GARDEN LIFE
Shades of winter

Kiran Narain offers tips to working couples who prefer easy-to-grow perennials

Oxalis and kalanchoe are the two perennials which add colour to gardens in winter. Even though annual flowers add a splash of rainbow hue to the landscape in the plains of North India, gardeners with limited time and space find it difficult to pick and choose a few from the vast array of winter annuals. For such people, here are two easy to grow perennials which give maximum beauty with minimum inputs.

Oxalis, family ‘Oxalidaceae’ belongs to a large genus of annual or perennial plants both rhizomatous (rooted) or bulbous. They have clover-like foliage and are topped by five petaled 1" or so flowers. They are available in white, pink, lavender and clear yellow varieties and bloom very freely. Most blossoms open in sunshine and close at night or on cloudy days.

The yellow variety namely Oxalis cernua, also called "Bermuda Buttercup", with bright yellow flowers and deep-veined clover-like leaves gives the gardener a bright array of golden flowers throughout late winter and spring till mid-April. Oxalises are also more popular as house plants and look decorative when grown in shallow pans or pots as the foliage and flowers droop down, covering the containers. The potted plants can be kept on terraces and verandas or indoors in sunny windows where they get at least four hours of sun daily. Oxalis should be planted in the garden in autumn, spacing the bulbs between 4 to 6" apart and covering them with 2" of soil. A good mixture for them would be one part peat moss and one part sand added to the normal garden soil to give it good drainage. They like frequent watering while in growth. However, water moderately after flowering. Propagate Oxalis in late summer, by lifting the masses of small bulbs that develop around large ones, when plants are dormant. They make excellent rock garden plants.

Kalanchoe

Kalanchoe (family Crassulaceae) formerly included in Bryophyllums, are beautiful plants which are very easy to grow. Tropical succulents from Africa, the most popular of these is K. blossfeldiana which appears to have been introduced in the gardens of northern India in the last couple of decades

The plants with opposite notched green succulent leaves are edged with red. With a profusion of mildly scented orange-red flowers in December-March, they are about 12-15" tall and terminal pinnacles of colourful flowers last for long. They get many offshoots filling up the pots or space around them, forming a mound of colour.

Kalanchoe should be planted in sandy soil as they need good drainage. They love being in the sun and should be watered freely only during the growth period and moderately thereafter.

Propagate kalanchoe by cuttings of young shoots, dried off for a few hours before insertion or by division in July-August. The leaf cuttings can also be rooted easily by laying a single leaf on the surface of moist sand. The plants can be kept in soil or pot from year to year without much care, although some gardeners prefer treating them like annuals. These do well easily in almost any growing medium and new plants will propagate like weed.

When the rest of winter blooms are largely limited to annuals that require painstaking re-planting every year, the kalanchoe, with its vibrant red blooms, is one perennial that adds brilliance to any garden without the gardener having to toil through the season for his garden to be ablaze with colour.

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