Saxifraga 2020

[ruweiss]

Early Birds:
Sax. Laka
Sax. Judith Shackleton

[David Sellars]

Hi Rudi:
Your Saxes are very early.  Must be warm in Europe this year.
We have Saxifraga Winton in flower in the garden today (always early for us) and Amerigo Vespucci in the Alpine Shed.
Amerigo Vespucci (by Karel Lang) has interesting foliage and good flower colour.

[ruweiss]

Hello David, you are right, we had no real winter and the flowering season
started extremely early this year.
Saxifraga Lismore Mist
Saxifraga Allendale Accord

[suesimpson33]

Too early for the shows but a great sight nevertheless!

[Maggi Young]

Well they would be if they were not upside down! Help Maggie please!

I thought  you were  illustrating  how  your show  plans  have  been turned upside  down by the  weather !
Fixed those  for  you, Sue.

[Yann]

I envy all of you who're able to grow sax in a greenhouse, even outside they burn with the warm summer despite been planted under shade. Silver ones are the only one i can keep.

[Steve Garvie]

A bonny and impressive display!

[David Sellars]

The flowering season is really starting here on the west coast of Canada.  Cumulus is my favourite white.  I find it much easer to grow than Coolock Gem.

[ruweiss]

Such fine plants, thank you for showing. I like Peach Melba best, the change of flower coloring
is really amazing.

[David Sellars]

Thanks Rudi:

Here are a few more.
Nice to have some cheerful colours around these days

[Maggi Young]

Super plants, David - a  delight  to  see them. 

[David Sellars]

Thanks Maggi:
Flowering is really taking off here.  Saxifrage Sunday was planned for today for our Alpine Garden Club of British Columbia members but we had to cancel. The inspiration was the annual Waterperry Saxifraga Day. Maybe next year. 
Here's a few more pics.

[David Nicholson]

David, I wonder please if you would give us a resume of your annual watering regime for your plants in plunges?

[David Sellars]

David:

Keeping Saxifrages moist is critical especially in the summer. We like to go away hiking in the mountains in July so I have set up an automatic watering system that keeps the sand wet. The clay pots absorb the water and the evaporation from the sand keeps the whole enterprise cool.

Originally I used a small diameter soaker hose but over time it was needing to be on 2-3 hours or more a day.  I replaced it a year or so ago with flexible irrigation pipe that has emitters every 10 cm or so. The new system only needs to be on 2-3 minutes a day!

The pipe is at the base of the sand.  The box is lined with plastic but has some drain holes in case the watering system goes haywire.  The first pic shows the pipe in the foot of the box.  The second is the inlet system.  In the third pic you can see the inlet at top right.

At this time of year I water by hand directly into the pot and the sand.  I use a very coarse potting mix so can't overwater.

[David Sellars]

I forgot to mention that when it gets really hot on the summer (and I am around!) I spray the whole plunge bed by hand to help cool things down and add extra moisture to the pots.