Saxifraga Saxifragaceae Rockfoil
There are so many species and hybrids of this popular plant it is difficult to know all of them. Generally, they are characterized by flattish clusters of leaves around the crown, and airy sprays of flowers on top of taller stems. But from this point the variations take many forms and sizes. The leaves may be the size of a nickel or five times that size; flowers may be minute, or large and open-faced; there may be creeping stems or runners, or not.
For most gardeners it is not necessary to know how botanists classify these plants. If you plan to delve deeply into rock gardening there are a number of excellent books on rock plants, some of which are listed in the appendix.
Following are a few of the better-known, and easier grown, saxifraga, including several that have a place in flower borders and other garden spots.
aizoon—Arctic native with rosettes of evergreen, stiff, gray-blue leaves edged with a thin “crust” of limy deposit, and purple-spotted white flowers on tall stems (in May or June). There are a number of varieties, including yellow-flowering lutea, pink rosea, and tiny baldensis with leaf clusters only a quarter-inch across. (Drainage, moist, with northwest exposure. Shade from noon sun; provide limy soil with leaf mold.
cuscutaeformis—Thick, hairy, roundish leaves tinged with copper and marked with a network of white veins; spreads by reddish runners that produce new plants at their tips.
decipiens rosacea—Mossy mats of finely cut leaves and large cupped white flowers on six-inch stems (in May and June). Drainage; gritty sandy soil with leaf mold and humus. Moist, shade from sun. Also pink-and red-flowering varieties.
sarmentosa—strawberry begonia—Favorite pot and basket plant, hardy in nearly every garden. Spreads by strawberry-like runners with plantlets at the ends. Makes mats of round, white-veined leaves and tall airy sprays of white or purplish flowers in June. Requires shade, and moist acid soil.
umbrosa—London pride—Makes a carpet of three-inch-high rosettes of leathery leaves; spires of pink flowers in early summer. Needs moist, rich soil and shade or semishade. The small-scale variety primuloides is daintier.
virginiensis—Slender, oval three-inch leaves in flat clusters, green tinged, but bronze in the fall; small white flowers on ten-inch stems in May. Native of our Northeast. Nice in wild gardens.