Wood Sorrel

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis) - Dwarf and often pretty perennial or annual plants, for the most part more happy and free in temperate countries, but some hardy with us on warm borders and on the rock garden. They all thrive best in a sandy soil in the warmest and driest place in a garden. The following are the best kinds for our gardens:—

Wood Sorrel Pictures

Oxalis oregana Nutt. - redwood-sorrel

Oxalis rubra St.-Hil. - windowbox woodsorrel

Oxalis stricta L. - common yellow oxalis

Oxalis violacea L. - violet woodsorrel

Oxalis violacea L. - violet woodsorrel

Oxalis violacea L. - violet woodsorrel

Related Flowers

Stubwort, Wood Sorrel

Stubwort, Wood Sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella) - The prettiest of all the kinds known for our gardens is our native Wood Sorrel, which bore in old times the better name of "Stubwort"—a name which should be used always. This grows in such pretty ways in woody and shady places that in many gardens there is no need to cultivate it. Where it must be cultivated it will be happy in the hardy fernery or in shady spots in the rock garden, or under trees, or the lawn, or in any shady or half-shady places in ground not dug.

Oxalis Adenophylla

Oxalis Adenophylla - A very beautiful new species from the Andes rivalling and even eclipsing in beauty the better known O. Enneaphylla. The plant is vigorous habited, quite hardy, and grows freely in loamy soils. The flowers are large and colored rosy-white, and appear in early summer. Rare at present, it is one of the choicest of gems for the rock garden. Height, 4 to 6 inches. Increased by division of the tubers when dormant.

Oxalis Bowieana

Oxalis Bowieana - A robust species, forming rich masses of leaves, 6 to 9 inches high, and umbels of rose flowers continuously throughout the summer, suitable for warm borders at the foot of a south wall. In cold soils it seldom flowers, but on very sandy, warm, and well-drained soils it flowers abundantly, and where it does well it is one of the most precious of hardy flowers. Division. Cape of Good Hope.

Oxalis Floribunda

Oxalis Floribunda - A free-flowering kind, hardy in all soils; for months in succession it bears numbers of dark-veined rose-colored flowers. The white-flowered variety flowers as freely as the rose-colored form, and both are very useful for the rock garden and for margins of borders, and are easily increased by division. America.

Oxalis Lasiandra

Oxalis Lasiandra - A distinct and beautiful kind, with large dark green leaves, and in early summer umbels of bright rose-colored flowers, and useful for warm borders and the rock garden. Mexico.

Oxalis Enneaphylla

Oxalis Enneaphylla - A lovely plant from the Falkland Islands, producing handsome, pure white, erect, open, bell-shaped flowers from amid pale glaucous green foliage. The plant revels in cool rich loam and leaf-mould, and in such flowers well and increases rapidly. Perfectly hardy and quite amiable. Does not object to thin screening shade. June-July. Increased by tuber division when dormant. O. e. rosea is a pretty variety whose flowers are delicately tinted rose.

Oxalis Lobata

Oxalis Lobata - A stemless little plant with three deeply-lobed bright green leaflets, and blossoms about 3/4 inch across, rich yellow, the centre delicately pencilled with chocolate. A free-flowering bright little plant during sunshine, thriving in warm sandy loam on well-drained borders. Flowers in September-October. Should be planted in the warmest and sunniest position. Chili.

Oxalis Luteola

Oxalis Luteola - One of the prettiest, forming a compact tuft; the flower-buds 1/2 inch in length, and a soft creamy-yellow, but when open they are as large as a half-crown, and pure white, shading to yellow towards the centre; it is not hardy, but in light sandy soil will survive a winter if protected.

Other kinds

There are other species worthy of a place, especially on very dry sandy soils, and among them are O. smithi, rosea, deppei, speciosa, arborea, violacea, versicolor, incarnata, tetraphylla, venusta, and corniculata. If a collection, it should be borne in mind that it is very difficult to preserve the correctness of the names, for the minute bulbets become mixed up with the earth, and the elasticity of the seed-pots permits the seeds to scatter in all directions.