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by George Erdman

A local nursery brought in from Oregon this last spring [1998] 100 Lewisia cotyledon hybrids. They sold some, lost a lot, and at the end of September sold me the last 30 for a buck apiece. 

Some rosettes were fully 8 inches across, some barely 4 inches. Some had pups all around the base, some had none. Most looked like they had flowered. 

Here's what I did: I knocked them out of their pots and removed the top inch or so of potting mixture down to where the very thick stem joins the root mass. I lined them out in a raised bed two 4x4's high filled with one part sand, one part small crushed stone, one part fine leaf compost, planting them so that the stem I had bared was above the level of the planting medium. 

I then filled in with some #2 crushed stone, the sort I put on my driveway, and covered that with small crushed stone up to where the leaves join the stem. I didn't water in the plants since the potting mixture was moist, as was the mixture in the raised bed. 

I built a wire structure over them and covered it with more or less clear plastic. They will now get what full sun there is here in the Triple Cities and no overhead moisture, neither rain nor standing snow, until they show signs of doing something comes next spring. 

If this works, I'll have some nice plants for door prizes at future meetings. If it doesn't, it won't be the first time I've lost a hand. But I'm still in the game.