Wow! At first I was going to say you've mistaken those primulas that they have for the Lewisia, but not at $8! Seems very odd though. I would be surprised if they actually had any Latin attached . . . did they?

Nope, well, the tag did say Lewisia but didn't include the species. After looking at a lot of photos of the different species, I'm concluding that these look most like a L. cotyledon hybrid, though the flowers are much smaller than you'd associate with it. They had a selection of ones with pale peach and pale yellow blooms - guessing that they were forced in an alpine/greenhouse.

The tag had adequate information, including mention that it's a native alpine and giving its zone hardiness as 3-8 (and advising part shade in the warmer climates). The grower seemed to have his/her act together regarding the need for sharp drainage and prevention of crown rot, too.

As for primroses, I bought those last week, when Home Depot got the fresh shipment. A week later in the dim warehouse scantly watered, the ones still in the store look pathetic. Just in time for Valentine's Day. heh.

I'm glad I got these Lewesia before they languished.

Funny thing is that in the UK, Lewisia's have been turning up at garden centres and our version of Home Depot (B&Q, HomeBase etc) for years. I don't suppose too many survive, but they've been in the shops and in flower here too.

I wonder whether they're coming from the same source. Someone suggested that a nursery in the Pacific Northwest may be producing them for mass marketing to the DYI stores and garden shops.

Hi there,
Here in my area, they have Lewisia (the cotyledon hybrids - but not marked other than lewisia) at Orchard Supply Hardware - it's a hardware store with a small garden center. They place the lewisias in the houseplant section. I rescued one and it, too, looks dwarfed.

I was excited to see them, though...
~Onion

Sounds like they might be from the same grower as the Home Depot ones. The tag says "Lewisia" but doesn't give the species or cultivar. But they're definitely L. cotyledon hybrids.

Mine finished blooming and now are just leaves. Must have been forced in greenhouses so they'd be in flower when on the store shelves. Now would be the normal start of their flowering time, but mine were in bloom a month early.

It's a treat to find them for sale in the mainstream stores. Too bad so many are destined to turn into shriveled straw from lack of care at the big box places.

Yup, it's sad. I went back to the store and saw them with dried up flower stalks and sad little shriveld leaves sitting on low shelves just shoved out of the way. Poor things. : (

Probably is the same grower. The plant tags on these are little cardboard signs on very thin metal posts.

~Onion

Yup, those are the tags that were in the plants I got. The tags had some cultivation info (such as the need for sharp drainage and keeping the leaf crowns dry).

The ones I "rescued" are doing well in a sunny window. In a few weeks I'll put them in the outdoor alpine trough.

Hi Cady,
Good luck with your adoptee! I hope she blooms with happiness for you.

I wonder if yours is also growing tall, in addition to being dwarfed? Mine acts like it was either reaching for light or heavily fertilized into leggy growth, which is odd for an 'almost succulent'.

I need to repot mine into a trough garden, too. I just made a hypertufa trough, so once that's ready - in she pops. : ) Hope she likes it.

~Onion

Thanks, Onion. Mine are doing well although they will just be foliage until next spring. They aren't tall or leggy, but they are tipping toward the sun. Being indoors by a window, the sunlight comes from only one direction for them. Once they are outside, and light is shining down all around them, they will probably straighten up.

If yours are tall, probably it's a light thing. The hypertufa trough outside in the sun will be the cure. Hope they do great.

Typical big box store mentaility. Pretty flowers on a plant with minimal care instructions. Consumer takes them home and plops them in their garden and waters it until it dies. Good thing they have a liberal refund policy!

$8 USA? That's the price they were a few years ago. Last year nice size Lewisias were selling here in Canada for 3.99 in the box stores (about $3 USA). I've never had a lot of success multiplying the cultivars. Our native ones become almost too prolific but the cultivars just 'sit there' and look pretty. They don't die but don't do much multipling vegetatively.

A note: if they are in bloom be sure to deadhead them and they will rebloom later in the season. They don't rebloom right away like lots of plants but may take a couple months.

I was surprised at how expensive they were at the big box. Usually prices are lower because of volume in those places.

Yes, I did deadhead after flowering. I'd read that they may rebloom, but right now they are just sitting there - looks like some vegetative growth, but not a lot. Good to know that they don't grow like the wild species. Thanks for the tip.

Hi there,
Just yesterday I saw in a nursery that Monrovia has put out both hybrid and 'little plum' lewisias. Same price as the other quart containers. They looked healthy, maybe a bit over-watered. It's kinda nice, in a way, to see lewisias going 'main-stream'.

I bought a hybrid lewisia last spring and it bloomed nearly non-stop all year except late summer. But most heavily in spring and winter (and continuing now!). It has grown to a monster size - 8" across. But it's never made seeds that I could discover. I usually deadheaded, but left a little sprig here and there to see what it would do and as far as I could tell, it never developed seeds. Are they obvious after the flowers are long gone, or is it a subtle deal?

Here's to lewisias!
~Onion

The plants I got from Home Depot look like they set seed, but I deadheaded most of the flowers in hopes of rebloom. I only let one set of flowers form seedheads. I'll have to open one and see if there are any seeds inside.

No sign of rebloom yet, but your plants give me hope.

Hi Cady,
How big are your seedheads? Once the flowers dried up on mine, they never did anything else. Maybe I didn't wait long enough?

Hopefully it's just a matter of time before your little friends bloom again.

~Onion

Onion,
I just looked, and it appears that they are not really seedheads... just a bunch of shriveled up dried flowers like yours. Shoot. I don't know whether the hybrids are sterile or if the flowers just didn't pollinate since they were on the windowsill. Darn lazy houseflys. You'd think they would serve one useful purpose. lol.

Thanks very much for looking, Cady.

You know, I hadn't even thought about those things you mentioned - the probable lack of cross-pollination and the potential for a sterile hybrid. Duhhh. I bet you're right.

: ) Onion

So, I walked into Home Depot yesterday, and in the garden dept. there were big gallon pots of Lewisia cotlydon "Sunset Strain" in the perennials area... for $4.98. I snapped up two. They haven't bloomed yet, are big rosettes and it super shape.

I had to keep myself from buying up all of them out of sheer greed. ;)

woo who! great score, Cady!

Yep. I'm doing the "Big Score Dance." lol
Also, those $8 L. cotlydon (unknown strain) I got at Home Depot back in February are about to flower again! Now that they are outside and the daylight is lengthening, it seems to be triggering a natural flowering period despite the forced flowering they endured from the greenhouse.

Can you believe the weird price difference? From little "specialty" 4" pots indoors in February, to $5 gallon size BIG plants in May. Go figure.

I've got a couple of nearby nurseries that I hit every year mid-May, after all the plant swaps, flower festivals, etc. are over. They're not known for having much out of the ordinary, but on occasion I've been lucky:

I think I've got y'all beat on Lewisia bargains! $2.79 for a rosette 7" across!!!

Pat

You sure did out do us in the bargain department. $2.79 is outrageous. The $4.98 Lewisias I got are in 2 qt pots and the plants are 7" across - sounds like you got the same size I did but for less. You must be doing the Happy Dance. :)

Today I spied a L. columbiana rupicola at a local nursery. I've never had one before and have been lusting for one to try... It was overflowing a gallon container and was $8 but I couldn't resist! I got it and two more hybrids (dark red-orange and a purplish) in qt pots for $5 each - good thing I hadn't read yet that Pat got one for $2.79!!!

Anyway, I'm still doing a happy dance, too! : )

I forgot to mention that my $2.79 Lewisias were nicely labeled -- One of those large plastic stick-ins with photo & name of plant on front, and lots of info on back (even "Must have perfect drainage"). It is, BTW, a lewisia cotyledon hybrid. No sign of a nursery on the tag

Pat

I'm just psyched that Lewisias are becoming mainstreamed into the garden trade. The 1 gal. sized pots of L. cotyledon "Sunset Strain" I got at Home Depot had decent labeling - hey, they put in the species and variety, at least. :)

None of the plants I've gotten so far have a nursery tag either. Usually the big box stores contract with growers to provide plants exclusively to them, either with no label or with the big box label. They don't want any customers to go right to the growers if they sell retail.