Thrift, Perennially Pleasing

As snow melts, the first garden feature that becomes visible at my home each year is a rock wall that encloses and props up a raised garden bed. Atop the bed are shrubs and large plants, and bordering the wall are more plants. But on the wall… well that was a space I had left devoid of greenery and flowers… that is, until I began to work with Thrift.

Armeria juniperifolia is juniper-leaved, alpine Thrift. With green that lasts throughout the year and flowers that bloom from spring through summer, this plant is easy to love.

Armeria juniperifolia has pink flower heads that are spherical and stand atop tall and skinny stems. Stems emerge from small mounds of foliage. And foliage is grass-like. But this is no mound of grass. In spring and summer, each mound is perfectly formed into a ‘ball’ of the healthiest looking blades one could see. In winter, the mounds maintain their shape and evergreen nature, though they do take on a duller tone. Fast-forward to melting time, and Thrift’s foliage is some of the first to green up and make it known that spring is on its way. 

There are different varieties of Thrift, but Armeria juniperifolia is what I have chosen, due to its compact nature and willingness to grow in minimal soil. I have tucked this Thrift into the smallest spaces where I have just enough soil to let it take hold. Armeria juniperifolia has not disappointed.

Rock walls have height, with stone piled upon stone to form their structure. That does not leave much earth with which to work. But in planting my Thrift, I did some shifting of rocks and added soil to spots where small plants could nestle. The small size of Armeria juniperifolia was of great help to me: I reconfigured the wall only slightly and added so little soil, it did not take much effort. Were I to have planted my Thrift in a rock garden without height, I would have had even less to do.

I think back to this activity which took place several years ago, and I marvel at the fact that the Thrift I planted back then has become one of my perennial favorites. It awakens each spring and gets ready to add healthy greenery and pink blooms to my garden. Because Armeria juniperifolia is so compact, my small mounds of perennial greenery have maintained their look of little pincushions with no trimming whatsoever. Given more space, any Thrift, including this one, would spread. This makes Thrift a plant that is as ideal for those who love rock gardening and miniature gardening as for those who tend larger gardens and allow plants to ‘take off’ as groundcover.

Now I must say that a couple of my Armeria juniperifolia ‘pincushions’ did not make it through the first season. Here is what I had done wrong: I had failed to secure a couple of mounds of Thrift adequately. I remember noticing earlier that one Thrift plant was getting dry. It simply did not sit in enough soil to hold moisture, so by the first autumn, it had dried and loosened its grip. Lesson learned. Another of my Thrift plants had the opposite problem and had suffered soggy roots. Apparently, my watering had hit it too much. Another lesson learned.

But the remaining Armeria juniperifolia plants made it through their first year outdoors, in the rock wall. Now several years have passed, and they still wake up each spring… and wake me up to spring’s arrival. 

I just looked outside to see if my favorite pincushion-like plants have become visible as the snow melts. They have not. But in no time at all, they will appear, green up, and flower. That time cannot come soon enough.