Saxifraga 'Slack's Ruby Southside'

Saxifraga 'Slack's Ruby Southside'

	A large rosetted saxifrage derived from 'Southside Seedling'. Although it had plenty of offsets when I got it, it went straight into flower and then died which is a common problem with the large rosetted hybrids. I got it from Aberconwy Nursery and their label says: "Evergreen mat forming rosettes with long (up to 45cm), pyramidal panicles of white flowers which are heavily spotted with red. May - July. Well drained wall, scree or rockery. Very showy, always attracts attention." Writing about Slack Top Nurseries in 2007, Roy Lancaster said: "Just as exciting to me, however, was Saxifraga 'Slack's Ruby Southside' which, following a 1993 trial of silver saxifrages at RHS Garden Wisley, was awarded an AGM. A member of the Sothside Seedling Group, this striking multi-rosetted plant has white flowers splashed ruby red across the centre, borne in a broad panicle of up to 500 individuals from late May to the end of June. It was in full flower and its massed display left me breathless. Although named and grown by Slack Top Nurseries, it was given to Michael by a friend, the late Lawrence Greenwood, who had grown it for 40 years. It is said to be the nearest in appearance to the original S. 'Southside Seedling', which is no longer available." The RHS trial of silver saxifrages is written-up by Beryl Bland in the Bulletin of the Alpine Garden Society.
1st May 2016

Writing in 'The Plantsman' in 2005, Beryl Bland gives a full description:

"This cultivar is typical of S. cotyledon apart from the flower markings. The petals are narrowly claw-shaped and very heavily marked with ruby-red over the central area and the anthers are pink.
Description: Leaf rosette less thn 9cm in diameter, surrounded by smaller rosettes. Basal leaves slightly incurving, broadly spathulate, 33 x 9-10mm, with a subacute tip and serrate margin, the fine serrations with a spinose tip. Stem leaves green edged red, glandular at the base, with fine spinose tipped serrations in upper half; lime secreting hyathodes in the centre of each marginal leaf tooth. Stem 23-35cm (this can vary with growing conditions), green flushed with red, glandular. Inflorescence a broad panicle occupying 90 percent of the stem; branches c9.5cm, red in the lower part fading to green, glandular with 12-23 flowers per branch, more than 500 per panicle; pedicels green and glandular; bracts green, edged red, serrate at apex with red glands towards the base. Sepals glabrous, green, flushed with pink in bud. Hypanthium green, glandular. Petals oblanceolate, 7 x 4mm narrowing to 2mm at the base, widely separated, very heavily blotched and spotted across the centre third of the petal with rich, ruby red (RHS 60A), the apex and base white. Anthers pink, fading to pale cream."


12th June 2016	16th June 2016	25th June 2016

References:

Alpine Garden Society online, http://archive.alpinegardensociety.net/plants/plant-portraits/Saxifraga%20Kabschia%20Engleria%20cultivars/62/ , accessed 24.01.2025.

Bland, Beryl - 'Naming the silver saxifrages', The Plantsman, Vol.4, Part.3 (2005)

Bland, Beryl - 'Silver saxifrages on trial', Bulletin of the AGS, Vol.73, Part.2 (2005)

Lancaster, Roy - 'Nurseries to visit', The Garden, JRHS, Vol.132, Part.6 (2007)