Vibrant blooms perfect for filling in those tough-to-manage gaps and crevices in your outdoor space this spring, displayed in a captivating spectrum of colors.
Lewisia Plants: Growing and Caring For Your Cliff Maid
Hey, plant enthusiasts! Ever heard of Lewisias, also known as cliff maids? These beauties thrive in cracks and crevices, making them perfect for a stone wall or gap in your garden. With their vibrant spring and early summer flowers, they'll surely brighten up your space!
These low-growing perennials form a rosette of fleshy leaves, and their flowers come in a variety of hues, especially in the strains and hybrids that highlight the wild species' bright colors.
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Hailing from the western side of North America, primarily the Rocky Mountains, Cascade Range, and Sierra Nevada, Lewisias are usually found on rocky slopes, screes, or vertical cliffs in dry summers.
Jump to:- Lewisia Growth Guide- Cliff Maid Spots- Propagating Lewisia- Best Lewisia Varieties- Where to Spot and Buy Lewisia
Lewisia rediviva, the state flower of Montana, is one of the most beautiful in the genus. Deciduous, it goes dormant in summer, but in spring, it produces wide, almost stemless, soft-pink flowers, up to 7.5cm across with up to 19 petals.
Bitterroot is another common name for Lewisias, referring to the taste of the fleshy rootstock, which is eaten by indigenous Americans. Remarkably, this plant has been known to regrow from pressed herbarium specimens, but while very tough, it will not survive a wet summer outside. The evergreen species and the hybrids derived from them are much more amenable to outdoor cultivation, as long as the soil drains freely.
A dry-stone wall, whether free-standing or supporting a raised bed, is the ideal place to grow Lewisias.
Growing and Caring for Lewisia
The easiest to grow and most colorful is Lewisia cotyledon. Its flat, evergreen rosettes are made up of long, wavy-edged leaves, and the branching flower stems can reach 30cm tall, with many flowers. These flowers are 2-4cm across and come in shades of purplish pink, red, white, cream, pale orange, and yellow, often with darker stripes.
If you're ready to try some Lewisias in your garden, L. cotyledon is the one to start with. This is a tough plant that will survive as long as it doesn't sit in damp soil and water is kept away from the crown. Grow it with saxifrages, alpine phloxes such as Phlox douglasii, alyssums, sedums, and sempervivums for a dazzling spring display.
Plant Lewisias in a location where excess rain can easily drain away. You can plant them vertically in the gaps in a stone wall or at the top of a wall with the rosettes at an angle to avoid water collecting in the crown of the plant.
If you have a rock garden, you can plant them between rocks in the same way. You can also grow them in pots of free-draining soil. They like a sunny position but do best when sheltered from the hot, midday summer sun.
Ideal Planting Times: Early spring and autumn are the best times to plant Lewisias. You can plant them bought in pots at any time, but avoid hot, dry days and cold, wet conditions.
In spring, they will just be starting into growth, and in autumn, they will benefit from the warmth in the soil to get settled in before winter arrives. These are not plants for normal border conditions, and if your plant arrives in a large pot, tip it out and remove some of the soil before planting in a suitable location or replace the soil with a gritty, free-draining mix in a container.
Planting Lewisias
Be careful not to plant too deeply. The crown of the plant should be just above soil level. In a pot, use a mulch of sharp grit to keep the leaves away from the soil surface. Once planted, give them plenty of water while in growth, then ease off as summer arrives. Lewisias are hardy plants, surviving at least -10°C, but wet conditions will quickly kill them off.
Where to Plant Lewisias
Growing Lewisias in a cool, well-ventilated glasshouse or coldframe will allow you to control the amount of water they receive, essential for deciduous species, as they need very little moisture when they are dormant in summer. Lewisiopsis tweedyi also does best in these conditions.
If you grow them in terracotta pots plunged in sand almost to their rim, you can water the sand so just enough moisture passes through the pot to prevent the soil drying out completely, without having to water the pot directly. Many alpines are grown this way by enthusiasts, and this method is perfectly suited to the more sensitive Lewisia species.
Propagating Lewisia
Lewisias are easy to propagate. Some species, such as L. cotyledon, will produce offsets at the base of the plant. These can be removed with a knife in spring and treated as cuttings. Insert them into sandy soil and keep moist until roots grow, then pot them up individually to grow on.
You can also grow Lewisias from seed. The shiny, black seeds should be sown in winter as they need a cold spell to germinate. Sow them in small pots and cover with grit or vermiculite, and keep moist. Evergreen species and hybrids can be potted up when large enough to handle, but the deciduous species should be left for a year before disturbing them.
Fact file: Lewisias in brief
What: Low-growing, rosette-forming alpine plants from rocky habitats. With evergreen or deciduous leaves, their colorful flowers are either held singly or in a branched inflorescence. Commonly known as bitterroot or cliff maids. Lewisia is a genus of around 16 species in the Montiaceae family.
Season: Flowers in spring and early summer.
Size: Around 5-30cm tall with a spread of up to 30cm.
Conditions: Grow in a wall, rock garden, or alpinehouse; in sun or part shade. Origins: Mountains of western North America.
Hardiness: Hardy throughout most of the UK with an RHS hardiness rating of H4 and suitable for gardens in USDA zones 4a to 8b.
Best Lewisia Varieties
- Lewisia cotyledon (magenta shades)
- Lewisia cotyledon (semi-double apricot form)
- Lewisia cotyledon (orange shades)
- Lewisia cotyledon (ruby)
- Lewisia cotyledon 'White Splendour'
- Lewisiopsis tweedyi 'Alba'
- Lewisia hybrid (yellow shades)
- Lewisia columbiana 'Rosea'
- Lewisia cotyledon var. heckneri
- Lewisia cotyledon 'Brannan Bar'
- Lewisia pygmaea
- Lewisiopsis tweedyi
Where to See and Buy Lewisia
- Aberconwy Nursery Glan Conwy, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, LL28 5TL, Tel 01492 580875, aberconwynursery.co.uk
- Ashwood Nurseries Ashwood Lower Lane, Kingswinford, West Midlands DY60AE. Tel 01384 401996, ashwoodnurseries.com
- D'Arcy & Everest Meadowsweet Nursery, Pidley Sheep Lane (B1040), Somersham, Cambridgeshire PE28 3FL. Tel 01480 497672, darcyeverest.co.uk
Richard Wilford is head of garden design at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Incorporating Lewisia plants in your home-and-garden lifestyle can provide a unique addition to your garden design, with their vibrant flowers brightening up spaces amidst a variety of plants such as saxifrages, alpine phloxes, alyssums, sedums, and sempervivum.
- When planning to plant Lewisias, consider growing them in a dry-stone wall or rock garden for optimal growth, ensuring excess rain can easily drain away to avoid wet conditions that may harm the plants.
- For enthusiasts, propagating Lewisias is relatively easy; they can be propagated via offsets at the base of the plant or from shiny, black seeds sown in winter, which need a cold spell to germinate.
