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A very free flowering seedling raised by Jim Almond in 2002. I bought it from Aberconwy Nursery, their label says: "Very attractive new hybrid from Jim Almond with a curiously bicoloured bright pink flower in March/April. Low dark green mat to about 10cm across. For well drained open soil in trough, scree or alpine house, light position out of direct sun." Awarded a Preliminary Commendation by the AGS in 2003, Robert Rolfe writes in the Bulletin: "The offspring of hybrids are an unpredictable bunch, whether 'selfed' or the result of further hybridisation. Several years ago, The Alpine Gardener (68:236-7) carried a report of a putative Saxifraga georgei x poluniniana hybrid bred by Nigel Fuller (Wadhurst, E. Sussex) c. 1990 and given the name S. 'Myriad'. Seed collected from a plant of this grown by Jim Almond (Shrewsbury) was sown in June 1995 and germinated the same summer. Two of the seedlings were selected after they first flowered, named after his daughters and passed on to friends or sold through his surplus plants list. Out of flower, only the larger, broader-leaved rosettes and moire rapid growth of S. 'Coolock Gem' (=Gemma) mark it out from its sister seedling. There is, however, no mistaking them in bloom, for whereas 'Coolock Gem' has flat faced, 13 mm wide, white, clearly S. georgei-influenced flowers with broad, slightly ,overlapping petals, those of 'Coolock Kate' are a vivid deep purplish-pink, which one observer said reminded him more of those produced by a 'mossy' hybrid, S. 'Peter Pan'. Unlike this cultivar, they are carried singly on 10 mm stems covered in dark red glandular hairs, and have obovate, separated petals 6 x 3-4 mm, much paler towards the base, arranged in a very shallowly cupped fashion with a central core of two rings of dark purple-red anthers. Because the parent plant was open pollinated, suspicions that a third, undetermined parent has been responsible for this unusual flower colour have been voiced, but as yet not substantiated. 'Coolock Kate' is slow-growing and forms a tight cushion of rosettes only 3-5 mm in diameter, composed of convex, triangular leaves 3 x 1 mm (the plant shown had been 'grown hard', accounting for the different measurements when compared with those published in the Summer 2002 issue of The Saxifrage Magazine), encrusted with lime but otherwise dull yellowish-green. For the summer months, it is best grown outdoors, moving it into the alpine house or, better still, an open-sided cold frame by October, since the cushion is happiest if kept dry and well-ventilated over the wintertime. Cuttings taken in late spring are no mnore difficult to root than those of the numerous cultivars of S. x poluanglica, but as intimated above, the young plants grow much more slowly, so that a wait of three or four years can be anticipated before a respectable-sized cushion is achieved. Vibrantly-coloured 'kabschia' saxifrages have been a long-standing aim of many hybridists. We have just received an article that describes in detail the remarkable vermilion and blood red seedlings raised by Karel Lang (Prague), using Saxifraga kotschyi as the seed parent, and we aim to publish this very shortly. But it is worth noting that some of the most admired, richly coloured hybrids have arisen almost by fluke: S. 'Coolock Kate' falls within this category." |
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| 24th February 2019 | ||
