Division advice

[Jupiter]

I bought this sax, I'm not sure of the species/cultivar and will probably have to wait for flowering for a stab at an ID. I would like to break it up for a trough i'm working on but I have no experience propagating saxifraga by division. Can anyone advise me? Is it safer to plant as a whole plant or would it tolerate splitting?

[GordonT]

Hi Jamus, I found this article on the NARGS forum which might help you out (no Saxes in our gardens yet): https://www.nargs.org/forum/propagation-porophyllum-and-ligulate-saxifrages

Cheers!

[Maggi Young]

You could split and treat the parts as cuttings, Jamus - keep 'em fairly cool though.

[David Nicholson]

Jamus, yours could be Saxifraga hostii or a hybrid with it, and having said that I could be utterly wrong

I've split some of my Silver Saxes today and the cuttings have gone into some very sandy, loam based compost, watered and left in a shady place outside. We shall see how successful this will be, or not!

[Jupiter]

Thanks everyone, I will do as Maggi suggested and treat them as cuttings. Maybe some pieces will have enough roots to go straight into crevices in the trough... I'll make that call when I see it.

Adrian Young's piece on propagation was excellent! Thanks for the link Gordon.

[Tristan_He]

Hi Jamus, generally I find these type of saxifrages very easy to divide and root. The leaves seem to be pretty resistant to desiccation. But then again I don't live in Australia! I'd agree with keeping them cool if possible.

Best, Tristan

[Jupiter]

Good news! I washed the soil away from the root ball and had a closer look, it seems there were three separate plants which pulled apart with a bit of gentle teasing, plus one little baby, probably a late germination in the pot... so good news! I have material for my saxifrage trough plus extra.   Cheers everyone.