THRIFT
Photograph by John Custer Copyright 2005.
Visiting fellow Beach Watcher Joey Eldridge at her marvelous home on Camano Island is delightful for several reasons. Touring her front yard is but one - such an array of well tended plants!
But as one moves to the "back yard" of her Port Susan Bay east-side-of-the-island waterside property one can't help but notice the sand and gravel that is dotted with a multitude of various sized clumps of deep green spiny-leafed affairs. Yes, they are Thrifts.
Probably most often thought of in our part of the world as coastal plants, they are also referred to as Sea-Pinks or Sea lavenders, and they are indeed at home on coastal bluffs and beaches-sandy areas.
They are plants with a wonderfully long bloom time-usually March/ April to July/August-therefore marvelous perennial additions to rock and native plant gardens or spaced along garden pathways and other borders. Joey generously sent me home with a bevy of starts for my own rock garden.
Essentially low-growers, Sea-Pinks have been described as plants with leaves resembling small evergreen tufts, for their many slender basal leafs do remain handsomely green throughout the year and are configured in small dense clusters. Some feel they resemble small onion plants.
Blooms are smallish, generally about ½" across, pink to lavender to rose globe-shaped parchment-like flowers which are atop relatively long, stiff, leafless or naked (shame on them!) stems ( up to about 8") which in turn are atop those bright green tufts. (Whew!) Absolute delights and much favored by many in coastal areas from British Columbia to Southern California, although also more globally, in the Arctic North, as well as the Atlantic coastline of North America and in Europe/Eurasia.
The Linnaean scientific name is Armeria maritime, Aarmeria derived from the Latin for a species of carnation - maratima - self explanatory. And as far as the origin of their common name Thrift, seems it's open to conjecture and debate. Some feel it's a derivation from the word thrive-because to make it-to thrive-the plants need to be thrifty. That is, to thrive physically and be thrifty, they must grow closely together. Others feel the thriving is in reference to them flourishing in poor shallow soils. And in England the plants have been associated with financial thrift-good economical management-having even had postal stamps issued there bearing their attractive image.
Thrifts are grateful when exposed to full sun and good drainage, and actually seem to do best in poorish type soils and habitats as Joey's gravelly back yard. Too much moisture and fertilizer will contribute to a diminution of flower production. Definitely lower-maintenance individuality here.
Larger clumps can best be propagated in early spring or fall by dividing them. And as I have experienced in the past with older plants, after about three years flowering the clumps will probably begin to die back from the center anyway. Hence division every three years or so a good idea.
'Tis truth that Thrifts are wonderful additions to our rock and native plant gardens, but they are also a major thrill to come-upon out in the places where they naturally are found: along coastal areas - beaches, bluffs, and spits - even a bit inland, although usually and unfortunately, not in the very large numbers in Joey's near-Iverson-Spit back yard.
Pat Nash
Beach Watcher
Class of '94