Oxalis lobata (again)

 

One of my plants of Oxalis lobata (now O.perdicaria I think). This one has grown unprotected from an escaped bulb about 10 years ago in a sunny trough here, just outside of Oxford, UK. It’s one of my absolute favourite plants with the fresh green leaves and golden yellow flowers that glow in the later summer & autumnal sun.

This one is much more compact than in my shady greenhouse where it tends to sprawl so I’m now bringing the plants in pots out to flower. I made the mistake last year in assuming I could leave them out all year. The result was my two large pans were downsized in the spring to a single small pot. I don’t know whether they got too wet or cold or a combination of the two.

When I was a teen I read in the old books I got from the library about the problem of it going dormant in the winter and again in the summer, leafing up in the spring and then leafing up and flowering in the later summer. I’ve found that with me it only goes dormant in the summer. I think it was regarded as a novelty and desirable plant, I get the impression that it’s popularity has waned although it still seems to be readily available.