How to Pick the Perfect Variety of Thyme

Culinary thyme lends its flavor to classic French entrees and salad dressings.

Thyme came to colonial America with the early settlers to be used as a food preservative and for medicinal purposes, notes the Oregon State University Extension Service. You can grow thyme to cook with or as a low-maintenance, drought-tolerant ground cover. The ground cover thymes work well for low-use pathways. While they can't stand up to heavy foot traffic, they do release their pleasant aroma when brushed. More than 400 varieties of thyme exist in nature, with dozens available as seeds or at garden centers -- so you can find a perfect variety for your purposes.

Instructions

Culinary Thyme

1. Select French thyme for its robust flavor, as it is considered the best thyme for culinary uses. This thyme has a grey-green color and aromatic foliage with pink spring flowers. Or try English thyme, another classic cooking variety and a favorite of many chefs. This variety, very hardy to cold, is excellent for drying.

2. Plant lemon thyme, widely used to flavor fish, chicken or oils, to add a lemony punch and fragrance to dishes. Its evergreen foliage is variegated green and yellow.

3. Choose orange balsam thyme to add an unusual citrus flavor for soups and poultry. One of the taller varieties at a foot tall, this aromatic variety spills carelessly into pathways and over the rims of pots.

Ground-Cover Thyme

1. Crowd out weeds with wooly thyme, which features ground-hugging, grey-blue foliage that spreads quickly in poor soil and requires little water to thrive once established. This ground cover thrives despite neglect.

2. Fill in areas between steppingstones and over pathways with red creeping thyme or mother of thyme. The wiry, dense growth of this fast creeper explodes with flowers verging on red in color.

3. Fill the space between pavers with elfin thyme, a ground cover with emerald green leaves that grows so closely together the texture seems spongy. The carpet-like plant, covered with pink flowers in the spring, grows quickly.

4. Blend a similar fragrance to lemon thyme and the function of a quick ground cover with a Doone Valley thyme. Not grown for culinary purposes, this ground cover with yellow variegation to the leaves spreads quickly and takes on a reddish hue during the colder months of the year.

Tips & Warnings

• Evergreen

• Fragrant for culinary uses and even release the thyme fragrance when stepped on.

• The "creepers" are great for low-use pathways. They can't stand up to heavy foot traffic.

• Thrives in full sun and harsh neglect. Poor soil and very drought tolerant once established.

References

• Oregon State University Extension Service: Late Summer Is Time for Thyme
• Texas A&M System AgriLife Extension: Fall Is For Herbs