Lewisia

Last year I became the owner of three Lewisias, and they have come through the winter successfully, but they are still in the soggy compost they had when I bought them.
Has anyone got any advice on growing them successfully. I have looked them up on line but I wonder if anyone has personal experience of growing them.

 

They really do like a well drained gritty compost. Repotting is not that hard, just shake of old compost off rather than pulling it away. I use a mixture of 1 part soil based peat free compost JI3 to two parts well sifted leaf mould and 1 part sharp sand and 5 mm gravel. You could add a little bone meal but not too much, they do not like to rich a mixture. Watering is easy. I always do it early in the morning when it is going to be sunny and just water over the top. It does no harm as long as the sun dries off the leaves pretty quickly. Otherwise stand the pots in water rather than overhead watering. Gently remove any dead leaves as they can rot back into the stem. Watch out for vine weevils.

 

Thank you @Palustris .

 

They hate excessive wet, which turns their stems into orange mush. A sheet of perspex overhead is great to keep off rain. I've now moved all mine into an Alpine House where they flower continuously.

 

Agree with above. I used to keep mine outside over winter but they never did well. This yesr I’ve bput them in a cold frame and theyre flowering away. They've also sprouted “babies” for the first time which i can repot for new plants.

 

Forgot to say that I put a good 2 cm layer of fine grit over the surface of the pot to deter the dreaded vw and to keep the stem from getting too wet.

 

I have on the odd occasion tried one or two of these on the top of an old wall, even following the advice to plant at an angle never seemed to work.

 

Thanks for all your help, the compost is still soggy so I'll wait for it to dry so that it comes off better.

 

I saw them for the very first time some years ago in a street market & liked them so much that I was tempted to get a couple but in the end I went for some Pelargoniums.

 

I had one years ago and it sadly didn't like the heat and sometimes dry winters. I wpuld love another and my Italian supplier has a pot for sale, but ... My Hungarian supplier has multicolour seeds, but ...

 

When I built one of my beds, a couple of years ago, I planted several Lewesia "Elise".
Since then they have grown, flowered and self seeded.
Now I am just awaiting their coming into bloom again.
Pics taken last summer, during the drought, which I trhink caused the foliage to pale in the centre.

Fof

 

Seeds arrived today but read they need to germinate in a cooler place than here. So, I have put in damp paper towel in a baggy and put in the fridge for a month ... in anticipation.

Has anyone tried this?