Got thyme for the garden?

Between 300 and 4(0 species in the Thymus family

THERE JUST never seems to be enough thyme in the garden. Yes, the spelling is correct and no, I haven’t been

spending too much time in Ye Olde Victoria.

As most of you no doubt know, thyme (thymus sp.) is a garden plant and this was another of my feeble attempts at a hu- morous start. I doubt any of you were caught looking at your time pieces.

Even so, J am sure that quite a few of you have less thyme than you should. There are levels of awareness weil beyond ‘'‘parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,” and only a handful of gardeners have accepted those varieties not com- monly seen in the herb garden.

in fact, there are somewhere between 300 and 400 species of very hardy, herbaceous plants and small, woody shrubs numbered in the Thymus family. While com- snon thyme or thymus vulgaris is the most widely grown, it is among the least attractive.

Take the Mother of Thyme or (. drucei’s “formerly ¢ serpylium), for example. While these are among the casiest and most ver- satile plants in the garden for their size, they are not well known. Many people have stared at the magnificent late spring to carly summer carpets of red, pink or white flowers in admiration and walked away unaware of how eas- ily it was obtained.

There are many named varieties of this particular species. One of the best is td. “Coccineus”’ with its bright, purplish-crimson flowers forming a mass cf rich color, Others worth mentioning are t.d. ‘‘Pink Chiniz,”’ a rose- ted form, td. “Arnie Hail’ in

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Geoff Tobiasson

OVER THE GARDEN GAT

flesh pink and t.d. “‘Afbus”’ for a white.

Another creeping thyme worth looking at is ¢t. praecox ‘‘Bress- ingham Seedling’’ (aka et. doerfleri). This robust introduc- tion from the famous Blooms of Bressingham gardens grows like a weed, but you would never find it unwanted. its pinkish-mauve flowers completely hide its grey- green leaves in May through June.

Woolly Thyme, ¢. psuedolanuginosus, is my favorite plant to use around slabs of stone or concrete in the walkway. It never puts on much of a show in the floral department, but this is more than made up for by the thick, ground-hugging mat of woolly grey foliage. It tolerates an

amazing amount of abuse from foot traffic and works like nothing else to soften the hard lines of stone and concrete.

There are upright, shrubby forms as well. They may still be diminutive, most not reaching more than six or eight inches in height, but they add an interesting dimension to the garden, especial- ty in the case of the rock garden.

A case in point is Lemon Thyme, ¢. citriodorus. Varieties such as t.c. ‘‘Aureus’’ with its bright yellow leaves and t.c. “Silver Queen’’ in white and green, act as welcome accents dur- ing those months when the more colorful, flowering varieties are not in bloom.

Most of the thymes will tolerate

a wide range of growing condi- tions. It seems as long as they have a minimum of three hours of direct sun a day and anvthing but the boggiest or driest of soils, they will do just fine. If you are stuck on perfection, they do best in full sun with well-drained, lighter soils. . They are not heavy feeders; in fact, they tend to throw better displays when slightly starved. A light dusting with bonemeal in mid-fall should do the trick; the added benefit of calcium will help to keep the pH (acid) levels closer to the preferred range.

As you can see, while we may have all the thyme in the world, there is precious little of it put to good use in the garden. If you spend a little time poking around in a few -garderis or gardening books you will be amazed at the number of reaily good plants there are oui there.

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