Saxifraga x urbium

Saxifraga x urbium, often nicknamed 'London Pride', produces branching and cloudy inflorescences in spring, animated by the slightest breath of wind, resembling a shower of white-pink stars powdered with red. Evergreen rosettes, of a succulent appearance, are a beautiful shiny dark green colour, and are capable of keeping weeds at bay. This perennial is a marvel for rockeries and borders, elegantly covering the ground. This saxifrage loves crevices and spaces between slabs, as long as it finds moist soil.

Saxifraga x urbium is a hybrid between Saxifraga spathularis, widespread in Portugal, Ireland, and Spain, and Saxifraga umbrosa, a Pyrenean species. It belongs to the Saxifrage family. The growth of this small perennial is quite slow. Its adult size will not exceed 15 cm (6in) in height, 30 cm (12in) when flowering. It forms rosettes of thick leaves that make up a carpet, slowly spreading over time through stolons anchored in rock crevices and between stones, in the slightest pocket of humus. The foliage is actually composed of long and thick petiolate leaves, spoon-shaped, with very serrated edges, of a pretty dark green and shiny colour. Flowering takes place in May-June, in the form of naked and ramified purple stems, emerging from the rosettes, and bearing small white to pink single flowers, delicately powdered with red.

This London Pride can be used to edge paths and borders, but it can also be used for larger areas. On shaded slopes, for example, where grass remains scarce, it will thrive very well. It can also replace the moss that invades a shaded end of the lawn by digging this plot to plant a carpet of saxifrages. For the same reason, this plant will serve as a groundcover between shrubs and trees. A fantastic problem solver, it adapts without any difficulty to the poorest sandy soil or shady locations. That is why it proves to be very valuable in the most disadvantaged areas of the garden. For example, in the shade, in the north. It will camouflage a portion of soil where stones or construction waste have been buried. 

These plants often grow in rock crevices. It was long believed that this plant could have medicinal properties and could eliminate kidney stones. In the family of rock plants, the genus Saxifraga constitutes a particularly large category comprising more than 450 species. Saxifrages are among the plants reaching the highest peaks of the highest mountains. In these inhospitable places, nature has created true survivors.