Lewisia cotyledon Safira Tropic Pink - Siskiyou Lewisia

Lewisia cotyledon ‘Safira Tropic Pink’™ is a pretty pink variety of Siskiyou lewisia for rockeries, pots or sunny borders. This small perennial alpine captivates with its warm, bright pink star-shaped flowers, borne above fleshy, evergreen foliage. Resistant to drought and hardy down to –15°C, it flowers almost continuously from spring to autumn. A reliable choice for sunny patios or rock gardens.

Lewisia is a plant of the Montiaceae family. All species of the genus are native to the North American Rocky Mountains and were discovered in the early 19th century. They are found in small, isolated populations in rocky crevices or gravelly screes. Lewisia cotyledon ‘Safira Tropic Pink’™ is a stemless perennial plant, equipped with an underground storage organ called a caudex and a reddish, fusiform, deep-rooting and branched root system. It hybridises and self-seeds easily in rocky ground.

The Safira™ series brings together several compact cultivars of Lewisia cotyledon, producing clusters of funnel-shaped, lightly striped flowers in a range of hues from pink to purplish-pink, including reddish-pink, orange and yellow. These plants form small, 25cm high and 20cm wide clumps. Their winter-green foliage is composed of rosettes of oval, thick, glossy dark green leaves, measuring between 5 and 10 cm long. Flowering begins in April — earlier or later, depending on the climate — and continues in waves until October or November. The flowers, about 3 cm in diameter, have between 7 and 12 shiny, finely striped and slightly fringed petals. They are gathered in small clusters at the top of stems that rise above the foliage, and close at night. In the cultivar 'Tropic Pink', the petals are a very bright pink, finely edged with white.

A small, artistic, charming perennial, Lewisia Safira Tropic Pink’™ naturally finds a place in well-exposed rockeries, containers or on top of low walls. To create a scene full of contrast and texture, you can pair it with Sedum ‘Sunsparkler® Firecracker’, with purple foliage and bright pink flowers, and Delosperma cooperi, a succulent carpet covered with magenta flowers all summer. To add a soft touch, add some houseleeks 'Coral Gray', which form large rosettes in an amazing pastel pinkish-purple bronze.

Lewisia are also called "Bitter root", because their edible roots, covered with a bitter skin, were traditionally harvested by indigenous tribes to be eaten once peeled and cooked, roasted or dried, and even served as a medium of exchange. It is said that the plant, kept dry for five years, is capable of reviving to produce magnificent flowers the following summer; according to a rather curious London botanist.