Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Saxifraga => Topic started by: Jupiter on October 27, 2016, 12:07:52 PM
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I bought this sax, I'm not sure of the species/cultivar and will probably have to wait for flowering for a stab at an ID. I would like to break it up for a trough i'm working on but I have no experience propagating saxifraga by division. Can anyone advise me? Is it safer to plant as a whole plant or would it tolerate splitting?
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Hi Jamus, I found this article on the NARGS forum which might help you out (no Saxes in our gardens yet): https://www.nargs.org/forum/propagation-porophyllum-and-ligulate-saxifrages (https://www.nargs.org/forum/propagation-porophyllum-and-ligulate-saxifrages)
Cheers!
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You could split and treat the parts as cuttings, Jamus - keep 'em fairly cool though.
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Jamus, yours could be Saxifraga hostii or a hybrid with it, and having said that I could be utterly wrong ;D
I've split some of my Silver Saxes today and the cuttings have gone into some very sandy, loam based compost, watered and left in a shady place outside. We shall see how successful this will be, or not!
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Thanks everyone, I will do as Maggi suggested and treat them as cuttings. Maybe some pieces will have enough roots to go straight into crevices in the trough... I'll make that call when I see it.
Adrian Young's piece on propagation was excellent! Thanks for the link Gordon.
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Hi Jamus, generally I find these type of saxifrages very easy to divide and root. The leaves seem to be pretty resistant to desiccation. But then again I don't live in Australia! I'd agree with keeping them cool if possible.
Best, Tristan
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Good news! I washed the soil away from the root ball and had a closer look, it seems there were three separate plants which pulled apart with a bit of gentle teasing, plus one little baby, probably a late germination in the pot... so good news! I have material for my saxifrage trough plus extra. :) Cheers everyone.