CARE. Good soil, gritty for some varieties with lime for some. Top-dress yearly with mixture of soil and cow manure. Drainage.
PROPAGATION. Seeds, division, cuttings (of young growth).
SPECIAL USES. Rock planting, borders, walls, wild gardens.
Thymus Labiatae Thyme
These are actually tiny shrubs with tangling, woody stems and masses of little leaves that are evergreen in all but the coldest and most exposed locations. Some creep flatly; some make three-inch mounds. You can choose from varying fragrances, leaf textures and colors, and colors of early summer flowers. In fact, there is a much wider variety available than most gardeners realize.
herba-barona—caraway thyme—Ground-hugging creeper with fresh green caraway-scented leaves, and tight clusters of rose-purple flowers. It does not seed and is propagated by division of roots. Hardy.
lanicaulis—Four-inch carpet with half-inch leaves slim as needles at the base and broadening higher on the short stems. Stems feature a woolly coat of hairs as long as they are thick. Tight clover-like flowers are rosy pink.
nitidus—French thyme—Six-to eight-inch shrub with shiny, oval, gray-green leaves, and lavender flowers. Older clumps resent being disturbed, so start young plants from cuttings.
serpyllum—mother-of-thyme, creeping thyme—Perennially popular stem-rooting creeper, less than four inches high with half-inch oval green leaves and purple flowers loved by bees. There are many varieties: white-flowered albus, silver-marked argenteus, gold variegated aureus, larger, red-flowering coccineus, bright-pink roseus, robust, romping, red-flowering splendens. Almost in a class by themselves—and often listed as separate species—are lanuguinosus, woolly thyme (completely covered with silvery fuzz), and the variety vulgaris (citriodorus), lemon thyme with citrus-scented leaves.
vulgaris—common thyme—Kitchen herb, spreads by underground stems. The erect stalks are covered with fine white hair and set with half-inch oval leaves; there are deep-lilac flowers in May and June. It spreads so fast it has been accused of being a weed.