growing Oxalis in pots

[mark smyth]

My Oxalis 'White Swan' and other cultivars performed very poorly this year. When should I repot them and what mix should I use. Should they be in full sun?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I grow all mine in the garden... there, they seem to like it in full sun and in well drained soil with some added leaf mould...  anual feed of some bone meal early in the season and some potash (if I don't forget) after flowering...

[Gerdk]

Luc,
Would you tell me (us) please which Oxalis species survive in your garden?
I like this genus very much but I don't know anything about the hardiness.

Gerd

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Hi Gerd,

I grow O. adenophylla, O. patagonica, O. "Ione Hecker", O. x "Ute" (German cross of enneaphylla x lacianata), O. Inops (I grow this one in a pot in the ground as it's a vigorous spreader), O. brasiliense.

I think that's about it at this moment - but these do all well outside !

[Gerdk]

Luc,
Thank you very much!

Gerd

[David Shaw]

We grow a few Oxalis sp. & cultivars in pots but not as a serious subject. The Oxalis would have liked full sun if we had had any but probably not too much heat. We keep ours in the greenhouse for eight months and bring the pots outside when it starts to get too hot inside. We should now be taking them back inside out of the rain to dry off for repotting sometime this autumn in our normal bulb compost mix which is similar to Ian's.
And no, ours didn't do very well this year either!

[mark smyth]

Thanks everyone. I'll dry mine also and repot in the autumn.

[Rodger Whitlock]

My Oxalis 'White Swan' and other cultivars performed very poorly this year. When should I repot them and what mix should I use. Should they be in full sun?

I'ved moved all my South American rhizomatous oxalises into pure pumice. O. laciniata and its hybrids with O. enneaphylla such as 'Ione Hecker" do well, but O. enneaphylla itself not so well.

Until recently I've considered these two species more or less interchangeable, but careful reading reveals that while O. enneaphylla is native to southern Chile & the Falkland Islands, O. laciniata is usually described as native to Patagonia, which indicates a significant climatic difference. The Falklands have rain some 250 days a year, whereas Patagonia is a dry steppe.

This suggests to me that O. enneaphylla will enjoy somewhat moister conditions and a more moisture-retentive soil., and may explain the results I am getting.

An experiment trying these oxalises in different media is in order.\]

PS: when grown in pots, overheating of the soil by sun on the wall of the pot may be a factor.

[Susan]

I grow Oxalis enneaphylla in the rock garden - we get coolish summers but not as bad as the UK, I think.  It always does well and flowers prolifically.  Some of my other oxalis I grow in a trough which I can let dry out.  The only ones I grow in pots are ones that I am not too sure of, as to whether they will spread.

Oxalis polyphylla has luxuriant growth but so far has declined to flower for me - it is from South Africa so may need a little more heat than we can give it. Another South African which has not flowered so far is O fabaefolia.

Does anyone know of any books written on the subject. There does not appear to be much information around about them.

Susan

[Maggi Young]

Friends, I have received this question and I hope you can help......
"Hello!

I found you website when I searched for oxalis versicolor on google.
Your photos are so nice and you have such a great nice plant!

I never have grown this oxalis before and bought some bulbs recently.
Now I was searching how to plant the bulbs and how to treat them the best.

Please could you give me a description about how to handle with these bulbs and what about  water, humidity, soil, winter/summer diferences and so on?

I would be very glad if you could send me some information.

Best regards,

Kerstin "

Advice for Kerstin, who is in Germany, please? 

[Michael J Campbell]

Oxalis versicolour.
Sorry for the bad pic

I grow this plant in a clay pot with 60% loan 40% grit compost. It is grown in a cold greenhouse from September until it dies down in late spring ,then it is placed outside under a bench which is facing north and protected from the rain for the summer. I gets one feed with tomato feed when it shows new growth in autumn and is only watered when the compost is almost dry. flowers every year and has only been re-potted once in the last five years.

I live in a coastal area with a very wet mild climate and frost or no more than-2 or -3c.

hope this helps.

[Paul T]

I gow this Oxalis outside in small pots year around.  It has no problems with my cold (-8 to -9'C some years).  It is one of the Oxalis species that actually does better in a pot for me than in the ground.  I've tried VERY few of the Oxalis in the ground due to their somewhat enthusiastic nature, but I have tried versicolor and it either stayed exactly as it was, or slowly dwindled out.  In pots it grows and multiplies well, but in the ground for me it either doesn't multiply or slowly dies out.  I've found it does well for me in black plastic pots in full sun, in normal potting mix just the same as any of my other bulbs (all my Oxalis are treated this way).