Toothed Saxifrage,
Saxifraga x geum 'Dentata'
We bought two little pots of Toothed Saxifrage at the gift shop at the Weyrhaueser Rhododendron Garden. I don't like to praise a company that clearcuts wild forests & old growth then boasts it plants more trees than it cuts down, hoping no one catches them killing all the bears & all the porcupines in young one-species forests for not wanting to share harvestable trees with yucky wildlife. Bad Weyrhauser! Bad!
But hey, credit where credit is due, the garden they maintain a short drive from us, on the other side of Puget Sound near Federal Way, is a spectacularly cool garden for the species rhododendrons & for many woodland plants.
In the plant sales area just outside their gift shop we were immediately attracted to the leathery, succulent, serated leaves of this hybrid saxifrage. We brought two pots home & planted them in the rockery, a fairly sunny spot. It could also be planted in partial shade.
Toothed saxifrage is eight or ten inches tall. It sends up a long thin flower stalks for April & May. The flowers in the picture are only about half grown in late April. A week later the stem was twice as high, hung all over with with loose panicles of star-shaped white flowers. You can see a slightly later photo of it on the Spanish Lavender page. The blooms are pleasing, but minor compared to the large spoon-shaped scalloped leaves, which are quite a remarkable evergreen feature.
I look forward to watching this stuff spread. It's supposed to be reasonably vigorous.