You should leave your Leontopodium alpinum in place in your garden over the winter. It is very cold-hardy. As fall turns to winter, the biological processes of the plant will gradually slow down. The top of the plant will die but the crown beneath the surface will stay alive and new growth will sprout from the crown next spring at the proper time.

If you have consistent snow cover through your entire winter, the crown will have added protection. But, even without snow cover, the plant will survive.

Don't cut the green or even the dead foliage or the spent flower stalks. This plant material is essential for keeping the living portion of the plant protected from wide temperature fluctuations and drying winds. If you want to collect seeds, it is OK to nip off the ripe seed heads but leave the stalks on the plant.

When spring comes and you see new growth emerging from the crown, you can snip off the dead foliage and seed stalks for a neater appearance.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rocky Mountain Wildflowers

JANE THANK YOU very MUCH FOR THIS DETAIL INFORMATION.oNE MORE QUESTION.The garden is under reconstruction and i don`t know when it will be ready.If the edelweiss stays in the pot should I leave it outside?Should I take exstra care to protect it if it is in the pot and not planted in the garden?
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!

Keeping your edelweiss in a pot for so many, many months could cause your plant to become stressed and deteriorate. First of all, is the pot plastic or clay? If it's plastic, the roots of the edelweiss will be exposed to high heat from the sun if you put your plant in its desired habitat - full sun. Repotting the plant in a clay pot larger than the orignal pot will help but you will STILL have to protect the roots (which are above the ground when in a pot) from heat.

Edelweiss needs full sun to grow properly but it MUST have a cool, moist area for its roots or it will wilt.

The easiest way to do this is dig a hole and bury the whole pot just below the surface of the soil. Don't leave any of the pot above the surface because doing so will cause a loss of moisture from the root zone up the walls of the pot. Firm the soil all around and on top of the pot to eliminate air pockets. If you bury the pot, you don't have to switch to a clay pot.

Be watchful that your plant doesn't dry out but don't overwater it, either.

As the months pass from spring through summer and into fall, be sure to periodically check the size of the root ball of your plant. Support the plant at its base and gently knock the pot on a firm surface until the plant can be slipped out of the pot. If the root ball is choked with roots, repot the plant in a new pot that is 1 inch (2.5 cm) larger on all sides and at least 1 inch deeper than the previous pot. Enlarge the hole in the ground to accommodate the larger size of the new pot and replace the newly potted plant in the ground, firming the soil around the pot as before.

You won't have to do anything special for the edelweiss when winter comes as long as the pot is sunk in the ground. Don't cut the green or dead foliage or seed stalks until new growth has begun next spring.

If you would like additional plants next spring for your new garden, you can collect seeds from your edelweiss after the seed heads become very dry and the seeds come into your hand when very little pressure is applied to the heads. You can store the seeds in a PAPER envelope in a cool, dry room over the winter and sow them next spring, either directly in your new garden or in little pots. Edelweiss seeds germinate easily.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rocky Mountain Wildflowers

Thank you very much for this detail information.I didn`t know anything of this.I`ll do my best and follow your advise.Here the summer is hot- for a month the temperatures are about 40C.The garden is completely unusable at present so I`ll try to think something else.May be I`ll buy a very big pot and bury the small pot with the edelweiss in the big pot.Any ideas?
P.S.We moved recently to a new house and the garden is still cover with building materials. :(( The edlweiss is a gift and I don`t want to lose it.
Thank you again!Have a nice day! :))

I don't think putting the small pot into a big pot that is set on the surface of the ground will keep your edelweiss's roots cool enough in full sun, especially when you get those "beastly" hot temperatures around 40C. If you can't sink the pot into the ground, the next thing I'd suggest is to try the "pot-within-a-pot", fill the gap between the two pots with soil or newspaper or styrofoam "peanuts" or even wadded up plastic grocery bags - anything to block heat conduction from the large pot to the smaller pot - and position the pots in part shade. A good place would be against the north-facing side of a solid fence or building where there would be overhead light but no direct sun. This would be much preferred to shade produced by trees which would block the light from above.

When you DO get your garden built, you'll have to find a cool spot for your edelweiss or it will burn up in your 40C heat. A location facing northeast or east-northeast with nothing above to block the overhead light might work, especially if you plant the root ball in a crevice formed by two large rocks. The mass and density of the rocks will keep the soil in the crevice cool and moist even when the air temperatures soars to 40C. The crevice behind the two rocks has to be large - much, much larger than the edelweiss's root ball when you finally plant it in your garden. And you should fill the crevice with good garden soil that has a high humus content so it will retain sufficient moisture to keep the edelweiss from wilting.

I didn't realize it got SO HOT in Bulgaria. The highest air temperature we experience up here where I garden is 26.7C (80F) - and that is a very unusual day!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mountain View Experimental Gardens

Thanks for the advice.Here July is very hot.
One more thing-my edelweiss is from seed.How long will it take to flower?
:)))
What is the temperature in winter?Is it cold in your region?
In what state do you live (I am not familiar with the zone division)

Since you bought it as a potted plant, it may be mature enough to flower this summer. Otherwise, it will flower next summer.

I live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I'm at 10,000 feet elevation. Yes, it is cold in my area in the winter and cool in the summer. It can get as cold as -28C but we get a lot of snow early in November so the plants are not damaged by the cold air temperature.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rocky Mountain Wildflowers