Common Thyme Plants

Thymus vulgaris, Common Garden Thyme Plants

Common Thyme has tiny dark green leaves that are thin and aromatic. The plant is neat and spreads out over the surrounding soil and will naturally layer by itself if it is happy. In summer the whole plant is covered with tiny mauve pink flowers - which look wonderful. If you have room for just one thyme from our range of UK grown herbs then let it be this one.

Thyme is a massive genus comprising many delicious and decorative varieties. We also stock Golden Queen and Silver Queen thymes which all work well together.

Garden or common thyme is a core herb in the repertoire. Its fantastic taste enhances almost any savoury dish - promise! The only faddle is you have to pick the tiny leaves from the stalks to use them. But a cheat's way is to cook using the whole stalk and then pick out the stalks afterwards once the leaves have fallen off - just remember how many you used.

Calling Thyme

Thyme falls into that rare bracket of plant with is both aesthetically beautiful and immensely practical. It grows in cracks and crevices and so nestles happily between paving stones releasing its aroma as you walk over it. If grown in good soil it loses flavour and aroma so plant it in something poor but well-drained albeit in a sunny spot.

Summer sees its pink mauve flowers arrive like a layer of voile over the whole plant. If you grow many thymes together you can have a thyme lawn with all the interweaving colours like an Oriental carpet. Thyme does well in pots but use a poor, open mix - with plenty of sand, grit and bark and keep watering to a minimum. Trim your plants after flowering to encourage more foliage and to stop them becoming leggy.

Features

• Height: 30 cm
• Spread: 20 cm
• Colour: dark green
• Flowers: pink
• Uses: culinary, medicinal
• Taste: highly aromatic
• Harvest: all year
• Storage: can be dried
• Spacing: 20 cm
• Life: hardy perennial

Did You Know?

In the Middle Ages, thyme was an extremely popular - it first arrived here with the Romans. We British, however, chose to use it as a tea in order to be able to see fairies! More prosaically it was often added to nosegays to pre-empt the stench of medieval life and to ward off disease.

Thyme is rarely attacked by pests or diseases but if it does happen, the chances are it is because it has been overfed and watered leading to sappy young growth that aphids love. Trim the plants after flowering to encourage more foliage and to stop the plant becoming woody. If in pots only feed once a year in spring and do not overwater, especially in winter.