This excellent group of rock garden plants is known as the section Ligulatae, or more commonly as the silver or encrusted saxifrages, in recognition of the deposits of lime that line the leaves. They all have rosettes, large or small depending on the variety, and have relatively large panicles of flowers, usually white. They come from rocky places in the mountains, some on limestone and some on acid rocks.

Saxifraga 'Emily Rose' is a fine saxifrage with rosettes of broad leaves. When a rosette is large enough it sends up a long stem with a great plume of flowers, white with red spots. The flowering rosette dies, but long before this the one rosette will have fostered many offspring.