Pretty palm leaves and large soft pink flowers

Wood sorrel. That is right. Not oxalis but wood sorrel. Oh all right, they are the same but the poor oxalis gets a really bad rap because of a few bad eggs in the family. We wouldn’t be without the ornamental oxalis in pots and in the rockery. The autumn and winter flowering varieties add a bright spot of colour, though they need sun to open their flowers.

There are around 500 different oxalis so our collection of about 30 is merely scratching the surface. As a general rule, the South African species are dormant in summer and the autumn rains trigger them into growth and flower whereas the South American species follow the opposite seasons. But that is not a hard and fast rule and some oxalis are evergreen succulents and not bulbs at all. By no means all of the oxalis are invasive but if you are not sure, keep them to pots and watch them for a while. If they have tiny bulbs which increase exponentially or if they have bulbs which reach out below the ground with small bulblets attached, then be wary.

While my personal favourite is purpurea alba (large pure white flowers with a golden eye, long flowering season and completely non invasive, in our experience), flava pink in the photo is a real charmer. Large flowers in pretty pink and interesting foliage which resembles miniature palm leaves.

Very pink but cheerful

There is no doubt that Elfin Rose is very pink. Bright sugar pink or candy pink, in fact. But on a grey day, she is a cheerful spot of colour in the early winter gloom. Her other stand-out feature is the exceptionally dark forest green foliage which provides a foil to that pinkness and, being a sasanqua, the leaves are quite small.

Sasanquas originate in Japan and are the first to flower every season, opening in autumn. They are often recommended for hedging (though it helps to be white and preferably setsugekka to be up with current fashion) because they take clipping well to make a dense plant and are tolerant of both sun and wind. But white is not a colour to lift the winter gloom in the manner of pink Elfin Rose. We grow Elfin Rose as a feature plant and do a nip and tuck trim once a year to tidy her shape up to what are loose stacks of cloud pruned foliage.

Elfin Rose should be available commercially but if you can’t find it, Sparkling Burgundy has very similar attributes and is a reasonable substitute.

Cyclamen with black mondo grass

How can you not fall in love with the exquisite gems of the species cyclamen? C.hederifolium is the first of the season to flower, opening up its dainty pink or white butterflies in late summer and continuing all through autumn, at which time it also puts out its decorative, heart-shaped, mottled dark green and silver leaves which will stay fresh until spring.

Technically, cyclamen are tubers though most gardeners will call their circular, flattish heart a bulb. The origins in Southern Europe through to Turkey and even North Africa give a clue to conditions – tolerant of both heat and cold, fine in poor stony conditions but not keen at all on wet conditions. Despite our high rainfall climate, we find they thrive in our elevated rockery and even tucked on the side of our gravel driveway.

If you can’t find them for sale, cadge fresh seed later in the season from somebody who has them. The distinctly overblown cyclamen widely sold as suitable gifts for mothers, aunts and invalids are grotesque parodies of the charming species from which they have descended.