A beautiful golden leaved variety with purple flowers, this forms soft mounds and is perfect for softly edging paths. 9x9cm pot (8cm depth)
Description
- Loved by bees
- Mound forming
- Aromatic
- Golden foliage
A thyme with attractive golden foliage, that forms low mounds that look very good in containers or as edging along paths. Not the strongest flavour thyme but still good in culinary dishes. In common with other thymes, the flowers are alight with foraging bees and butterflies in the summer.
Plant care
- Height: 10-30cm
- Type: Hardy
- Aspect: Sun
- Soil: Well drained
- Flower colour: purple
- Flowering period: June - August
Thyme is a plant that just has to be in full sun – it can never really be too hot for this fragrant herb, the more sun, the better the flavour and aroma. It also needs a well-drained soil and if this doesn’t describe your garden it is better to grow thyme in a pot, wall or rockery. Most thymes are pretty hardy and cope well with frosts, it is the wetness and lack of light over winter that can finish them off, I know from experience with my heavy clay. If you have one growing in full sun between one and seven in the afternoon in summer that’s fantastic, but the direct sun is reduced to about three hours in winter and it just isn’t enough. Golden thyme is neither a creeping thyme or an upright thyme – it grows soft golden mounds that are perfect borders for paths and beds and look attractive doming and eventually trailing over pots and containers.
Usage
One of the most widely used culinary herbs thyme is used to flavour many meat, fish and egg dishes, either by adding whole stems (which are later removed) where the leaves will melt from them into the dishes, or by stripping the leaves and flowers – a good method for using in marinades.
Thyme essential oil contains thymol which is antiseptic and an expectorant which makes it an excellent herb for cough syrups which helps kill bacteria and loosen phlegm. A tea made from thyme can be used as a gargle to soothe sore throats and as an antiseptic can be applied as a disinfecting wash for minor cuts and grazes.
Thyme flowers are adored by bees and butterflies and they work them tirelessly for their nectar.