What Thyme Is It?

More delicious ideas here for your herb gardens this spring. If you grow them yourself, you'll have a wonderful, long lasting source of this great herb for use in all kinds of things. We use this herb for cooking, infusing oils, steeping for teas, and just for the beauty of them in the garden.

Look at this beauty. Citrus Thyme. Your garden will love it, and so will your food!
Thymus citriodorus — various lemon thymes, orange thymes, lime thyme.

This is some lemon thyme that I was growing 2 years ago. It really took off, and I didn't expect such beautiful flowers on it.

Thymus herba-barona (caraway thyme) is used both as a culinary herb and a ground cover, and has a very strong caraway scent due to the chemical carvone. 
Good for rye bread? Absolutely. It's a beautiful plant, too!

Thymus praecox (mother of thyme, wild thyme), cultivated as an ornamental, and you can see why.

Thymus pseudolanuginosus (woolly thyme) is not a culinary herb, but is grown as a ground cover. (This does work wonderfully as a cover, too!)

Thymus serpyllum (wild thyme, creeping thyme) is an important nectar source plant for honeybees. All thyme species are nectar sources, but wild thyme covers large areas of droughty, rocky soils in southern Europe (Greece is especially famous for wild thyme honey) and North Africa, as well as in similar landscapes in the Berkshire and Catskill Mountains of the northeastern US. The lowest-growing of the widely used thyme, it is good for walkways.
(I can personally attest to this statement too. I have planted it by walkways and in rock gardens as a creeping cover, and it is fantastic.)

Last, but not least....the common thyme.
Thymus vulgaris (common thyme, English thyme, summer thyme, winter thyme, French thyme, or garden thyme) is a commonly used culinary herb. It also has medicinal uses. Common thyme is a Mediterranean perennial which is best suited to well-drained soils and full sun.

This information- and the photos- comes from Wikipedia, and is very useful in all areas. Thanks!
 
Now you know what Thyme it is!

Recommended herbaceous reading:

• Homegrown Herbs: A Complete Guide to Growing, Using, and Enjoying More than 100 Herbs
• Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use
• Easy Growing: Organic Herbs and Edible Flowers from Small Spaces
• Starting Seeds Indoors: Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletin A-104

Supplies:

• Thyme 100% Pure Therapeutic Grade Essential Oil- 10 ml

• Mosquito Repelling Creeping Lemon Thyme Plant - FANTASTIC! - 3" Pot
• 5,000 Seeds, Creeping Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) Seeds By Seed Needs
• 100 WALK ON ME CREEPING THYME Thymus Serpyllum Herb Flower Seeds
• Herb Thyme Summer 100 Seeds by David's Garden Seeds
• 30 ORANGE THYME CITRUS FLAVOR PERENNIAL HERB SEEDS EXOTIC Thymus frafrantissimus