Make More Thyme for Your Garden

, written by gb flag

Thyme growing between paving slabs

Thyme is of course essential in the herb garden, but its usefulness elsewhere means it’s well worth knowing how to propagate your own so you can use it all around the garden. Who can resist free plants, after all – particularly when they’re so attractive to both gardeners and bees?

Like lavender, thyme has a tendency to go a bit woody after a few years, so by occasionally propagating your plants you will ensure a steady supply of leaves while keeping your garden looking great.

Growing from seed is the most obvious method of propagating thyme but it’s also the hardest. Germination is slow and unreliable, so I don’t recommend this unless you’re very patient, or stubborn! Taking softwood cuttings, layering and dividing are far easier methods.

Softwood Cuttings of Thyme

Softwood cuttings can successfully be taken from spring right through the summer. Prepare your containers first – a 50:50 mix of potting compost and sand works well. Then, select the shoots you want to take cuttings from. They should look healthy and be non-flowering. Use a sharp knife to take a cutting about 5-10cm (2-4in) long just below a node (the point where leaves sprout from the stem). Strip the leaves from the bottom half of each cutting. Now make a hole in your growing medium with a dibber or a pencil and pop the cutting in so that the half with the leaves remains above the surface.

Herb cuttings in plastic bag propagator

Pop the cuttings into a propagator. A heated propagator is ideal, but an unheated one will work – the cuttings will just take longer to root. If you don’t have a propagator, simply pop a clear plastic bag over the pot to create a humid environment. You can use an elastic band to hold it in place. Remove the cover daily to let in fresh air.

Put your cuttings somewhere out of direct sunlight and keep the potting soil moist. It will take several weeks for roots to form. When you can see new growth starting, pot the cuttings on into their own containers.

Layering Thyme

Layering is usually started off in spring or autumn, but I’ve had success with this method during summer too. Take a low-growing branch of a healthy thyme plant and strip off all the leaves, leaving just a few at the tip. Remove any sideshoots. Pull the stem gently down to ground level and dig a shallow trench where the stem touches the ground. Use a sharp knife to make a small wound on the stem where it makes contact with the soil, as this will encourage rooting – be careful, though, as the stems are very thin and easily broken.

Thyme tip for layering

Use a piece of bent wire to fix the stem loosely to the ground, then backfill the trench leaving the end of the stem pointing up out of the soil. Tie the tip to a small cane to coax it to grow upwards. As with any new planting it’s essential to keep the soil around the layer moist, particularly in summer.

The layer should develop a sturdy root system within about a year. Dig up the layer and make sure it has a good root system before snipping it away from the parent plant. You can then replant it elsewhere, or pop it into a container.

A slight variation on simple layering is mound layering, where soil or compost is heaped over the plant, with just the tips of the stems left poking through. After several months roots will have formed along the stems, and they can be cut off and replanted. The original plant can then be dug up and composted.

Dividing Thyme

Thyme can be divided in spring or autumn. Some say that spring is the best time, with warmer weather and longer days helping the divided plants to leap into growth, but I have good results with autumn divisions as they have the whole winter to rest and put down roots before the growing season resumes.

To divide thyme, dig up the whole plant and break it into sections. Three or four divisions per plant is usually enough as small divisions take longer to establish than larger ones. If the plant is reluctant to pull apart in your hands, use two hand forks back-to-back to prize it into sections. It’s worth cutting back the foliage by up to a half to reduce water loss as the plant re-establishes itself. Then simply replant your divisions where you want them to grow.

Thyme growing in a tin can

Varieties of Thyme to Try

All thymes make excellent container plants due to their preference for poor, dry soils. There are lots of varieties to try, with a delightful range of colors, but there are three distinct species that have their own special areas of expertise.

Common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is an unfussy and hardy plant. It’s excellent as part of a herb garden, used to soften the edges of paths, planted into the tops of raised beds to spill over the edges, or in rock gardens.

Lemon-scented thyme (T. citriodorus) is less hardy than common thyme – mine didn’t even make it through the winter in a greenhouse, and it wasn’t a particularly cold winter. If your climate is warm or you’re prepared to cosset it through the colder months it’s great for tall containers or hanging baskets, at a handy height to enjoy the divine lemon sherbet scent.

Thymus serpyllum, or creeping thyme, is perfect for a low-growing, flowering lawn, which will be abuzz with bees. It’s also excellent for placing in gaps between paving slabs, where walking on it will crush the leaves and release the scent, or in green roofs.

Where are your favorite places to grow thyme in your garden? Let us know by dropping us a comment below.

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Comments

 
"Thyme always looks so pretty in garden photos. However, my thyme never shades the ground enough to out-compete weeds. Weeding among the thyme is very labor-intensive. Does anyone have suggestions for how to deal with these issues?"
Will on Saturday 18 July 2015
"Hi Will. If the weeds are already well established the thyme will struggle to compete, so it's important to ensure the soil is completely weed-free before planting. You might like to read Ben Vanheems' article How to Deal With Weeds for more tips: http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=251 Thyme is great for difficult dry areas where many other plants struggle, so if the soil is too moist or too rich this could encourage weeds at the expense of the thyme. If that's the case, try replanting in a different part of your garden - a rocky, sunny spot for instance, or in shallow containers."
Ann Marie Hendry on Saturday 18 July 2015
"Around this time last year I had thyme in a rectangular planter in my backyard. Where I am it snows and freezes during the winter so I had just left it out planning on planting another thyme the following year. To my surprise, the plant I bought is a perennial and has started to grow back without me tending to it. When I emptied out the other pots around it there were worms inside. So I’m guessing there are worms in the bottom of that pot as well. Is it still safe to use?"
Aaliyah on Thursday 22 April 2021
"Hi Aaliyah. When you say worms, do you mean earthworms? If so, that's a good sign that the soil in the pot is healthy. If you mean grubs/larvae, then the thyme will still be fine to use. Some grubs can nibble on roots which could affect growth, but thyme tends not to be bothered much by soil-borne pests."
Ann Marie Hendry on Tuesday 27 April 2021
"Right now I'm planning on dividing my thyme and making a border of thyme plants. Mine are lemon thyme, pieces have come from a three tiered planter to an edging around my Gerber daisies, also in a grow bag and the ground. I have continued to spread my thyme around. This is the first year I have actually seen it bloom. "
Jean on Saturday 2 April 2022
"Sounds lovely Jean! Bet it smells great too."
Ann Marie Hendry on Saturday 2 April 2022

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