Lewisia collection

My Lewisia's as at their peak now. Here are some samples. This is a new one I got this past spring from beaver Creek called 'Pinkie'...its a longipetala hybrid.

Lewisia 'Little Plum', another longipetala hybrid.

Lewisia cotyledon in orange

Lewisia pygmaea..been blooming for a month now.

Lewisia columbiana var. rupicola

Lewisia tweedyi

Lewisia cotyledon in coral-pink

Lewisia nevadensis

and what I bought as nevadensis 'Rosea' but I'm not convinced....it might be stebbensii.

those are spectacular Todd! I just love lewisias. And yours are just beautifully
grown!

Tam

Beautiful collection of the genus named for Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
I live in the Pacific NW and most of these, except, of course, for hybrids, grow here in the wild. L. tweedyi and L. rediviva are among my favorites. Do you have rediviva in your collection, Todd?

I have both the pink and white form. The white bloomed while I was away so I missed it! The pink should be open in the next week or two.

What a fantastic selection and all are beautifully photographed.

Happy Birthday, Todd. you don't know me, but i lurk on some of your threads just to see your beautiful pictures.

Thanks for the B-day wish!

Happy birthday, Todd. Hope it's a great year in your garden.

That is a wonderful collection of Lewisia. Makes me miss mine that are now well past bloom. .

Hope you have a great birthday as well!

Hey, Todd. Happy Birthday! The lewisia are spectacular. You make me want to grow every single plant you photograph. Are they all in pots? I don't know much about them, but they are all beautiful.

Thanks everyone for the kind wishes. It was a lovely day here yesterday...25 C (80 F) with a nice breeze and last nigh we got some much needed rain so the garden will go crazy I'm sure.

Yes Grampapa, all my Lewisia are grown in pots...they don't like near neighbours and in my garden would be swamped. They love pot culture and it gives them their own space.

Happy belated Birthday Todd! Glad you had such a lovely day to celebrate.
Isn't June a great month for your birthday? The weather is usually nice and the
days are long!

Tam

Happy belated birthday Todd from me too. Sorry I missed it but hope you had a great day!

Here is a full shot of 'Pinkie'

Wow! and look at the bud's on it. that's a beauty. gram

Todd - great photos and your Lewisias are so beautiful! I just love them - I grow L. cotyledon, L.pygmae, L. columbiana and
L. tweedy. I grow them in my raised alpine bed with the coverage of spruce branches and they've all done pretty well except the L. tweedy. It does better in the greenhouse.

I raised Lewisia 'Little Plum' from seed this spring and can't wait to see it flower next summer! Yours is a real beauty! I like 'Pinkie' too - very pretty :-)

Here's a photo of my Lewisia cotyledons 'Soranda' taken on June 27th this summer:

I'm amazed how well you have done with Lewisia. I actually grow mine in pots and overwinter them in a coldframe..those I've tried outdoors have always rotted in winter. Of my collection, I also have the most trouble with tweedyi. I grew my Little Plum from seed as well. Columbiana has actually self-seeded in the pots of other alpines nearby!

Thanks Todd ! I got Columbiana in a trade and the pot was full of small seedlings so it seems to self seed quite freely - which with Lewisia is always a good thing! I was pretty amazed myself at how well the Cotyledons have done outside. Last winter was especially mild and therefore wet - with very little snow but there wasn't much rot and they flowered really well. L. pygmae I've had the longest and it does very well - maybe because it doesn't have evergreen leaves that could rot ....... whatever it is - it's doing great! :-) The soil they grow in is very well drained needless to say - I put in extra gravel around the Lewisias and the toplayer is pure gravel .... also after I raised the bed they've done much better.

This is a photo of one of the Cotyledons I have growing in my greenhouse - a very pretty pink :-)
photo taken on May 2nd this year

If I get any seeds from nevadensis or nevadensis 'Rosea' (but probably stebbinsii) I'll send some next year. Those are both like pygmaea and disappear in winter so should not pose any problems.

Here's a pic of our 15 year old tweedyi growing in the alpine house at work. It quite a stunner!

What a lucious creamy yellow that is Todd! Definitely a stunner.

Oh I'm drooling over all these lewisia's. And hoping my rediviva survive
the winter. I started them 2 1/2 years ago from seed and planted some
out this spring. I've got another pot full of seedlings in the greenhouse.

Tam

Wow Todd - that sure is a stunner! I sure hope mine will grow to that size one day! I've tried Nevadensis at least twice but for some reason they've never lasted long - even in the greenhouse. They were all plants that I bought - they usually don't last as well as the ones I've raised from seed. I've lost all my Lewisias that I've bought as plants for some reason.

Tammy, I haven't tried Rediviva, but from what I've read it's supposed to be very difficult (at least here) but equally stunning! Hope they survive so you can show us the pics ;-)

Here's my "baby" L. Tweedy - flowering for the first time in May :-)

We traveled to the north this summer and stayed amongst other places in Akureyri which is the largest town in N-Iceland. There is a botanical garden there (one of two in the country - the other one is in Reykjavik) and there were pretty impressive Lewisias that grew there. They have a pretty steady snowcover in the winter and often higher summer temps as well - so many alpines grow better there than here in the south. I have to admit that I did turn a somewhat greenish shade seeing those gorgeous Lewisias! The soil that they were growing in wasn't even "gravelly" (is that a word??) - here in the south they'd rot in soil like that.

Here's a photo of one of them:

Wow, that is impressive for sure. I have rediviva alba..it had 3 flower this past summer....I'm sure I have a pic somewhere! This will be its first winter and needless to say, will stay in the coldframe. I actually have it in a large clay pot, together with nevadensis, nevadensis Rosea (or stebbensii) and pygmaea. If they all survive, it should be quite a display next summer.

In the meantime, here is a Lewisia growing outside in an alpine garden located in Nova Scotia..they have much drier winters than Newfoundland so they can get away with them.

and they also had columbiana 'Alba' outside. Wish I could get my hands on some seeds of that one.

Those are pretty! That columbiana 'Alba' is something I wouldn't mind having either ;-)

I just found my pic of Lewisia rediviva 'Alba'.

Todd that is a stunner! Gorgeous :-)

Ditto on that Rann! Gorgeous!!!!

Quietly imbibing all the wondrous flora here. We in Minnesota seem to find that once a lewisia has multiple crowns, it flowers less. But that sure doesn't seem to be the case with all of you! Obviously, you have better growing conditions, but is that really the answer?

What are anyone's thoughts on the subject of multiple crowns?

Mine have never gotten that big - yet at least. But the ones I saw in the botanical garden were huge and very floriferous as well - they seemed to really be in their prime there.