“Thrift is often stolen from its place and transported to private gardens, where it generally fails to reproduce its attractive floral display”
Country Sights and Sounds
John Shelley
The soaring cost of fuel along with an increasingly busy schedule means that our trips around the county must be ever-better chosen. Thankfully, the weather has been most accommodating, so that when opportunity arises to venture out we have largely been free of the strictures normally placed upon us by the elements. The wind continues to blow dryly from north and east, with just the occasional, short-lived reversion to the more normal damp and westerly airflow. The result is that the early summer sun is kindly tempered and the breeze, coming upon us after a long overland journey, is pleasantly warmed by day, though still rather cool by night.
This has certainly brought out the best in the wildflowers, with the season for early species considerably extended and later summer flowers arriving notably early. Among the most striking of them are the various members of the orchid family, with the incredibly coloured early purple orchids now at their peak, appearing as dense -lowered spikes to adorn rough grassland, field boundaries and light woodland alike.
We really must take a half-day to search for variety among them, and early June is just the right time to do so. Two years ago we found both fly and bee orchids growing close to our home. Both take their names from the shape of their flowers, which appear to mimic female insects. The curiosity of passing male flies or bees is naturally aroused, causing them to make frequent lustful visitations upon the blooms. Having descended upon one flower and finding itself duped, the visitor soon moves on to the next similarly-shaped and tinted object, likely another flower of the same kind, and in the process transfers pollen from one to another. But more of them another day – if and when we rediscover them.
We went looking for other species at the coast, and found the shingle beaches awash with colour. It was the thrift, or sea pink, that really caught our attention. Forming dense banks of off-white to cerise, this most attractive of coastal plants is currently to be seen at its best. The peak of flowering is probably just over along the western seaboard, so that a ferry trip to Clare or, far better, to Inishturk, where we still find things in a very natural state, is an attractive option. There the season along the east facing coast is a week or so later than it is on the mainland.
Thrift is often stolen from its place and transported to private gardens, where it generally fails to reproduce its attractive floral display. For this reason alone it should be left where it grows. This is a long-lived, slow-growing plant with a delicate root system that reaches deep into any cracks and crevices in the rocks upon which it grows. It is almost impossible to remove a specimen with its rootstock entire, and this alone makes it almost certain that the plant will not take well to being transplanted.
The larger, more densely-flowered specimens need their strong root system to support their very structure. Losing even a part of it means that recovery will be slow, a year or two at least, during which time the whole will be very poor in appearance and a credit to nobody’s garden.
Something else that should be considered by would-be plant collectors is that thrift thrives on neglect. The shortage of nutrients in its preferred coastal environment induces slow growth and heavy flowering. On the rare occasions it is successfully transplanted into rich garden soil it grows plenty of leaves and few flowers.
It is far better, for those who are determined to add a splash of sea pink to the rockery, to go to the garden centre where a number of cultivated varieties are readily available. These have been bred for their enhanced colour and long-flowering habit and are a much better investment.
Despite the foregoing, the most compelling reason for leaving any wild plant where nature has placed it is that others might enjoy it in its natural setting. The coast path south from Roonagh is still dramatically beautiful through spring and summer, despite the few unseemly gaps that have appeared in the natural vegetation.
The fact that the law forbids the taking of plants from the wild might be a further deterrent, but ought to be an unnecessary one.
