15 Varieties of Thyme For Your Garden

With so many thyme varieties to select from, how are you aware which one is greatest for you?  Take a look at the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone map and determine your local weather zone. This can assist you already know which thyme varieties will overwinter in your space. Many species are semi-evergreen, that means they may retain their leaves in gentle winters however go dormant in colder winter climates. You too can overwinter your crops indoors if it’s essential.

When you guarantee the precise situations, you simply want to decide on the one you want greatest! When you can’t determine on one, you’ll be able to develop two or three totally different varieties and luxuriate in a bit extra range in your panorama. Some are extraordinarily low-growing, whereas others have a extra upright, mounding behavior. If you wish to use thyme in your cooking, ensure you select a spread with a pleasing scent and good taste. If you’re in search of one thing purely decorative, search for the leaves and flower colours that you simply like greatest.

Let’s dig proper in and study extra about 15 distinctive and very good types of thyme you can simply develop in your personal backyard.

‘Argenteus’ Thyme

Typically known as silver thyme, ‘Argenteus’ is a cultivar with enticing bicolor leaves. The aromatic, lemon-scented, silvery inexperienced leaves have white edges and keep evergreen in gentle winters. You’ll be able to use the leaves as a seasoning in soups and cooking or just admire them in your herb backyard or perennial backyard. This is a superb selection for container gardening as nicely. 

‘Argenteus’ flowers in mid-summer, including a touch of colour to your panorama. The pale lilac flowers will not be overly flashy but nonetheless appeal to butterflies and different pollinators to your backyard.

After a number of years, ‘Argenteus’ develops a considerably ragged look and must be pruned repeatedly to keep up greatest type. If crops change into too unruly, take some stem cuttings, permit them to root, and replant them to begin with contemporary crops. 

Broad-Leaved Thyme

The broad-leaved thyme, additionally known as giant thyme, is native to temperate grasslands and hillsides in Europe and China. It makes a beautiful decorative floor cowl for an herb backyard, rock backyard, or cottage backyard. The tiny, aromatic leaves assist repel deer and rabbits and will also be used as a culinary seasoning.

Broad-leaved thyme has small, semi-glossy leaves that keep evergreen in gentle winters. In mid-to-late summer season, spikes of tubular pale pinkish-purple flowers lengthen above the mound of creeping vegetation for a showy floral show. Many bees and different pollinators will go to the flowers and assist brighten up your panorama.

Caraway Thyme

Caraway thyme is an evergreen floor cowl species native to rocky hillsides and grasslands of southern Europe and the Mediterranean. The tiny, shiny, brilliant inexperienced leaves line creeping stems that unfold and sprawl to make a beautiful low-growing plant in your herb backyard or perennial border.  

This herb blooms within the summertime with showy clusters of tubular pink flowers. These flowers will create a showy carpet of colour and appeal to loads of pollinators. The leaves are pleasantly scented and can be utilized as a culinary seasoning or for ornamental craft tasks resembling creating potpourri blends. Enable your plant to unfold and naturalize, filling in between rocks in a xeriscape backyard or making a mat of low vegetation for year-round curiosity.

Widespread Thyme

Thymus vulgaris, additionally known as backyard thyme or English thyme, is a small, semi-woody perennial herb. It’s native to southern Europe and hardy in most temperate climates, though it will also be simply grown as an annual in any local weather. Widespread thyme is drought tolerant and grows nicely in poor-quality, dry, rocky soil.

Are you in search of a deer-resistant, aromatic herb in your container backyard, herb backyard, or xeriscape? Look no additional than the Thymus vulgaris. This tiny-leafed herb blooms in early-to-mid summer season with showy clusters of pale purple blossoms. Its mounds of leafy inexperienced foliage are enticing all year long, and the flowers shall be an enormous hit with the native pollinators.

Creeping Thyme

Creeping thyme makes a beautiful addition to your rock backyard, xeriscape, or perennial border. Its creeping progress type permits it to fill in areas alongside borders and rock partitions, elegantly cascading over the perimeters. The evergreen leaves will add long-lasting foliage to your panorama in gentle climates, and it received’t be bothered by shopping rabbits or deer.

This creeping species is straightforward to develop so long as you’ll be able to present a sunny location with well-drained soil. Though the leaves are aromatic, this selection isn’t sometimes used as a culinary herb. It blooms early within the rising season, sometimes in late spring or early summer season. Clusters of showy pink and purple flowers will typically bloom all through the summer season for long-lasting magnificence. 

‘Elfin’ Thyme

‘Elfin’ thyme is a reasonably selection with diminutive leaves and a really low-growing type. Use it as a floor cowl to fill in odd corners or edges round your herb backyard or create a semi-evergreen perennial border. ‘Elfin’ is the right selection for a container backyard or to develop alongside a pathway of ornamental stepping stones.

‘Elfin’ grows just a few inches excessive. It hugs the bottom and creates a mat of brilliant inexperienced vegetation in any sunny, well-drained backyard plot. Tiny lavender-pink tubular flowers emerge simply above the leafy mat for a splash of mid-summer colour. These little flowers appeal to butterflies, and the minty-scented leaves deter shopping deer and rabbits.

Juniper Thyme

Juniper thyme, botanically generally known as Thymus leucotrichus, is a flexible species native to the Center East and Mediterranean international locations. It loves a sunny location with well-drained soil. Develop it as a good looking accent plant in your rock backyard or scent backyard. It attracts butterflies and different pollinators and can be utilized so as to add complicated taste to your cooking.

Thymus leucotrichus is a spreading, mounded plant. The tiny grayish-green leaves keep evergreen and assist add year-round curiosity to your panorama. When these crops are at peak bloom in early-to-mid summer season, it’s possible you’ll not even have the ability to see the leaves. As a substitute, it will likely be coated with a densely packed show of very showy pink and purple flower clusters. Enable crops to naturalize and unfold to make a beautiful floor cowl.

Lavender Thyme

Because the identify implies, lavender thyme is a aromatic selection with lavender-spice scented leaves and stems. Develop it in your herb backyard or use it as an edging plant the place you want a low-growing floor cowl. That is additionally the right plant for a dangling basket or companion plant in a container backyard, the place its lengthy stems can cascade over the sting. 

Lavender thyme develops a mass of wandering, sprawling stems, every lined with tiny, tough leaves. Look ahead to the pale purple flowers that bloom in late spring, attracting pollinators to your panorama. Skinny your patch as wanted, particularly if the crops begin to compete with one another and lose vigor. Divide dense crops to create further mounds that may unfold all through your panorama.

Lemon Thyme

Lemon thyme is an herbaceous perennial that stays evergreen in places with gentle winters. This hybridized cultivar is straightforward to develop and low upkeep. Use it as a part of your container backyard or develop it in a raised mattress. Enable the creeping, spreading stems to naturalize and fill in alongside borders and edges however prune them periodically to assist preserve vigorous progress. 

This cultivar has pleasantly citrus-scented leaves. It develops clusters of upright stems and makes a horny backyard plant. In mid-summer, you’ll be able to benefit from the upright spikes of pale lilac-colored flowers that appeal to native bees and different pollinators. You need to use this species as a part of a pollinator backyard or to lure these pollinators to go to your vegetable backyard. 

‘Orange Balsam’ Thyme

‘Orange Balsam’ is a candy, spreading perennial with a lovely scent someplace between orange peel and pine. This thyme selection makes a great floor cowl and could possibly be utilized in a xeriscape, perennial backyard, herb backyard, or raised mattress. Its sprawling type will unfold readily, filling in areas alongside the corners and edges of your backyard plot.

‘Orange Balsam’ leaves could be harvested contemporary, chopped finely, and used so as to add some zest to salads, stews, and facet dishes. In late summer season, these crops are coated with rounded clusters of tubular, pale pinkish-purple flowers. Throughout flowering, bees and butterflies will come to go to your backyard, including some energetic exercise and pollinating different close by crops as nicely.

‘Pennsylvania Dutch Tea’ Thyme

‘Pennsylvania Dutch Tea’ is a cultivar with strongly scented leaves. You need to use these comparatively giant leaves to create a tea mix or just get pleasure from their darkish inexperienced foliage in your herb backyard, cottage backyard, or pollinator backyard. This cultivar makes a horny floor cowl or use it as a container-grown plant or mounded perennial.

‘Pennsylvania Dutch Tea’ blooms in the summertime months. The tiny, tubular flowers vary from pink to pale lavender constantly appeal to pollinators to your backyard. Rabbits and deer received’t hassle this plant as a result of they don’t just like the scented foliage. This implies you’ll be able to develop it wherever with loads of daylight and well-drained soil.

‘Pink Chintz’ Thyme

‘Pink Chintz’ is a cultured little cultivar. It makes a good looking floor cowl for small areas with its tiny, densely rising leaves and sprawling stems that unfold out right into a thick, 12-inch-wide mat. Blooming in mid-summer, ‘Pink Chintz’ produces a carpet of lovely salmon-pink flower clusters to boost your herb backyard.

Develop ‘Pink Chintz’ in a mattress or container with taller herbs. You too can use this low-growing selection alongside the border of your butterfly backyard to draw low-flying pollinators. Develop a number of ‘Pink Chintz’ crops collectively alongside the sting of a walkway for year-round greenery with a seasonal splash of dramatic colour.

‘Variegata’ Thyme

‘Variegata’ has lovely variegated leaves. These tiny leaves are sometimes brilliant inexperienced, with their edges starting from white to golden yellow. These low-growing, creeping crops make a superb floor cowl, or you’ll be able to develop them in containers for a patio backyard or raised mattress herb backyard. Nonetheless you select to make use of ‘Variegata,’, you’re positive to have a good looking addition to your panorama.

‘Variegata’ leaves are semi-evergreen, remaining on the plant throughout gentle winters. The lemon-scented foliage can be utilized for cooking or added to aromatic potpourri blends. From late spring into mid-summer, benefit from the pale pink flower clusters that may even appeal to pollinators. Don’t fear about shopping deer and rabbits, as they have a tendency to keep away from scented herbs.

Wild Thyme

Wild thyme, generally known as ‘Mom of Thyme,’ is a species native to northern Europe. Many well-liked cultivars have been derived from this father or mother species. Botanically generally known as Thymus serpyllum, it is a low-growing floor cowl with tiny aromatic leaves and showy clusters of brilliant pink flowers.

Thymus serpyllum is an excellent plant to accent many gardening types. It’s immune to deer and rabbits and makes a beautiful floor cowl if allowed to naturalize and unfold. The flowers appeal to butterflies, bees, and different pollinators, and the leaves keep evergreen in gentle winters. It’s simply propagated by seed, division, or cuttings.

Wooly Thyme

Wooly thyme has fuzzy leaves, making it fairly apparent how this species obtained its frequent identify. The tiny leaves are extraordinarily low-growing, making a thick carpet of vegetation and making a superb floor cowl. Every inexperienced leaf is roofed with tender white hairs, giving this herb a really tender, silvery-green look.

Wooly thyme is native to Europe and, in contrast to most different thymes, doesn’t have aromatic foliage. Develop a number of plenty of wooly foliage collectively to create lovely borders in your perennial beds or xeriscape. Develop it in a container or raised mattress, or permit these crops to creep between stepping stones or alongside the perimeters of pathways. Throughout its summer season blooming part, the tiny pale pink flowers create their very own carpet of showy magnificence and appeal to a large number of pollinators.