Thyme - wild creeping

• Great for patios, pots and rockeries
• Loved by bees
• Will trail over containers
• Great culinary thyme

A lovely straggly thyme with broad leaves that spreads well and has a great flavour. Low growing, this thyme can be used medicinally for colds. In common with other thymes, the flowers are alight with foraging bees and butterflies in the summer.

Plant care

• Height: Creeping
• Type: Hardy
• Aspect: Sun
• Soil: Well drained
• Flower colour: Purple
• Flowering period: June - August

Thyme is a plant that just has to be in full sun – it can never really be too hot for this pretty herb, the more sun the better. It also needs a well-drained soil and flat growing creeping thymes like this are perfect for cracks in paving, patios, walls, pots and rockeries which are all free draining. Initially it will have to be watered if the weather is dry until established, but after that it should creep around nicely on its own. Most thymes are pretty hardy and cope well with frosts, it is the wetness and lack of light over winter that can finish them off. If you have one growing in full sun between one and seven in the afternoon in summer that’s fantastic, but direct sun is reduced to about three hours in winter and generally it just isn’t enough.

Usage

One of the most widely used culinary herbs; this fragrant aromatic little gem is found growing wild in the Mediterranean and is also grown and harvested commercially worldwide. It is one of the traditional ingredients in bouquet garni and is used to flavour many meat, fish and egg dishes, either by adding whole stems (which are later removed) where the leaves will melt from them into the dishes, or by stripping the leaves and flowers – a good method for using in marinades.
Thyme essential oil contains thymol which is antiseptic and an expectorant which makes it an excellent herb for cough syrups which helps kill bacteria and loosen phlegm. A tea made from thyme can be used as a gargle to soothe sore throats and as an antiseptic can be applied as a disinfecting wash for minor cuts and grazes.
Thyme flowers are adored by bees and butterflies and they work them tirelessly for their nectar.