I love the short, dense, dark green matt it forms and look at it when its in bloom!
Post comments and pics of your favs.
My favorite creeping Thyme "Elfin" (pic)
How much of a scent does 'Elfin' thyme have? That's a wonderrful photo of it!
Here's a recent photo of T. pracox 'Reiter's Red'. I love the rich color of the blooms, but the scent is mild to nonexistant. I have 'Coconut Thyme' growing in the same window box. I think it's the same species, and it has similar foliage, but it looks like the blooms on it will be more lavender. The flowers and the tiny, crispy foliage and very low growth make up for the lack of scent. These are two of the thymes I'm propagating to edge my patio!
Here's a bit of 'Translucent Golden' creeping thyme with some pink Phlox subulata. I love the bright color of this thyme, and it's another nice low grower. As a bonus, it has a nice strong thyme scent!
This is one I grew from seed labelled only as "creeping thyme." The lovely scent (and flavor) and rounded leaf shape remind me of English Thyme. It's not as low growing as the previous varieties and is currently 6 to 8 inches tall with white blooms. This photo is from earlier this spring, when the phlox was blooming.
critter...are you wondering about the leaves or flowers being fragrant?
I also love Lavender Thyme. Will try to post a pic of it soon
This message was edited Jun 25, 2006 3:09 PM
Either one... although mostly I was wondering about the foliage. The strength of the fragrance (and flavor, although I wouldn't choose to cook with most varieties) of creeping thymes seems to vary a great deal.
I think 'Lavender Thyme' is what I have growing in one of my pots that I bring in for the winter... Is yours hardy for you?
I'll try to get some more pics of my creeping thymes!
critter, I love the thyme & phlox together! what a good idea. I have 3 Fort Hill creeping phlox that are not filling in well as I thought they would and was going to get more, but now I'm thinking I can get thyme to put in between. I've been looking for an excuse to try a few more varieties of creeping thyme. Thyme is a favorite of mine, but I only have 4 right now. My 'Elfin' is only a year old. This pic is from a couple of weeks ago. I have 10 plants and they have all grown since and are starting to bloom.
Here is golden thyme and mother-of-thyme as an underplanting to a mini rose
and here's the woolly thyme further down in the same bed. took this closeup of the blooms because all of the web sites say it rarely flowers
This message was edited Jun 25, 2006 4:29 PM
I'm working on replacing the mulch in this bed with groundcovers, mostly thyme, and there is the creeping phlox around the corner. The pic is from last year. the phlox has spread some, but not as much as I expected. I had one plant of a blue phlox subulata (variety unknown) at my last house that my mother brought me from a trip to N Carolina grew into a huge mat overlapped out onto the sidewalk. The 'Fort Hill' seems to be pretty restrained.
Wonderful thymes, grampapa! They work well in so many areas, don't they? I love the way the golden thyme just makes those red roses "pop!"
The heights of that "english" creeping thyme and the creeping phlox just seem to be perfect together. I have 2 other big rocks around my patio, and I'm using the same combination in front of them, just transplanting clumps and letting them fill in. In the areas around the patio between the big rocks, I'm using lower growing creeping thymes, such as 'Hall's Wooly Thyme' and 'Mother of Thyme'.
I am just thinking of starting an herb garden. Any suggestions of what I should start with??
C_R, your pic of the 'Elfin' is so pretty. I think I will need to put some in my rock garden, too.
See what you started? :-) Just this morning I was browsing all of my bookmarked herb sites trying to decide what other creeping thymes I need to try, and then you posted that great picture. I even came across one called 'True Elfin'. The leaves are supposed to be 1/4 the size of 'Elfin'. here's a link
http://mulberrycreek.com/
I was thinking about lavender thyme and the 'Reiter's Red' looks nice for the deeper color. Never met a thyme I didn't like.
Ok, this is the last one, I promise. the 'Woolly' is in the foreground. there is some coreopsis growing up thru it, but it's not blooming yet. and at the far end is the red mini rose from the earlier pic but this is a different angle
katym
Whatever appeals to you but lavender, sage and thyme is a good place to start.
grampapa
We were posting at the same time.
Thanks for your comments and pics! :)
katym, are you interested in herbs to cook with or just for looks or scent? You need to think about how much space you want to devote to it. And what is appropriate to the zone you are in. I'm assuming in AL you're probably in a zone 7 or 8, so you can probably grow things that I can't. And are there any that you either like or dislike?
Heres the Lavender Thyme.
It really does smell like lavender.
The foliage has alot of substance and almost succulent type.
Critter I rubbed Elfin between my fingers and there was little scent.
Heres another so called Elfin but look how the blossoms are different from the one above (in my first pic).
Whooly Thyme w/ Sempervivum in a cement trough
I've had this one for a long time and no longer remember what it is but its strong lemon scented and makes a nice neat mound that can get as big as you allow it to spread.
It get no more than 10"-12" tall.
It must be some variety of Lemon Thyme but which one??
Rose, I've got a green Lemon Thyme that looks similar to yours, and the nursery where I bought it (DeBaggios's) called it English Lemon Thyme.
Your Lavender Thyme looks quite different than mine, which is a very low growing creeper. Please add it and your Elfin Thyme to my wish list for the trade we're putting together! :-)
Now ya'll have gone and done it again. I've just added all these thymes to my wish list.
They all just look so great and I'm sure they smell so good when being ruffled in any way.
Dee
I know this is an old thread, but has anyone tried to propagate elfin thyme from cuttings?
I've never tried, but I know it can be done. If Cottage_rose doesn't answer, I think the easiest way is just to peg down part of the plant to get it rooted and then cut if off the parent plant. this probably works better than cuttings. but cuttings could probably be rooted.
Yep... I think layering, as Carrie described, is the easiest way to propagate any type of creeping thyme. I put one little plant into the middle of a window box or big bowl-type planter, and a couple months later I have a solid mass of thyme that I can divide up and plant out. If I just want one or two extras, I fill a 2 inch pot with moist potting mix and "plant" it next to the mother plant, then peg down a trailing stem into the pot (some of the stem should be buried, some of the tip should still stick out).
Adding... once you get good roots (tug to test), you can clip the connection to the mother plant. If you leave the plantlet in place a little longer before moving it, the roots will continue to develop and it'll get used to being separated before you make it deal with transplanting.
critter, thanks for filling in the details. I've never tried it.
You're welcome! I'm working on an article, probably for later this month, on creeping thymes... I'll include photos of propagation by layering the way I was describing above.
Thanks for the help- and I'll look forward to your article!
I have 9 different creeping thymes and really should try layering. I'll wait for your article, Jill. I was so annoyed with my landscapers when they came in to do my spring mulching. They buried most of my beautiful patch of 'Elfin' in my Fairy Garden in 3" of compost.
Ack! I had to uncover some of mine the other day when it got hit with a layer of grass clippings blown off the lawn after mowing...
I've got several different ones, too. They all have such individual character!
How about ics of thesefairy gardens... I've never seen one.
there are lots of different kinds of fairy gardens. I have several of Cecily Mary Barker's Flower Fairys living in my garden. There are fairy doors so the fairies can travel easily from their world to ours. The Elfin thyme makes a nice carpet for them to play on. It is also a butterfly/hummingbird garden. The fairies co-exist nicely with the hummers and b'flies.
here's the only pic I could find of the whole garden, but not much is blooming
here's a collage of some fairies and things from the garden
sorry about the tiny pic, here's a bigger one
Very jealous of everyone's creeping thyme. I have managed to kill every one I ever planted, about two dozen. What's the secret?
Golden, some are probably not hardy to your zone, although most are hardy to z5, so they may be marginal for you. I have lost a few myself, so it may be how well established they are before winter. Are you planting them in a well-drained spot? I think wet roots is their major enemy.
Grampapa, I had planted them mainly in between stepping stones in a garden path. Drainage may have been the culprit in our miserable clay soil. Or too much/not enough sun, dryness, etc etc!
I have awful clay, too. and there's not much you can do to amend that clay when you're working between stepping stones.
If you put stepping stones down on a layer of gravel for the path (I've heard it's good to have gravel under them), then you can add a bit of topsoil or even nice potting mix on top of the gravel between the stones to give the thyme something to root into...