Wood Sorrel or Oxalis
Oxalis species (OXALIDACEAE)
Planting and Growing Wood Sorrel
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow wood sorrel or oxalis in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of wood sorrel or oxalis
- Season of bloom and planting time for wood sorrel or oxalis
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for wood sorrel or oxalis
- When, how deep, and where to plant wood sorrel or oxalis
- How to plant wood sorrel or oxalis
- Watering, fertilizing, care and pests or diseases of wood sorrel or oxalis
- Landscape and indoor uses of wood sorrel or oxalis
- Comments about wood sorrel or oxalis and its features
Growing Wood Sorrel
Spring bulb, tuber, or rhizome, depending on species. Deciduous. More than 800 species. Stands 4–20 in. (10–50 cm) tall. Tufted, compact, or spreading. Cloverlike, small, gray green, green, red leaves, closing at night.
Wood Sorrel Planting and Care Guide
Flowers
Winter–summer. Pink, rose, white, yellow, often with contrasts at center. Solitary or multiple open or funnel-shaped flowers to 1 in. (25 mm) wide.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 6–9; ground hardy, zones 7–9.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich–average. 6.5–7.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Late summer–autumn in full sun to partial shade. Space 2 in. (50 mm) apart, 1–4 in. (25–100 mm) deep.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep moist spring–summer. Fertilize only at planting. Mulch, zones 6–8. Propagate by division, offsets, seed in autumn.
Lifting and Storing
Dark, 50–60°F (10–16°C), in net bag or open basket of dry peat moss.
About This Species
Good choice for containers, ground covers in indoor, small-space, woodland gardens. Tuberous and rhizomatous species are very invasive; plant in containers. Use only bulb species in garden soil plantings. Deer, rodent resistant.