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| Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman |
| The shamrock’s clover-like leaves and perky, white flowers make it the perfect plant for St. Patty’s Day! |
Perhaps it’s the luck of the Irish – after all, how many cultures get a religious holiday to celebrate with parades, dancing and lots of green beer (at least in America)? Heck, the Irish even get their own plant – the shamrock (Oxalis regnellii) – to help celebrate! And what a great plant it is…though it’s not from anywhere near Ireland! You’ve actually got to head far south – to South America, in fact – to find its native home.
So how in the world did a South American beauty find its way into this most festive of holidays, St. Patrick’s Day? Well, the plant’s lush, green, trifoliate leaves made it a shoo-in for the job. History can’t tell us whether the shamrock St. Patrick used to illustrate the concept of the Trinity was the Irish clover (Trifolium repens) or the native wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella). Either way, neither plant had the marketing potential of Oxalis regnellii. That’s where the greenhouse industry came into the picture, when it introduced this showy shamrock into commerce in the 1930s to help the Irish (and Irish wannabes) celebrate St. Patty’s Day. This shamrock is a tender pot-plant, growing from an underground rhizome that looks a bit like a zipper. The three-lobed, triangular, green leaves reach out on slender stems about 6 inches long. Dainty, white flowers bloom in greatest abundance in springtime, but they do appear sporadically throughout the growing season. The inch-long, five-petaled trumpets bloom in a loose terminal cluster that tends to flop about.
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| Tips |
- Shamrocks go dormant at the end of summer, so sit your plant aside, just giving it enough water to keep the pot from completely drying out. In January or February, begin watering your plant again to force a new crop of leaves in time for March 17!
- If you want more shamrocks, divide the plant while it’s dormant. You can also propagate by leaf cuttings – a fun, but not especially practical, way to start new plants. Just trim the leaves off at soil level, stick them in moist potting soil and cover the pot with a plastic bag. Roots and new leaves should begin appearing in 6-12 weeks.
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| Facts |
- If you live in USDA hardiness zones 7-10, you can grow Oxalis regnellii outside as perennial. If you live in cooler climates, you can treat it like an annual for your garden.
- The name “shamrock” is derived from the Celtic word for clover, a plant that also has three leaflets.
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| Definitions |
- Terminal: A bud, flower, cluster or other plant part located at the end of a stem, shoot or other organ of a plant.
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