We offer a selection of thymes, nearly all are suitable for culinary use as well as for their garden value. Sun loving and needing a sharply drained soil they provide evergreen, prostrate ground cover.
All species and forms of Thymus are an outstanding source of nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies and other insects throughout their long summer flowering-period: at peak season, whole plants can be clad with favourite garden butterflies, together with the tiny, jewel-like mint moth, the larvae of which use thyme as one of their foodplants. The straggly, spreading growth of most species helps to conserve water and to provide a refuge for beneficial insect predators such as ground-beetles. The most shrubby species T. vulgaris is increasingly being found in the wild in Britain, although almost always in an urban context and not giving rise to ecological concerns.