This plant loves the coast but many gardeners have also adopted it for their gardens.
Thrift (Armeria maritima) is so popular several places have it as their county flower: Bute, Isles of Scilly and Pembrokeshire.
3 things you might not know
- In Gaelic thrift is known as tonna chladaich, meaning ‘beach wave’. In Welsh it is called clustog fair, Mary’s pillow.
- It is also known as Sea Pink, Rock Rose and Our Ladies Cushion.
- Thrift was used as an emblem on the threepenny-bit between 1937 and 1953 – the Mint no doubt aware of the double meaning in its name. Plantlife
This fantastic wee plant is a great pollinator and will cling on in where it seems impossible to do so.
We used to picnic where the thrift
Grew deep and tufted to the edge;
We saw the yellow foam flakes drift
In trembling sponges on the ledge
Below us, till the wind would lift
Them up the cliff and o’er the hedge.
John Betjeman ‘Trebetherick’