It's Thrift Time.... Again

The Diary makes no apology for featuring this lovely little flower..... again. It isn't just its beauty that makes it so remarkable, it's thrift's ability to produce a profusion of blooms from seemingly nothing.

Thrift grows on rock just above the high-tide mark, in places which the spray of winter storms easily reaches, putting its roots down into the tiniest of cracks to gain nourishment. As a result, the coastline is littered with these flowers at this time of year, making even the most barren of shores a pleasure to walk along.

The plant seems to grow best along this coast where the rock is limestone. It's not fussy about the orientation of its home, growing equally happily on vertical faces as on flat, but prefers open, sunny locations. This flower was hanging grimly on to an otherwise bare basalt cliff.

There's considerable variation in colour. The brightest pinks are startling, the palest almost white. And thrift is good value for money, as flowering lasts for some weeks.

There's more about thrift on this useful website, which describes the wildflowers of the Western Isles, here.