Planting alpines in marble stone or even cobblestone - Am I crazy ?

[Leiomerus]

Hmmm, I prefer stones over hypertufa.

Here are some pictures of saxifrages that are living inside my marble stone. You can see the development of these little plants over three years.

1/ Here is Saxifraga 'Johann Wolfgang Goethe', planted almost a year ago.
You will notice that the first year the plants suffer a bit, because of the lack of food (they are planted in a mixture of coarse sand, fine sand and the leftovers of the drilling job) and also because of a lot of water. The marble stone takes it up very slowly, but the Saxes don't seem to bother a lot.

2/ This is a picture of Saxifraga 'Marie Curie'. 'Marie Curie' is in her second year, growing inside her big marble rock. She's already taking food from the rock itself and as you can see, she feels really good.

3/ Saxifraga 'Allendale Ghost' is at home on his marble rock. He has been there now for 3 years and already starts making a nice cushion with  almost ten flower buds.

   

[Leiomerus]

Even in this very cold weather, already going on for quite a time, there are some alpines that start to show their flowers, even growing inside a stone.
You will think it's a Sax, if you start to know me a little bit,  but no, it's a Draba.

This is Draba sphaeroides in a sandstone, gets a lot of winter sunshine now and seems happy with that.

[Leiomerus]

Here are the first flowers this year of a Saxifraga growing inside my marble rocks.

1/ Saxifraga 'Louis Armstrong', a little plant has been put inside a little hole in September 2012.
This Sax. shows its first flower, only one, but don't laugh, next year there will be a lot more. 

2/ This is one with a lot more flowers. That's normal because Saxifraga 'Excellent' has been growing in this rock for three years now.
On its rock, this Sax. didn't mind all the rain, the snow, the freezing, the wind it has experienced this winter.
It grows inside a hole the size of my index finger without any drainage. Does it seem to care ? 

[David Nicholson]

I find these posts very interesting, thank you Leiomerus.

[Leiomerus]

Here is Saxifraga 'Marie Curie'.
Very happy inside her marble rock, as you can notice.

[Leiomerus]

Another little plant inside the marble : Saxifraga 'Allendale Ghost'