and cheery yellow blooms is one way to see this plant; but I tend to think of it as the most pernicious weed in the garden, and it is a battle of wills to keep it out.  I have a hard time with the idea that anyone would willingly plant this species in their own garden.  One plant will unfortunately become millions, as can be seen by how many common names this has around the world, where it is not native, such as Bermuda buttercup, to name just one.  One can see this by the acre along the California coast, where it has naturalized along the freeways

On the other hand, I quite like the non-bulbous Oxalis spiralis var volcanicola from Costa Rica, which I often use as a perennial, but somewhat frost tender spreading ground cover for dappled shade.  I had first seen this at the old Strybing Arboretum on a slope near the natives/Redwood forest section, back in the 1980's, and began using it in my garden designs back then, before it was available from wholesale growers.  It has become popular across the USA now as an annual for hanging baskets and container plantings.  Various color forms are now available in the original green foliage, now also in chartreuse foliage, and a burgundy tinged foliage, all having almost continuous small yellow flowers all year long, as well as having attractive red colored succulent stems that can spread to 3~4 feet across.  It does however need some occasional summer water to keep it happy, which the other Oxalis you have does not!


--- On Thu, 2/19/09, Alimonos Miriam <mimika9@mac.com> wrote:

> From: Alimonos Miriam <mimika9@mac.com>
> Subject: Re: Re. Re. Olive understory
> To: benwiswall@pacbell.net
> Cc: "medit plants forum" <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
> Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 1:17 AM
> Hello,
> Here in the Cyclades, a blanket of various oxalis appears
> every winter.  I don't know if it will behave the same
> way in your neck of the woods but here it never fails to add
> a soft verdant quality to the landscape, and then of course,
> it is an early cheerful harbinger of spring with it's
> masses of yellow flowers.
> Miriam
> 
> On Feb 19, 2009, at 4:29, Ben Wiswall wrote:
> 
> > Hey all,
> > 
> > Thanks for all the good responses!  Karrie, that
> columbine is beautiful: I'll see if Theodore Payne has
> seeds of it. And Sylvia, I actually thought about Camellia
> sasanquas as an understory for the olives, so I don't
> think its too weird a combination.
> > 
> > I do want to include more California natives in our
> garden, though.  It's not so much for their aesthetic
> value as for their value to wildlife, in particular to
> songbirds, but also in feeding insects which songbirds eat.
> And lizards, mammals, etc., as well.  (The rabbits need no
> encouragement, they're busy eating the lawn).
> > 
> > Today is my day off, and so I visited the Rancho Santa
> Ana Botanic Garden for ideas.  The best groundcovers for
> evergreen shade I saw were Fragaria, Heuchera hybrids, Iris
> douglasiana hybrids, Salvia spathacea, and Ribes
> viburnifolium.  I may plant a mix of them and let the best
> plant win.
> > Jan, I hear your advice about planting now before the
> olives' roots make it impossible to establish anything! 
> I'd better get busy!
> > 
> > To those of you in far-flung med. climate countries:
> is there a push for more native plants for wildlife?  Here
> in California it's a growing movement, partly I think
> because for some reason conventional landscapes are almost
> completely devoid of plants native to the state.  This
> wasn't the case back in New York, where most suburban
> gardens have lots of native trees- Flowering Dogwood,
> American Holly, Rhododendron, not to mention shade trees and
> conifers- so although native plants were a topic, they
> weren't a really hot topic.
> > 
> > The Med. Basin is an important flyway for numerous
> birds: is there concern among gardeners to make their trip a
> bit easier?
> > 
> > What's the news on the topic down under?
> > 
> > Thanks again,
> > -Ben Armentrout-Wiswall
> > 
> > PS  One area I'm perfectly happy to go non-native
> is with bulbs: Narcissus tazetta and Tulipa clusiana are
> lovely under the olives, and I think I'll try Amaryllis
> and Lycoris as well, maybe some Zephyranthes too.
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