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Re: Waxing Eloquent with Oxalis

Just for the record - in my response to Nan, I was merely suggesting an
a plant fitting HER criterion (Oxalis, and growing inbetween pavers)!
I was not unversally advocating the planting of weedy species!!  ;-)

It is interesting that one person's weed is anothers 'exotic'.  I
always recall visiting my wife's aunt in Grand Cayman (Carribean).
She was a dedicated gardener in those very different conditions, and
would routinely 'weed out' this orchid which grew with wild abandon
among her other plants - she hated it.  I drew a picture of the
plant and researched it later when I arrived home, only to find it
for sale at a local Orchid Greenhouse!!!  What is they say about
perception?

At 10:16 PM 3/19/98 -0800, Victoria T. Olson wrote:
>  <snip>
>But I have two more Oxalis species I'd like to ask about. A friend gave
>me some gallon-can pin oaks (they turned out to be scarlet oaks,
>actually) with a lovely oxalis growing as companion plants. The
>trifoliate leaves on pink stems are medium green, lush and overlapping, a
>full two inches across; the flowers, furled at night like tiny inch-long
>umbrellas, are a creamy light green at the base and a lavender-pink at
>the tip, and they appear spring and fall. (I've planted them in a
>woodland setting with sword ferns.) Could this Oxalis be O. oregana, AKA
>redwood sorrel or Oregon oxalis?

This does indeed sound like O. oregana, especially is the leaves are
very slightly covered with tiny hairs.  This plant can create a hansome
groundcover in dry shade with a soil rich in organic material (just
imagine a redwood grove!).  There are forms with deeper pink or white
flowers.

>The second Oxalis that interests me I keep as a container plant, letting
>it go dormant in the summer. You can sometimes buy it this time of year
>for St. Patrick's Day, though you won't be "wearing the green." The
>leaves are a deep wine purple, while the flowers are fluted rosy pink
>bells that appear in delicate clusters. It's sold as Oxalis triangulata,
>but I think it could also be the O. purpurea 'Grand Duchess' described in
>the Sunset Western Garden Book. It also seems to me that I've seen this
>purple oxalis noted as a native of Brazil. 
>
>Does anyone out there by some chance know about these two Oxalis species?

With such distain for this Genera among gardeners, I expect that careful
taxonomic information might be hard to find.  I know this plant to be
either O. triangularis or O. regnellii 'Atropurpurea'.  My records seem
to indicate the former name being best, but I can never tell for sure.
The 'green form' (usually called O. regnellii) is also very handsome and
has been around a lot longer (though still not common), and I have heard
that there is a 'silver' leaved form as well.

I've grown a few other Oxalis which I don't find to be a problem:

O. braziliensis - large mid-green shamrock leaves and large wine
coloured flowers, low, compact growth.  It tends to 'find its way'
into other pots (my own neglegence of the dormant bulbs!) but I am
always happy to see it spring 'out of nowhere' in fall.

O. herrerae - a delicate succulent species, with tiny leaves whose
petioles are like miniature succulent cigars.  Small yellow flowers
on long stems above the foliage.  Mine may be dying out due to too
much rain this winter!!

O. hirta - a quiet little thing, good for the rockery or in 'intimate'
spots; delicate stems with sessile leaves (looking like three leaves
joined at the stem) trail in a light green 'froth' about 6in tall,
bright rose flowers appear along the stems in spring, the foliage
turns coppery orange in decline in late spring.

Back on the topic of 'weedy' species - I once had a client who had a
large area infested with Oxalis pes-caprae (O. cernua).  She was not
interested in carrying out 'warfare' against this weed (only a casual
gardener).  So I enriched this area with other species willing to
hold their own against the Oxalis (Chasmanthe, Sparaxis, Centranthus,
Agaves, California Poppies, etc.) and she now has a handsome slope
that is full of bright color each spring.  In summer, she has her
garden maintenance person trim all the dying foliage down, leaving it as
a mulch over the perennial roots (only the Agaves in evidence then), and
it all grows back in fall.  Other weeds which used to also prevail are
not seen with this permanent cover.  As this slope was always difficult
to maintain, this has become a wonderful solution.  So, even Oxalis
pes-caprae has a role to play in some gardens.

 Sean A. O'Hara                     sean.ohara@ucop.edu
 710 Jean Street                    (510) 987-0577
 Oakland, California 94610-1459     h o r t u l u s   a p t u s
 U.S.A.                             'a garden suited to its purpose'
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