ISI 2024-11. Crassula ‘Ethelyn’ N. Lewis

The late Norma Lewis was an energetic student of succulents who took a particular liking to the genus Crassula. She adopted the email handle of Crasulady (yes, spelled with one “s”) and set her mind to acquiring every species in the genus. She succeeded to a significant extent and brought many into the Huntington’s collection. Along the way she traveled to visit collections throughout California and even went as far as England and South Africa. She tried her hand at photography and bought a good quality camera resulting in some publishable images for Gordon Rowley’s Crassula, A Grower’s Guide. She was a tireless source of whiskers shed by her cat, the perfect pollination tool for certain kinds of flowers, including the sometimes-minute flowers of Crassula. She attempted growing the dust-like seeds of the favorite, fragrant, pink flowered C. ‘Morgan’s Beauty’ (C. perfoliata var. minor aka C. falcata x C. mesembryanthemopsis). Myron Kimnach suggested when describing this cultivar C&SJ 31(6): 172 – 174 (1959), that it appeared to be self-fertile as an attempted backcross with C. falcata failed to result in seed. Therefore, it is uncertain if Norma harvested self-pollinated seed of C. ‘Morgan’s Beauty’ or seed open-pollinated with another dwarf species. In any case, these produced a hybrid swarm of plants similar to C. ‘Morgan’s Beauty’ but with slight variations in leaf shape and flower color, coming in various shades of pink from nearly white to darker. In a generous gesture, she insisted on naming a series after me and my children. In the years since Norma’s passing in 2010, we have continued to grow some of these. The most persistent and attractive clone with lovely, fragrant, pink flowers in compact corymbs turned out to be the one named for my daughter Ethelyn. We offer here for the first time, Crassula ‘Ethelyn’, HBG 107038, a selection made by Norma Lewis in early 2000s with Crassula 'Morgan's Beauty' as the seed parent. Rooted cuts, $10.