Woodland Saxifrages
Following the excellent talk by Jim Jermyn last night on plants for a woodland garden, Stan has sent in this wee blog featuring some of his favourite woodland saxifrages. Those who were at our Saughton Sunday event last week will have seen some of these beauties on display.
Woodland Saxifrages
Saxifraga fortunei
These are mainly Japanese hybrids of Saxifraga fortunei which grows wild in China and Japan. They do best in a light woodsy soil in dappled shade where they won’t get too dry. Their leaves resemble Heucheras which are also in the Saxifragaceae family. Like Heucheras, they are prone to attack by vine weevil grubs. It’s worth treating the plants with nematodes which are tiny worms that kill the weevils. The wild species was named after the 19th century Scottish plant explorer Robert Fortune who grew up in Berwickshire. Nowadays Edrom Nursery, in Berwickshire, has the biggest range of these plants in Britain.
Stan da Prato
November 2021
