This is similar to my Oxalis Deppei (Iron Cross).

It is probably Oxalis Crassipes (Pink Wood Sorrel).

Pretty pink flowers on both types... I use Iron Cross as filler... I collect the bulbs before winter(they produce lots of bulbs). I store them in the house and keep them dry and cool. Plant them in the spring and they fill things in nicely... They can crowd other smaller plants so I usually end up lopping some of them back a bit now and then.

If you don't collect the bulbs they will just die in our climate so there really isn't a need to worry about them taking over.

Interesting! Lilmonicker, have you tried to winter O. crassipes outdoors? Just wondering, as the attached site suggests it might be quite hardy (though I note that the author is in zone 5)...

Here is a link that might be useful: Oxalis crassipes

Thanks for the information. I am only going to bring inside a couple of clumps and leave the rest in the ground. I am thinking they might overwinter as I found them growing in the bush where people had been dumping lots of yard waste. My clump looks alot better than what was in the bush, I might go back and see if there is any left as it is quite pretty. I do have the ordinary white one that stores sell for St. Pattys' Day as a house plant. I never thought about planting it outside. I'm thinking a nice big pot of it next year on the deck.

Syreeta

No I have not tried to winter O. crassipes outdoors... most of the websites I've visited have it rated down to zone 6 or 7 maybe you can get away with it at 5... I haven't tried it in zone 3 but I know that O. deppei absolutely can not take the cold here in zone 3. The two plants are very similar.

O. deppi is very easy to keep indoors... and collecting the little bublets is a cinch... one plant can make over 10+ peanut sized bublets for next year's use. I usually pull up about 10-20 plants and break the bulblets off. I get as much dirt off of them as I can by just knocking it off and then I layer them in a pan with paper towels. I store them in my cold room like this the whole winter. Last year I collected too many (gave some away, threw a lot more out).

I'm actually looking for someone to trade O. regnellii for my O. deppei. I think the two together would look smashing. I haven't found anyone to trade with though.... I'd love to get my hands on O. regnelli for it is a wonderful shade of purple.

These are really simple plants to grow and propagate. No effort and the kids love to watch them grow. Maybe I'll grow a few of the O. Deppei for St. Pats day and take them to work this year... :-)

Although I don't recommend eating to many of the leaves its kind of nice to throw a couple young leaves of O. Deppei into a spring salad. They have a tart strawberry taste. Oxalis is apparently poisonous if you consume too much though...

I have some oxalis that must have come with a plant trade and is rapidly trying to take over my bulb bed. I never do anything with it (besides yank it out of places that i don't want it) and it has overwintered for several years now. The leaves are mostly green - i haven't noticed any bronzing, but there could be - and the flower is yellow. If you want some, Andrew, i'll dig up a clump sometime. But you may regret it!

Marcia, with yellow flowers, it would seem likely to be a different species than those mentioned - maybe Oxalis corniculata, creeping woodsorrel, which is an introduced weed. Apparently, the leaves are often "purplish-green", which looks bronzy in the photo in my book (Weeds of Canada and the Northern United States, Royer and Dickinson).
SeaOtterCove, have you seen the flowers on your plant? Unless they are not yellow, this one might be a likely candidate.

Yes, Lori, that's what it seems to be. One of the sites i looked up said it was hardy to zone 5. Maybe i should enter this on Andrew's zone pushing thread! LOL

Marcia...

I've got enuf weeds... you can have some of mine though if you want I have a great selection of Himalayan balsam or Peppermint :-)

I am specifically looking for Oxalis regnellii. Oxalis deppei, regnellii and crassipes are very similar... they are either bulbous or rhizomes. All three varieties are good to a minimum of zone 5 as perennials...

They seem to work great as annuals as collecting and growing the little bulbs or rhizomes is pretty easy. O. deppei looks really neat because of the pattern on the leaves... regnellii is very similar just purple instead of green... and crassipes is just plain green (which is kind of boring, at least thats my opinion).

From what I have seen in gardens here crassipes has the largest bloom, deppei blooms are small. I haven't seen regnellii nor do I care so much about the blooms (although I think they are white not pink), I'm most interested in the foliage colour which I think will be a good replacement for Coleus.

- Andrew

Andrew, given your interest (apparent from your other thread) in finding out which species are actually hardy in zone 3, that might conventionally be thought not hardy from the gardening literature......how is it that you know that Oxalis crassipes is hardy only to zone 5 when you say you haven't actually tested it in your own zone? After all, it went from zone 7 down to zone 5 almost instantaneously, just from one gardener's experience, LOL!
Just funnin' with ya, and no offense intended... but do you see my point? ;)
If there's any general advice that one might take from the Far North forum, it's "don't believe published zone ratings" - you'll see that proven over and over, LOL!
Cheers and good gardening,
Lori

Lori, no offense taken... read below and you'll see why I think zone 5 (and that is only a "maybe").

In earlier posts I quite clearly said I have not tried to winter crassipes. I don't like it as it is just plain green... LOL

Iron Cross O. Deppei foliage is much more attractive. If you don't have any in your garden I recommend Iron Cross as an annual ground cover.

I have seen Pink Sorrel O. crassipes locally in other gardens here... I looked on several different websites (plant databases and googled it not just once) but you are absolutely right about the zones, thats why I started the other thread... I expect that they can likely make zone 5 not just because of the websites but because of the mass amounts of bulblets these little guys put out in a year.

My experience with O.deppei and my familiarity with crassipes locally leads me to believe it won't winter in zone 4, I said "maybe zone 5". After winter is over here both deppei and crassipes bulbets turn to mush if they haven't completely gone rotten or become compost.

I had too many O. deppei last year and this year I grew quite a few (but not too many, I know better now) LOL All the bulblets I left in the ground last year were mush. We had lots of snow this last year so it wasn't like they weren't protected. One of my relatives has a mixture of deppei (I gave him) and crassipes (same problem, mush). The bulblets all form about a half an inch below the surface and don't even take the first frost too well.

I'm actually hoping to see more posts in the Zone-Pushing thread... I was surprised when a miniture rose made it through the winter and I'm hoping others will be surprised when they see what the rest of this group gets away with every year :-) I've tried a lot of new things this year in my garden... and leaving plants in the ground is one of the easiest new things I'm attempting this year LOL

- Andrew

I haven't seen the flowers on the plant yet. I am thinking that it is indeed Oxalis corniculata if I compare pictures to the plant. If that is the case do I want it? I would also assume that I don't need to bring the plant inside, it should be able to make it through our winters no problem. I guess I'll wait and see how much it spreads in my flowerbeds.

Syreeta

Lori,

You were right, the plant is Oxalis corniculata. Yesterday I noticed yellow flowers on the plant that went in the sun. The piece that got planted in shade isn't doing nearly as well.

Syreeta

bump bump

I have been searching for answers about some oxalis I just purchased. They look exactly like the Oxalis Crassipes (Pink) they I was given (with bulbs - and the plant overwinters great..), but these Oxalis Plants (also called "crassipes" do NOT have bulbs.... they have roots). They were labeled perennial but now I am wondering if they are. Does anyone know? Thanks

Carrie