Purple Oxalis




I've had plum colored clover - purple oxalis - growing in my garden for years...albeit in small patches. Nothing to write home about as it were.


But then....I saw it growing in huge swaths, back lit by a golden September sun...


in my friend RL's fabulous garden...


and I had an epiphany -- the realization that I had not been doing it justice. I had been growing it in a petty


mean-spirited fashion. In little dibs and dabbles... a gardening transgression I was happy to remedy when I
selected the plum and chartreuse palette for my front beds this year.


I bought several quarts of PW Oxalis 'Charmed Wine'
and planted it in the recommended shade to part shade environ it
now enjoys. I can attest to its cold hardiness (to 15 degrees; though I have found when mulched it can handle even colder winter conditions), relative drought tolerance and deadheading free character.


I love the jaunty way the pale lilac-pink flowers bob atop delicate chartreuse stems...with a like-colored eye in the middle. RL had his growing in far more intense light and sun than I...another issue I rectified this season. Masses of pale floral ballerinas dancing on rich velvety-purple stages...great in number, again thanks to RL's generosity...he gifted me with huge clumps of these purple beauties.


The bi-tonal leaves glisten and glow and absorb light, botanical stained glass, especially when paired with delicate foliage---fern, drift roses, and guara are my  companions of choice...


to beautiful effect I think. Drive by and do tell


if you agree.

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