Purple shamrock

* Common name: Purple shamrock

* Botanical name: Oxalis regnelli (or triangularis)

* What it is: A summer-blooming bulb that gets triangle-shaped leaves of purple and small hanging lilac-pink flowers for weeks in summer.

* Size: 8 inches tall, plant small bulbs 6-8 inches apart

* Where to use: Best in shade as front-of-bed edging or ringing a shade shrub such as hydrangeas or rhododendrons. Also nice in a shady flower pot.

* Care: Scatter organic granular bulb fertilizer over bed in early April and October. Cut foliage to ground in fall after it browns. In normal winters, plants will survive to bloom again the following summer. To be safe, bulbs also can be lifted after fall browning and stored inside in a mesh bag or in a box of sphagnum peat moss or sawdust. Replant in early May.

* Great partner: Under ferns, cimicifuga or variegated Solomon’s seal.