Acantholimon Ready for Sale!
What is Acantholimon, you ask? As a group, their common name is Prickly Thrift, but this genus is anything but common! They are native to the Steppes from Turkey to Central Asia, in conditions similar to ours. Highly prized gems of the rock garden, and especially of the water-wise garden, they form evergreen perennial mounds, cushiony mats or hummocks of evergreen, tightly packed, pointed linear leaves that look downright pettable. Not. Acantholimon are fairly difficult to propagate and are rarely offered by nurseries, even specialty mail-order growers.
But they are not difficult to grow in the garden as long as they receive full sun and are planted in a soil that drains easily – on a slope, in a terraced garden, a rock garden or crevice garden. These tap-rooted perennials or ‘sub-shrubs’ will grow well in lean, rocky, gravelly soil like ours at the nursery, in sand, a sand and gravel mix, and in moderately amended, uncompacted soil that drains well, as in our south-facing rock terraces at home. A mineral supplement like Azomite, a mild organic fertilizer like Yum Yum Mix, and a little bit of compost can be added to the bed where they are to be planted. We also recommend applying mycorrhizae to the roots while planting, and watering weekly during the first season. Build up a mulch of fine gravel (squeegee) 1 – 1½” thick under the plant. All of our Acantholimons at home have been very long-lived (decades).
Be the first on your block to grow one of these unique garden treasures! These are very nice specimens, and quantities are very limited. Once established (usually about 3 years old) in late spring/ early summer Acantholimon species send up short, slender, stiff flower stalks that erupt into small (3/8”) funnel-shaped pink or white flowers that often cover the plant for two or three weeks. After the actual flowers are finished, the remaining attractive silvery-white papery calyces decorate the plant for many weeks.
Acantholimon glumaceum (pictured above): With dense, rich green needle-like foliage and beautiful medium-pink flowers, this species can grow 12” to 36” wide. At Harlequin’s, our specimen formed an impressive dome about 14” wide and 8 or 10” high, but at home it has made a spreading mat about 40” wide! It is the most asked-about plant in our garden! Hardy to Zone 3, from Turkey to the Caucasus.
Acantholimon hohenackeri: This species makes a striking blue-grey cushion or mound 4” tall, spreading to 12-15” across. Dense displays of showy bright pink blooms are followed by long-lasting silvery-white dry calyces. Native from Iran to Turkey, hardy to Zone 3.
A. litvinovii: This Central Asian species has even narrower densely-packed, needle-like, grey-green leaves and has formed deeply cushioned mounds up to 12” across and 6” tall in our gardens. It is densely covered in light pink flowers, followed by the luminous dried calyces typical of the genus.
AND …. For the first time, we also have a few Astragalus angustifolius (Narrow-leafed Milk-vetch) – another rare and choice evergreen sub-shrub that is so well-suited to growing here! Native from the Balkans to Lebanon, it has a deep taproot that makes it very successful in the sunny, well-drained, low-water garden. Forming a low, spreading mat of small, upright, pinnately compound grey-green leaves with tiny leaflets, it can eventually cover some territory. At Denver Botanic Gardens, where we first saw it, it made a mat at least 3 feet wide. In our home crevice garden, it is about 8 years old and measures 16” across and 3” high. In spring, a host of large, white flowers peek up from the foliage for a couple of weeks. The leaf-stems are stiff and make the plant slightly prickly.
Fun fact: We recently read that Astragalus, a member of the Legume family and a genus found across the temperate world, has more species than any other plant genus – 3,270 species, to be exact! It is highly valued for its nitrogen-fixing eco-service benefit and pollinator-supporting nectar and pollen.