Lewisia Little Raspberry - Siskiyou lewisia

Lewisia 'Little Raspberry' is an alpine perennial that offers a compact profusion of raspberry-coloured flowers striated with white. Well-suited to well-drained rockeries, troughs, and containers, this plant forms a cushion of dark green succulent foliage and flowers from spring to summer, often again later in the season. Awarded an Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, this charming Lewisia has a long flowering period and good performance in the garden, provided the soil is dry in winter.

Lewisia 'Little Raspberry' belongs to the Montiaceae family. The botanical species, Lewisia longipetala, is known under the synonyms Calandrinia longipetala, Lewisia pygmaea subsp. longipetala and Oreobroma longipetalum. It is an alpine perennial native to the Sierra Nevada in California. It is found there in scree and rocky slabs at medium to high altitudes, in very stony soil, moist during snowmelt, then dry in summer.
'Little Raspberry' is a horticultural hybrid cultivar of Lewisia longipetala grouped within the "Little-Series", which brings together very compact, floriferous, and reliable plants. The series offers several colours (Little Plum, Little Peach, Little Mango, Little Snowberry…).
'Little Raspberry' offers bright raspberry pink flowers, leaning slightly towards magenta, finely streaked with lighter pink to almost white, with a brighter centre. The plant forms a basal rosette of fleshy leaves arranged in a spiral; these thick, spatulate to lanceolate leaves, a few centimetres long, are sometimes slightly tinged with purple in the sun. 
The foliage is semi-evergreen: in the case of a cold or very wet winter, some of the outer leaves yellow and disappear, but the heart of the rosette remains alive and restarts in spring. The root system is typical of the genus, composed of a fleshy, branching taproot that sinks deep into the rocky substrate. 
In spring, short flowering stems of 10 to 15 cm emerge from the rosette. They bear small panicles of star-shaped, 2 to 3 cm diameter flowers; the narrow, numerous, slightly obovate petals overlap in places. The main flowering period spreads from May to June, then new stems may appear in late summer or early autumn if the plant benefits from a little moisture. Within a few years, the clump reaches 15 cm in height and 20 to 25 cm in width.

Lewisia 'Little Raspberry' is primarily a plant for rockeries, troughs, or containers that requires a very free-draining growing substrate. In a warm climate, light afternoon partial shade suits it well. In a scree garden, it adds a touch of bright colour at ground level. It can be associated with other alpine perennials such as Sedum Sunsparkler® Firecracker with its purplish foliage, the carpeting Thymus praecox ‘Minor’, Delosperma Desert Dancers 'Purple' and Lewisia cotyledon 'Elise Ruby Red'. All these plants create a colourful, almost maintenance-free ensemble to border steps, enliven a low wall, or flower a terrace.

The Lewisia genus was dedicated to the explorer Meriwether Lewis, who collected several species of these small mountain perennials in the early 19th century, used by indigenous peoples for their edible, very bitter roots, known as "bitterroot"; with 'Little Raspberry', this botanical history continues in the rockeries and troughs of our gardens.