Lewisia rediviva

[David Sellars]

Despite the cold spring in these parts the Lewisia rediviva flowers have emerged in the Southern Okanagan.  There are hundreds in flower right now about 100 m from Hwy 3, a major highway through Southern British Columbia where it crosses the south ridge of Mount Kobau before descending to the town of Osoyoos. 

I think Lewisia rediviva has the most stunning flower of all the Lewisias.  Here is a sample from Mount Kobau showing the remarkable colour variation - all from the same location.

[Lori S.]

Wow, what a wonderful sight, David!! 

[Toole]

Gee  Wonderfully captured David.
Thanks for posting.

Cheers Dave.

[Peter George]

Absolutely gorgeous. You've stimulated my desire to actually grow this plant successfully, a task I've taken on repeatedly with little to no success in the past. Now I'm going to try again. It's simply too beautiful a flower to NOT have in my garden.

[David Sellars]

Peter:

Lewisia rediviva comes quite easily from seed and grows in the garden in our climate as long as it does not get too wet in the summer when it is dormant. It starts growing with cooler weather and rain in the Fall and can take any amount of cold and rain in the winter. A bit like a Frit really.......... except you can see the new leaves all winter.

I have had one in the garden for about 5 years and it flowers reliably every year. It is a very well drained, sunny and dry spot in the garden. I have also tried one in a pot and that seems to work too.

[Martin Tversted]

I have one in flower too if I recall correctly from nevada. Huge white flowers.I keep them in a pot and keep them dry from now on until they start growing in the fall.
Worth any effort!

Martin

[David Cammack]

These Lewisia rediviva are growing in a trough in eastern Oregon.  I don't water them and they seem to be doing fine.  There are some seedlings in the trough from last years seed.

[RickR]

Wow David!  Those sure make most excellent trough subjects!

What else do you have planted with them?

[David Cammack]

There are only Lewisia rediviva planted in this trough.

[IMYoung]

Super Lewisia photos, Folks 

 David S.... we haven't seen you around in the SRGC Forum for quite a while but I've posted a link to this thread here so people can catch up with your pix and the others here. 

Maggi Y.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Stunning pictures from the wild David !  Truly amazing ! 

[David Sellars]

I was fascinated by the description of the life cycle of Lewisia rediviva in Davidson's book on Lewisias.

http://www.amazon.com/Lewisias-B-Leroy-Davidson/dp/0881924474/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310613745&sr=8-2

He notes that after the blossom has been fertilized, the withering petals and stamens fold inward to wrap the ovary in a tidy package bound within the six to nine sepals.  The seed takes only a short time to ripen and then the plant's real genius emerges.  The stalk disengages and the papery calyx and its enclosed capsule cartwheel away in the wind.  During the journey the capsule splits revealing the shiny black disc-shaped seeds which adhere in a little clutch for a while.  Their release completes the bitteroot's life story.

The seeds on the Lewisia rediviva in our garden disappear very quickly and they are thus hard to observe and collect.  This year one flowered in the Alpine Shed and I carefully kept the seed capsules from blowing away.  The first picture below is the wrapped ovary and the papery calyx as described by Davidson.  The second photo shows the split seed capsule. It must be a real challenge to collect wild seed. I was lucky enough to get wild seed from Ron Ratko.

[Fermi]

This is a species I must try again. Thanks for sharing your pics and your experience, David.
cheers
fermi

[Spiegel]

They are so beautiful, David.  I've had mixed success with them in the garden.  They'll bloom for a few years and then disappear.  I especially like the white ones with the pink stamens.  They're so easy from seed, I'll try them again.  I usually keep them in the pot the first year and plants them out the second year.  Don't know if that's necessary.

[David Sellars]

To try and capture the amazing flowers and habitat, I took some video footage of the Lewisia rediviva on our Mount Kobau trip and have posted it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MountainFlora?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/X8Zt8Y_6iLA

I included a music track from Pierre Fournier's stunning rendition of the Bach suites for solo cello.  However, YouTube does a digital match, figures out what the track is and determines the copyright status. If the music is deemed copyright they include ads on the video and presumably compensate the artist in some way.  It is easy enough to click off the ads.  Unfortunately the copyright requirements are such that the video is blocked in Germany.  If anyone in Germany wants to see it, please let me know and I will upload a version without Bach in the background.