\nYou know where you stand with a purple shamrock. If it droops, it\u2019s thirsty. If it stays closed during the day, it needs more light. And if it moves away from the light, then it\u2019s getting too much light. Easy, right?\n
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However, there was one detail about this plant that I forgot to mention. And it had my friend panicking a few months into growing this plant. I\u2019ll tell you about it a bit later. For now, let me give you a few reasons why you should make the purple shamrock your next houseplant purchase.\n
It\u2019s the color that makes the purple shamrock one of my favorite houseplants. I love the deep shade of burgundy complemented by the fuchsia spots and the lavender flowers.\n
With its deep purple triangular-shaped foliage \u2013 reminiscent of a butterfly\u2019s wings \u2013 the Oxalis triangularis stands out from the crowd, adding variety to the usual green hues of my plant corners.\n
Oxalis is as forgiving a houseplant as they come. Its easy-going nature is due to the fact that it grows from corms (the root structure that looks like a tiny bulb). It helps the plant store enough energy that makes it more resilient through periods of neglect.\n
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Purple shamrock does really well in bright, indirect light, so placing it in front of an east-facing or west-facing window is best. If you place it too close to a south-facing window, the leaves might get burned at the height of summer.\n
The scorch will show up as brown patches starting at the edges of the leaf. Just move it a few feet back or place it behind a sheer curtain.\n
Yes, water it when the top couple of inches feel dry to the touch.\n
\n\nI usually allow my oxalis to get dry between watering sessions. Not rock hard, but the top inch of soil is definitely dry enough before I water it. When the plant is actively growing (generally in spring and fall, depending on temperatures), I try to keep the soil somewhat moist.\n
When oxalis enters dormancy, I taper down the watering (but not completely reduce it) until I see new signs of growth.\n
At first sight, it may seem like the purple leaves are the flowers. Nope, they\u2019re not. The flowers themselves are dainty little blooms in shades of pale pink, white or lavender.\n
Oxalis plants start blooming in late spring and keep going strong through early summer. During hot summers, they tend to take a bit of a break, but they\u2019ll start reblooming again in the fall.\n
The oxalis flowers start coming out around April on my plants.\n
I\u2019ve had years when the purple shamrock has bloomed continuously for months, including throughout the summer months. (I think the record was six months, when it was really happy in one particular spot.)\n
The flowers are edible in very small quantities \u2013 for example, as a garnish on a salad or a piece of cake. They taste a bit like a lemon or a green apple \u2013 slightly tart and citrusy. In fact, one of my oxalis plants even came with the \u201cedible\u201d label.\n
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However, be aware that the oxalic acid contained in the flowers and the leaves may be toxic to humans and pets if consumed in large quantities.\n
Personally, I\u2019ve tried it, but I\u2019m not a big fan of its tart taste. I\u2019d rather keep the flowers on the plant. They bring me more enjoyment from looking at them than from consuming them.\n
Oxalis triangularis plants grow from corms. These are tiny bulb-like structures that, just like bulbs, can self-propagate. So if you start with ten bulbs in a pot, you might end up with twenty in a year\u2019s time. That all depends on whether your plant has the right conditions, of course. Here\u2019s what I found when I was repotting one of my plants. This whole structure started from one corm.\n
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This corm split into several sections over the course of a year.\n
The nice thing is that you can get away with only buying a potted oxalis once, then you can keep dividing the corms every year. For the corms to keep self-propagating, they need plenty of room in the container.\n
So I realized that I either needed to upsize the container every year or take some of the bulbs out and start a new plant. I usually do this division before the plant starts growing again after the cold months.\n
The best time to divide them is when they\u2019re almost ready to star growing again.\n Because I don\u2019t always want to start new plants, I end up taking some of the corms out and dotting them around other plants, usually in outdoor containers.\n You can buy purple shamrock corms online here to start your own plants. This is a really affordable way to start many plants.\n Ok, I admit that not everybody is as fascinated by this as I am. But I like a plant that tells me when it\u2019s time to go to sleep.\n This phenomenon is called nyctinasty and it refers to the response of the plant to the circadian rhythms. You\u2019ll notice that as it gets darker the leaves start folding around the central vein, making the plant appear wilted.\n Oxalis leaves close at night.\n Then as soon as the light levels increase in the morning, the leaves and flowers start perking up again in response to the light. The downside is that the plant may look a bit droopy on super cloudy days. But so do I, so I\u2019m not judging.\n And due to this folding and unfolding in response to the light, another nickname oxalis goes by is butterfly shamrock. Isn\u2019t that cute?\n Then it starts opening up again in response to daylight.\n But here\u2019s the catch: Purple shamrock will behave the same \u2013 closing up like an umbrella \u2013 when it\u2019s really thirsty. So if your plant stays closed during the day, check whether the soil is dry. If it is, just give it a good soak and watch it open up in relief.\n I\u2019ve already mentioned this story in my article on garden plants that I turned into indoor plants. About five years into growing purple shamrock as a houseplant, I decided to move it outdoors to see what would happen. What happened was that it absolutely thrived. Even though it was doing well indoors, it absolutely exploded into a sea of burgundy when I moved the container to my deck.\n One thing to keep in mind is that oxalis is a tender plant. So it will not stay in bloom \u2013 or even in foliage \u2013 over the cold months.\n Oxalis can grow as outdoor plants too, but they grow better in containers than straight into the garden. Bring the oxalis indoors, where it will continue to grow as a houseplant; OR However, indoors it wasn\u2019t as dramatic as losing everything above soil level. It still had some leaves, though fewer than during the summer; as expected, it didn\u2019t flower in winter. It limped along for a couple of months (roughly from November until February), then it started sprouting new leaves again.\n If you decide to keep it as a garden plant exclusively, you still need to protect the corms if the temperatures dip below freezing.\n The corms are tender bulbs, so you need to keep them in a frost-free place during winter.\n I moved the entire pot \u2013 soil and buried corms \u2013 to my shed and covered it in bubble wrap. Keeping it in a cool, frost-free place ensures that the plant remains dormant.\n The trick is to remember to take it out in spring. That\u2019s when you need to start watering it again and exposing the young shoots to enough light to jumpstart their growth. Remember that these are not hardy bulbs (such as hyacinths, daffodils and tulips). So they won\u2019t need to go through a cold spell (vernalization) in order to sprout again the following year. It\u2019s best to keep them protected.\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You know where you stand with a purple shamrock. If it droops, it\u2019s thirsty. If it stays closed during the day, it needs more light. And if it moves away from the light, then it\u2019s getting too much light. Easy, right? However, there was one detail about this plant that I forgot to mention. And\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[785],"class_list":{"0":"post-77280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gardening","8":"tag-hometips-lifehacks-gardening"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Purple-Shamrock.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}5. Purple shamrock adapts to the light levels throughout the day.\n
\n6. You can also grow it outdoors in the summer.\n
\nOnce the temperatures start dipping into the low 50s F (that\u2019s about 10-14 Celsius), you have to make a decision:\n
\nLeave it outside, where everything above ground will completely die off until spring.
\nAt different times in the past, I\u2019ve done both. I should mention that, even when I brought my purple shamrock inside for the winter, it still entered a period of dormancy. The plant has to complete its life cycle.\nWill purple shamrock survive outdoors over the winter?\n