Prickly Thrift

Prickly Thrift (Acantholimon) - Dwarf mountain plants of the Sea Lavender order, extending from the east of Greece to Thibet, and having their headquarters in Persia. The flowers are like those of Statice, the plants forming cushion-like tufts; the leaves rigid and spiny. They are dwarf evergreen rock garden and choice border plants. Cuttings taken off in late summer and kept in a cold frame during winter make good plants in two years, but by layering one gets earlier and larger plants. All are hardy, and prefer warm, sunny situations in sandy loam. There are only a few kinds in cultivation, such as A. glumaceum, venustum, and androsaceum. A. Kotschyi is handsome, with long spikes rising well above the leaves, and white flowers; A. melananthum has short, dense spikes, the limb of the calyx being bordered with dark violet or black; and there are other pretty species, not all in cultivation perhaps, which, so far as we know them, thrive best on the sunny rock garden, in light soil. Where large plants of the rare kinds exist, it is a good plan to work some cocoa-nut fibre and sand, in equal parts, into the tufts in early autumn, but before doing this some of the shoots should be gently torn so as to half sever them at a heel; water to settle the soil. Many of the growths thus treated will root by spring.