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Armeria welwitschii |
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| Common name |
thrift |
| Family |
plumbaginaceae |
| Life cycle |
tender perennial (Z8-11) |
| Flowers |
pink |
| Size |
12" |
| Light |
sun-light shade |
| Cultural notes |
well-drained soil |
Forms a mound of strappy leaves, topped with balls of pink flowers. Looks nice, but unfortunately I didn't check hardiness before ordering seeds for this plant in the NARGS exchange. I expected it would not be hardy: it's used to the mild temperatures of coastal Portugal. So I split my seedlings across a set in the open garden, and another few in a pot that lived on our patio table through summer, and was taken into the garage when hard freezes threatened in fall. Unfortunately, the ones in the pot were eaten by mice; but surprisingly, the ones in the open nursery area survived, and were looking quite healthy by early spring. They developed strong taproots. I moved those survivors into the rock garden, where they bloomed by late May. At least one of those made it through the next winter, which was a true zone 6 winter with below-zero temperatures and lots of snow and wet. So either my plants aren't really A. welwitschii, or the hardiness rating I found is too conservative by two zones. We had another cold winter in 2015, but I was pleased to see my plant emerge triumphantly from its snow cover in mid-March, with most of its strappy leaves in a jumble of green and purple hues (although some leaves had given up, somewhat disfiguring the picture).
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| | Evergreen (with some purple) |
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| | Spindly little things in June |
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| | More robust, but still just little rosettes in August |
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| | Spring 2015: back for another year, bigger and better |
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We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston. Seed for this plant is included on my seed trade list About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Armeria welwitschii
- Seed from NARGS '11/'12 exchange. Baggy 70F (32%G, 5-8d)
- Seed from '14 garden. Baggy 70F (6%G, 7-9d)
Lots of duds in the 2014 lot, probably because I had just one flowering plant.
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