Thyme has a warm scent that is spicy-herby, powerful, woody-green, refreshing, stimulating and purifying.

Thyme cultivation
There are 350 species with a wide variety of fragrances, flavours and uses. Most are sun loving, perennial woody subshrubs or creeping woody plants with a neat habit that are high in fragrant essential oils. It is is an obliging evergreen, perennial subshrub that thrives in dry sunny areas. Use for borders, amongst your paving, on the edges of paths or in an entire bed. The plant requires good drainage and a sunny position. Raise from seed in spring and propagate varieties by cuttings, and by division. The leaves are low in moisture and easily air dried out of direct sunlight. Even dried, the leaves retain their flavour.
Which one to buy?
Look for cultivars of the common thyme, including vulgaris erectus, silver posie and lemon scented thyme as well as herba-barona (caraway/seed cake), and fragrantissimus (azores/orange peel). Wild varieties include serpyllum, vey, Annie Hall, elfin and russetings.

How to use
Thyme is a major culinary herb in Europe where is shines in slow cooked casseroles and dishes containing meat, poultry or game. Use when cooking chicken or fish, in stuffings, as well as vegetable and cheese dishes. To me it is an essential herb when cooking mushrooms. Thyme can be assertive and dominate other milder flavours so robust companions, such as onions, red wine and garlic work well. Use the herb in terrines, pâtés, meat pies, marinades, eggplant and tomato dishes and thick vegetable based soups. Dried thyme is often used in the jambalayas and gumbos of Creole and Cajun cooking. It is one of the most common herbs in a bouquet garni, along with sage, rosemary, parsley, marjoram and bay leaves. Add fresh sprigs to oils and vinegars to infuse them, as well as mulled wine.
Information sourced from The Complete Book of Herbs and The Essential Aromatherapy Garden. Make sure you take a look at these caveats before using an essential oil, and if possible, buy organic.
What I blogged:
- one year ago – Chocolate Stout Cake
- three years ago – Strawberries With A Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
I love thyme and I never realised there were so many varieties.
Have a super weekend Tandy.
🙂 Mandy xo
I have about 5 varieties in my garden 🙂
I had no idea that there were that many varieties of thyme! 😮
me either – and I thought that having 5 was a lot!
I always have a small thyme bush or two right outside my kitchen door.
Mine grow wild in my garden and I have a pot as well near my kitchen 🙂
Thyme is definitely a comfort flavor for me!
That is interesting to know Joanne 🙂
Besides being an attractive garden plant, thyme is pretty much my favorite savory herb. There are few things I don’t happily toss it in for enhancement, and I know it’s the one characteristic flavor I’d miss most from my soup broths, whether meat-based or vegetarian. Lovely post!
Thanks Kathryn, I also love using thyme in desserts 🙂
Such an important herb in cooking for sure 😀
Cheers
CCU
Absolutely Uru 🙂
We grew thyme over the summer and used it most every night. Can’t wait till next year!
It is such a hardy herb that mine grows back each year 🙂
I just love its lemony essence…my favorite addition to chicken =)
mine too!
Great story,
I have a regular thyme and a lemon thyme in my garden… and they get used all the time … hehe that sounded funny.
Great pun! I also have both growing wild 🙂
i have the lemon thyme & thyme growing in pots for years now-however they always seem to be little–really little
The leaves stay very small of some of the varieties I grow 🙂