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creeping thyme
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Posted by token28001 zone7 NC (My Page) on Fri, Oct 23, 09 at 23:27
| Is it nice? Does it have a fragrance? Is it unruly? Annual or perennial?
I found a place to purchase 9000+ seeds for very little money. I'm thinking of using it as a ground cover on a dry, partly sunny slope. The periwinkle (vinca major) has already been glysophated.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: creeping thyme
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I have lemon thyme. It creeps, so I keep it trimmed to one spot in the vegetable garden. The bees love it when it blooms. I love the fresh lemon fragrance when crushed or used in cooking....
Kris
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RE: creeping thyme
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Token, it depends what kind you get. There are hundreds of cultivars of creeping thyme. I mainly have Archers Thyme. It's lime green in the summer - has little taste or fragrance. My lemon Thyme has not done the best where I've had it located - it peters out here every few years (as things are wont to do sometimes) - I now have some better locations.
I would go ahead and try it. See how it goes for you. If it doesn't work as well as you'd like, purchase a different kind of creeping thyme and plant it as plants. You don't need many - I will interplant new thymes within the archers thyme, then when they get bigger, dig them up and divide them and they all intermingle.
I do not consider it unuly it spreads, but because of tight growth it spreads at a lower rate than vinca would on those long runners. It likes some moisture - not all the time but in my hard clay during the drought it did suffer. It is evergreen and perennial. Each cultivar has different colored flowers and will flower at different times between mid-spring and mid-summer.
In tight rocky and more moist areas, the English and German thymes do very well for me too. They are not quite as evergreen. |
RE: creeping thyme
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| Thanks. I think I'll order the seeds and see what happens. I like the idea of it scrambling over the edge of the wall. The variety I've found is just listed as creeping thyme. It has pink blooms in early summer. |
RE: creeping thyme
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| English and german thyme are a must in my garden I use a lot, silver thyme as well. The serpyllums are my favorites for cascading over rocks, between flagstones or for a carpet effect. A mosaic of red, white and pink makes a very pretty picture. Wooly thyme is also a favorite and thymus praecox 'Nutmeg' is another scented low grower. Annette |
RE: creeping thyme
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| Have forgotten the variety, but this thyme grows at the top of some steps in my garden and is appx. five yrs. old. There are actually two plants. It has really started to spread and over the stone too. This summer I had to cut it back as I don't want the top step completely covered. Receives full sun until late afternoon and normally the area is very dry. Notice how it died out some from the center where the original plant was placed (black and yellow areas)and that other spot. We've had alot of wet weather lately. It has a tiny purple bloom similar to kiddo's. The other plant on the right is dianthus which also is old and dying in spots. 
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RE: creeping thyme
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I have a few thyme plants but this is my favorite, thymus serpyllum coccineum. It has been growing in this spot for about 18 years. It blooms in July and smells wonderful especially if you run your hand over it. It's on the upper left above he wall.
 Here is a close up growing next to lavender.
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RE: creeping thyme
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| I think reginaz has given you the best idea of what the thyme will look like planted on a slope, Token. That really looks great. |
RE: creeping thyme
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| I use many times and do like contrasting a yellowly (lemon thyme) with darker smaller leafed thyme. I also have woolly thyme and mother of thyme, and wild thyme. Love them all. |
RE: creeping thyme
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| Is thyme affected by super-hot temperatures? I've tried growing it year after year in full sun - I've lost the tags, so I can't say which varieties they've been - but each succumbs to the August heat here. It just seems to cook - either that or possibly the combination of heat and watering? I tried not to over-water and gave it a drink only when the soil was super dry. I'm going to keep trying - love it so much and the aroma is divine, so any suggestions? Is there a better type for southern gardens? |
RE: creeping thyme
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- Posted by natal Louisiana 8b (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 24, 09 at 22:42
| Pat, I'm in south Louisiana and find that thyme does best in the cooler months down here. I treat it as an annual and replant every fall. |
RE: creeping thyme
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| Here in my zone 7 garden, thyme likes a little shade, or more moisture, when growing in our scorching heat. I've tried several varieties and the plain old culinary thyme works the best and blooms a lot. It is the best ground cover for suppressing weeds while letting perennials and bulbs come through. I use it as a placeholder to keep weeds under control until I can plant something permanent. I cook with it, so I also keep a patch growing right by the front steps. Cameron |
RE: creeping thyme
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| Ha I meant thymes and typed times. Must have been tired (or maybe thyred - hehehe) Thymes do well in cool weather. For more ideas on kinds and combinations check out the Richter Herbs website. I rather like using the ordinary wild thyme for hedging material. I had one overhanging a raised bed and used to clip it back every now and then while using the clippings as herbs in my cooking. Cameron, it hasn't been my experience that thyme prevented weeds. I've got some really determined tap rooted weeds where that penetrate my plants even ones that are tightly carpeted. So I continue to be vigilant against dandelions and thistles. Hate those dandelions with a vengeance. |
RE: creeping thyme
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| I ordered the seeds. During the hottest part of the year, the slope gets only late evening sun and only about 1 hour then. It's still gonna be dry, but at least it won't take over like the vinca did. Thanks for all the information. I'm hoping to cover the slope in one year with 9000 seeds. Some will be sown, some scattered. |
RE: creeping thyme
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| -reginaz, your garden is amazing!! I have missed seeing it. So inspirational. I have a couple of thymes. Regular green, a variegated lemon, and a couple of silver thymes I got on sale at HD for $1. Next year I am going to plant the silver thyme next to a purple leafed Salvia officinalis, might be an interesting combo. Next year I might make a little herb garden. If I do I plan to buy more thyme. Orange scented, large flowered, and Wooly thyme (looks like schoolhouses) are on my to get list. I find that Thyme needs sharp drainage here, since the winters are wet. The ones that live the longest here are the ones that are planted in a gravel-y area next to the driveway. PDN says a good substitute for thyme in southern gardens is Herniaria glabra 'Sea Foam'. It looks just like thyme, but doesn't have culinary value or scent.
CMK |
RE: creeping thyme
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| It may be helpful to know that thyme is native to the areas surrounding the Mediterranean and grows in arid, very lean, often rocky soils in full sun. It is extremely drought tolerant when established and resents poor drainage, heavy clay soil and excessive humidity. It should need NO additional watering once established, even under very hot conditions. In fact it is considered a xeric groundcover and is recommended for very arid areas where heat or water restrictions limit planting a lawn. If you can mimic these conditions, you can probably grow thyme very successfully. |
RE: creeping thyme
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- Posted by memo Zone 4B Nebraska (My Page) on
Sun, Oct 25, 09 at 21:54
| I have only tried Mother of Thyme in my garden. I planted it as an edging along my brick side walk and I planted Alyssum seeds in between the thyme plants. It bloomed very early in the spring and it spread very little and always toward the bricks, never into the garden further. By summers end it looked extremely scraggly. I had to cut it back early in the spring to get new growth from it each year. I got bored with it and pulled it out this past spring. MeMo |
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