Back in October I wrote a blog post on oxalis dormancy care, as for many, the process of plants going into hibernation for the winter can be quite alarming if you are unprepared or unaware (as I was a few years ago!). I wanted to follow up this post  with a quick visual update on how things are looking with Spring just around the corner. There is a full care guide over in the previous post, so for more detailed information have a read HERE

At this stage, I like to dig up the tubers, wash them and replant in fresh compost, as mine is quite a mature plant now, I like to do this annually, though it’s not essential. With the plant having died right back, I removed the dried stems and emptied the pot out into a bag.

February 2019

The photograph above shows how things look today compared to when I carried out this process last year:

The tuberous rhizomes have developed since last year, by comparing the photos I love how we can see the growth of the taproots in particular, their distinctive shapes make it easy to identify them. I like to do this mainly because I like to be nosy and see what’s been going on under the surface of the compost since last year!

Hope you liked seeing a close up of these weird and wonderful parts of plants we sometimes take for granted. When I first posted a photo of these tubers on my Instagram stories, I had quite a few messages of people saying they thought they looked like shrimp! As always I will share the process of my oxalis waking up from dormancy over on my Instagram, but for now, here’s a photo of it in all it’s glory last year:

Thanks for reading,

Laura 🌿