The name “Georg Arends” will ring a bell with astute gardeners, even if it only sounds faintly familiar. Arends was a German nurseryman and plant breeder with an establishment in Ronsdorf-Wuppertal, an imposingly named town near Cologne. He lived and worked from 1863 to 1952, a long career, that left an impressive legacy. If you have ever planted a shade loving astilbe or false spirea in your garden, chances are it was a hybrid variety of Astilbe x arendsii developed by Arends. Now that the equally shade-loving bergenias or pigsqueaks are fashionable, some people will almost certainly grow Arends’ bergenias, including the pink-flowered ‘Abendglocken’ or ‘Evening Bells’.
I have grown Arends’ plants before, so it is very easy to take the plunge with an Arends hybrid that is new to my garden.. The next time I take up my trowel, I will install Touran ‘Neon Rose,’ a moss saxifrage or Saxifraga x arendsii. Moss saxifrages are low-growing plants bred from several different saxifraga species, all of which are native to northern areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Breeders like Arends have a wealth of choice, because there are at least 440 different saxifraga species. As part of the larger Saxifragaceae family, moss saxifrages are closely related the ultra-popular tiarella and heuchera, not to mention astilbe and bergenia. All feature small to extremely small, five-petaled flowers, usually in shades of white, cream, pink, rose and near purple.
‘Neon Rose’ bears medium pink flowers on a spreading, evergreen plant that grows up to six inches tall and twelve inches wide at maturity. A healthy moss saxifrage, or “mossie,” covers itself in these tiny, quarter inch blooms in early to mid spring. After the petals fade, the plants can be sheared back so that the small, mossy-looking leaves create a nice, weed-blocking ground cover. In this respect, they resemble another favorite of mine, moss phlox.
I am always searching out good groundcovers. As much as I love mulch and praise its many virtues, the bags get heavy. Any plant that saves my back and covers bare earth effectively has a home in my garden. Attractive flowers are a definite bonus. I love big root geranium—Geranium macrorrhizum–for this purpose and use it wherever I can. Its vigorous relative, erodium, or heron’s bill, makes itself at home just about anywhere and spits seeds all over the place. Right now in my front garden, I can see the tiny lobed leaves making their first appearance. Various members of the thyme clan do the carpeting job in sunny spots. The list of ground cover possibilities expands every day as plant merchandisers exploit the market niche. I predict that moss saxifrage will be one of the stars of many garden center displays this spring.
Moss saxifrages behave like their alpine relatives and fit nicely into rocky cracks and crevices. They are great when positioned so that their blooms spill over the sides of low stone walls. As you might expect, they also perform well in traditional rock gardens, but can thrive in regular beds, as long grit, sand or gravel is added to the soil at planting time. Position them at the edges of beds, so that they will not be overwhelmed by taller plants. Above all, saxifrages require excellent drainage. Heavy, unamended clay soil is a death sentence. Similar soil conditions are necessary if you decide to use the plants in large pots or alpine troughs.
My new Touran ‘Neon Rose’ will thrive in full sun or very light shade and, with luck, the clump will expand over time so that I can divide it and spread the wealth. Some sources claim that moss saxifrages only live about five years. Division or self-seeding may take care of the longevity issue. In any event, I am not going to worry about it.
Like so many plants these days, ‘Neon Rose’ is part of a series with a trademarked name. The Touran series also contains ‘White’ and ‘Scarlet,’ with flowers in those colors. ‘White’ actually features a bit of pink at the end of each petal tip. Moss saxifrage varieties cover a fairly narrow color range, limited to white and various pink and red shades. When I saw the cultivar name ‘Purple Robe,’ I was hoping for true purple, but the blooms are actually a nice shade of red. ‘Cloth of Gold’ is the most unusual of the “mossies,” because it bears double flowers in an interesting shade of white with yellow-green overtones.
Spring can be so variable in many places that it is hard to pick plant partners for moss saxifrages. However, I think it is pretty safe to say that early blooming daffodils, especially the rock garden varieties, would work well; as would blue-flowered varieties of chionodoxa or glory of the snow. Columbines, especially those in white or blue, would make nice tall foils for mossies, but I have a feeling that the bloom times might not always match up.
Moss saxifrages are not widely available in catalogs, but may become so. Look for them in local nurseries and garden centers this spring. If they are flowering, they will probably be towards the fronts of the display pallets. Otherwise, look for them in the ground cover section.