How to propagate Oxalis Zinfandel and Molten Lava

Have found oxalis Zinfandel and molten lava to be awesome fillers in some of my larger containers. Would like to use them a lot more but I'm cheap. Has anyone had any experience propagating these. A friend of mine told me they should have little corms but when I dug them last fall I couldn't find anything.

Hi oxdrift- I looked this one up-sounds like a great plant for my outside planters, or houseplant. It looks like this species (Oxalis vulcanicola) can be divided, or if you are into it cuttings would work. Most Oxalis are pretty vigorous.
Let us know how it works!

http://www.finegardening.com/volcanic-sorrel-oxalis-vulcanicola-zinfandel

http://www.louistheplantgeek.com/a-gardening-journal/553-oxalis-vulcanicola-zinfandel

Thanks Pistil, I do lots of cuttings so will give that a shot. I have a planter box atop a 40 foot long x 4 foot high lattice fence that I built several years ago as a backdrop for my daughters wedding. I usually plant it with mostly petunias but they usually start off the season looking really good but end up looking really mangy by year end if we get a lot of rain. I would like to try putting one of the oxalis maybe about every 3 feet with some cool wave pansies and a few sun loving coleus. So am looking for a cheaper way of doing that

Maybe you could update this thread with results in a few months, it's always fun to see what folks are doing.

Yes OG, updates are lots of fun. Pictures included in the update would be specifically great. A 40' long row of anything is expensive but I'm only considering the visual impact. I can picture your project in my head and it does indeed look great, lol. Seeds might be another option.

Pistil and Mipii: Hope this works. This is my first attempt at trying to load a picture into a thread. I only have this very early 2015 picture of the area that I am planning to try to put some oxalis into this year. This planting was equal amounts of African Sunset petunia, Rambling Red petunia and Cool Wave Golden Yellow pansy. It was taken early season when not very full yet in advance of going raunchy from too much rain. Nothing much to be proud of. I am going to be a host of the Dryden area garden tour this year so hoping to plan something a little more exotic. If the results are good I promise to send an update. Don't forget I am in Zone 3 so don't expect anything before late July

Well it looks like the upload went OK. Should have also included this one that shows what I have been using the oxalis in up to now. I don't know if you have been seeing any of my other posts but this photo is the one that I won the 2015 DG calendar photo contest with. This is a set of 2 concrete hexagonal planters at the front corner of our house. Foreground is the lower of the 2 planters with the Zinfandel oxalis spilling out to the left with Purple Millet in the background and I have forgotten the variety of yellow agyranthemum. If you can blow it up enough you can just see a bit of the Molten Lava oxalis in the back pot just to the left of the Purple Millet

Ha! The upload went perfect, that's an incredible planter even with smaller early season plants. You don't need any stinking help, look what you can do! Did you use lattice panels?

I remember voting for that pic, I'm sure I voted it second place because mine was stuck in first place, lol. You probably won because the vignette was absolutely harmonious, your color palette and plant combination was fabulous.

Yes those are lattice panels. You can buy them here in 2 different weights. I use nothing but heavy duty. That structure was originally white but I restained it in 2015 to the taupe colour. I like it way better so have a bunch of other structures to change this year. I have retired and my wife still works so have lots of time to spend on my passion. Love it!!

I'm so glad you shared, you do great work. It all looks so good!

Wow oxdrift, those look great, I recall voting for that planter myself!
Anyway, at this point I just have one other thing I thought of- I have had better luck in my planters with the newer small petunias called Calibrachoa (Million Bells, Superbells). They don't get flattened from a rainstorm like the big ones. I put both in there. Halfway through the summer, I cut half of them back when they get leggy, then a few weeks later I cut the other half back. By then the first ones have bushed out and are flowering again.

Your uploads are working fine. Also If you want to upload more than one at a time, you can do up to 5 pics per box. There are two ways to do it. You can either upload them one by one, or do all five at once.The only problem with the second way is the computer might put them in a different order. so if they need to be in a specific order just do it one at a time.

I love calibrachoa however for a different reason they are another plant that I am trying to limit use of. I'll try to explain without writing a book. The first thing you have to understand is that I am an "out of control" flower garden fanatic. Very few people grow the amount of stuff I do for personal use. If you take a look at my album of 13 of my favourite 2015 photos titled "Challenging Zone 3" it may give you a hint of the scope of my passion. But even that is only the tip of the iceberg. The only way I can afford to do this is by starting literally thousands of annuals from seed plus I overwinter approximately 30 varieties of coleus and a whack of succulents in the basement under fluorescent lights. I have already started 108 new coleus cuttings from that over wintered stock and will probably at least double that again before I'm done. Are you starting to understand why I spend so much time on the propagation site? By the time I'm able to start out planting in early June or later (Zone 3) my 12' x 28' greenhouse is literally bursting at the seams. I started up the wood fired greenhouse on Good Friday and it's been going to -10 to -15 Celsius every night so that's 1-2 trips out to add wood every night.
Now to get back to the topic we started on. I'm trying to more or less eliminate both calibrachoa and ipomoea (sweet potato vine ) because both are extremely prone to aphid infestations in the greenhouse which can get really ugly in my crowded conditions. The way I deal with these and other container garden plants is to go to Winnipeg Manitoba (4 hour drive) and hit 2-3 of my favorite greenhouses and just purchase a couple of each plant like loading up Noah's Arc and then stretch those into as many cuttings as I can. That trip will take place weekend after next.

This message was edited Apr 4, 2016 12:12 PM

How interesting. I learn so much here. I never would have predicted that calibrachoa would be more prone to aphids than regular petunia. I have never found aphids on either, but I don't have a greenhouse. There is an old thread here somewhere where I detail how I kept cuttings of Tidal Wave petunia (started out just as a bouquet) in a glass of water on the kitchen windowsill. They rooted in there, so I had free plants for the next year. Wow was that easy!

Okay, the Garden Albums aren't cooperating, they're not playing nice and it probably has everything to with not getting fixed with the latest site wide updates. However, I have voted for some of those gorgeous photos. C'mon, how do us common folk compete with that?

Have you tried Lantana? I love them and found them to be uber sturdy, well blooming and easy to propagate. There are both an upright bush type and a trailing type.

Mipii: I'm as "common" as it gets. I'm just passionate about my hobbies. Once the gardening is done in September I turn into a redneck deer and moose hunter spending all my time bating and sitting in a tree stand in pursuit of a trophy!
Funny, I don't have any trouble with the garden albums but then again I'm new and don't know how they used to work. I go there 2 ways. From here the easiest is just to click on my name where it shows in green in the post above and it takes you right to my personal page where you can send me a D-mail or view any contributions I have made to this website. On that page click on my 13 photo album and it will take you right there
By the way don't pay any attention to the time at the bottom of that page. Seems that admin probably thinks that all of Ontario is one time zone which is not the case. Haven't been concerned enough about that to try to figure out how to change it

I can get to your album and your photos, I can even click on them but only get a fraction of a any photo to display. I can't click through with the left and right arrows on the image slider. There's something wrong with the code. You're in CST, I'm thinking you just select a zone listed as "GMT/UTC - 6h" or "Central Standard Time". You can get to the time zone by selecting "Preferences" from the top menu.

Mipii; After I finished the last post I was wishing I had included a photo. Very few pictures in my cell phone gallery have people in them especially of myself. The attached is a rare exception. My 9 year old granddaughter got her hands on my cell one day last fall when I was giving a couple of neighbours a tour. This says it all. Here's Keith surrounded by his flowers and wearing his Rednex Rebellion T-shirt and camo shorts. She did a pretty good job other than cutting my head off.

Thanks for the pic, those have to be the best zone 3 gardens I've ever seen. Your granddaughter did a great job and didn't cut too much of your head off, lol. Good for her!

Hey all you southerners! Looked outside this morning and thought it might be appropriate to give you a little visual of just what gardening in Zone 3 is like on April 6th. Sorry, the pics are a little blue because I didn't really wait for the sun to come up fully but I think you can get the point. In the first shot that homemade blue styrofoam box is how I manage to keep Japanese tree peonies over winter. In the second that's my greenhouse in the background. As you can see from the snow melted off the roof on the right side, that's all I'm heating right now. In the third the little wife is just heading off to work. Good thing I didn't get her snow tires taken off yet as she wanted me to. In the forth one of the clothes lines is almost pulled down from the weight of the wet snow. When I first got up they all looked like that.
Keith

It's still beautiful Keith, it looks like Monday!

Oh Man Keith, what a difference 5 zones makes!
I think your gardens are fabulous. One nice thing might be that the gardening season is so short you would never get tired of it ;-)

Pistil: I never really thought of it that way. I have always been very envious of the exotic plants you southerners are capable of growing but you are right, without the long break between seasons I may not have the same enthusiasm. Thanks for pointing that out.
Keith

Excellent point Pistil! Not just the enthusiasm would be tested, but also the endurance.

See, if you had to take care of the garden you couldn't go hunting!
I grew up in Ohio, zone 5. There a dandelion was a small lawn weed, actually sort of pretty. They were very common, our neighbor had us kids gather the blooms to make wine. At the end of the year I did not have to weed them out of my vegetable garden, because the ground froze deep enough they were killed (the seeds are another story). Anyway when I started gardening here in Seattle, imagine my surprise-a dandelion left over the winter simply continues to grow, becoming rather shrublike! And, here I have to mow my lawn in December, resuming in February. I am already tired of it, and it's barely April!
What a silly thing to whine about. Actually it's real nice here. I am sitting here with all the windows open, in a tee shirt. 80 degrees tomorrow! It usually doesn't get that hot until August.

oops sorry for the sideways photo. I forget I need to manipulate them in the computer in some small way, save them like that, then put them on DG.
Got these deeply discounted in November, not too late here to pot them up and leave outside!

Very nice Pistil. And I take it those are pictures you just took. Really different than the stuff I grow. Nice to see.
Also good points about my advantages. Don't think I would want to be cutting grass in December and I like the transition to hunting. I'll stop grumbling now
Keith

Lol :)

Update
Yesterday was my annual pilgrimage to Winnipeg Manitoba (4hours each way) to load up with new and exciting annual flower stock for the year. I've been like a kid waiting for Santa Claus all week. Two of our daughters came with me. The oldest comes with me every year and she does a small amount of shopping too but no greenhouse to put them in so she has to exercise more control than dad. The youngest was our chauffeur and came along for entertainment and lunch on dad. My wife doesn't have quite the enthusiasm that I do (and we needed the car space for all the new babies) so she took a drive to visit our other daughter (1 1/2 drive) and spoiled the grandchildren there for the day.
Was a little disappointed with the oxalis, time will tell whether it will be a problem or not. They had molten lava still however they changed the burgundy one from Zinfandel to Burgundy Bliss. At a glance they look almost identical but they get a couple inches taller and I perceive the leaves to be a little bigger and feel that they may be a little less sturdy which could give me a little grief because that lattice wall planter can be exposed to a fair bit of wind.
I don't know why I didn't think of propagating by cuttings before I started this thread. Probably tunnel vision because I was expecting them to have corms when I dug them up last fall. By the time my wife got home last night I had everybody all settled into their new home and had two trays of new cuttings under lights in humidomes.
I also managed to find almost all the new Proven Winners that I had on my wish list: Bidens campfire fire burst, sunsatia blood orange, portulaca Mojave yellow and tangerine, lemon coral sedum.
It's raining here now and snow is almost gone. Hallelujah!!!!

That's quite the shopping list Ox, I sure hope your alternative choices work out great. Aren't you lucky to have daughters that want to tag-along for the road trip. I can't wait to see all planted and thriving. I'm sure that's all going to happen soon!

Found you guys. I love oxalis. I have only pink and white. I saw the burgundy plant with yellow flowers at the nursery last week and thought it looked like a weed. It was in a nursery I do no really trust.

I am in zone 9 so our spring is soon to be over and summer is right around the corner. Oxalis thrive here in the heat. They bloom year round here. Mine have crones. I do have a yellow one with green leaves. It appears in the winter, blooms the majority of our winter and as soon as it gets hot, it dies back. It also has crones. But they are so small, they are easy to miss. The crones are smaller than popcorn kernel. Sharon, Las Vegas.

Welcome Sharon. I am totally lost by your comment "mine have crones". What are crones?
Keith

Sorry, I meant corms.

OK that makes sense. I don't know if you read this whole thread or not but that is how it got started. Mine don't have corms and I was looking for advice in how to propagate them. On someone's suggestion, either Pistil or Mipii I tried cuttings and they are super easy to start that way. You came by a little late as this thread is almost exhausted other than to supply an update of my project in probably late July.
Keith

The cutting suggestion was made by Pistil; however, I'm really glad they turned out to be so easy. I've never actually grown Oxalis myself, they always looked so dainty and tender.

Nice to hear your point of view too Sharon, thanks for sharing!

Hi guys just checking this thread out. Something was said about it on the propagation thread and when Sharon posted she caught it and asked about an Oxalys forum, thread? She is very interested in one. I will give her the link here for her to post and maybe you can give her info she is looking for. Jen

Sharon's already posted on here, yesterday. Hopefully she got the info she wants.

Thanks Lisa. My experience with Oxalis is that my yard was full of them in Seattle. I pulled them up constantly. Must have been a wild cousin. Couldn't get rid of the darned things. Sorry, on that note I will leave. jen

Oh that's good information Jen...it's really good to know.

I have even seen one here that is a cursed weed, but not Zinfandel or molten lava. They are very controllable stars
Keith