Saxifraga 'Peach Melba'

Saxifraga 'Peach Melba'

	A vigorous hybrid with green rosettes. The buds open deep pink but then fade through orange colours to a very pale peach. It did well here but was susceptible to red spider mite during hot summers.The label it came with said: "An unusual kabschia saxifrage with peachy pink flowers in spring on short stems above hard cushions of leaves. Height 10cm. Best grown in a trough or rockery. Hoo House Nursery say: "Peach flowers up to 6cm (2in) from March to April and growing 20cm (8in) wide. Prefers well drained, gritty soil in sun or light shade. Produces a compact cushion of dark green leaves and large flowers, intensely coloured in the centre, becoming paler at the edges of the petals. Introduced by David Victor in 2001.
1st May 2016

Writing about 'Red Porphyrion saxifrages' in the Bulletin of the AGS, Karel Lang says:

"Vermilion or blood red (and shades of these) could only be found in the cultivar S. 'Mephisto' (S. federici-augusti x corymbosa), whose rather small flowers have vermilion-red flowers, and in S. 'Peach Melba' (a distinctive bicoloured seedling, of unknown parentage, bred by David Victor and first distributed several years ago), which has pale vermilion petals.

Writing about the Kent AGS show in the bulletin, Martin Sheader says:

"John Millen won the Invicta Trophy for the best plant in the first of these (Novice Section). His Saxifraga 'Peach Melba' had burgeoned over four years to fill a 19cm pot. Grown in a 60:40 mix of sand and leaf mould, it had been kept outside until the flower buds started to open, then brought into the greenhouse to flower. The range of Kabschia saxifrage hybrids expands year on year, with British and Czech breeders proving particularly inventive.

References:

Hoo House Nursery, https://hoohouse.co.uk/plants/saxifraga-peach-melba/ , accessed 24.01.2025.

Lang, Karel - 'Red porphyrion saxifrages', Bulletin of the AGS, Vol.72, Part.1 (2004)

Sheader, Martin - 'Kent show', Bulletin of the AGS, Vol.80, Part.3 (2012)