The leaves can be used fresh any time but for drying, it is best to cut fresh growth after the bloom cycle. After they have bloomed, we will pull them up in a ponytail and crop them past the spent blooms (about a third of the way into the leaves). The ground should be well drained and fairly fertile. They should be planted in full sun for best flavor. Using these varieties in recipes calling for Thyme adds a bit of intrigue to the dish because these have slightly different chemical make-ups when compared to Common Thyme.Ĭulinary Thymes bloom in early spring and attract early butterflies and many different kinds of beneficial flies and wasps. Thank goodness they have been given distinctive enough names, like Orange Balsam Thyme and Italian Oregano Thyme to easily identify them from the regular common thymes. There are also Thymus vulgaris seedlings that have slightly different flavors. Hi Ho Silver makes an attractive garnish for your gourmet presentations. Both of these can be substituted for Common Thyme in any recipe. This variety has greater white splotching on its leaves which gives it a more luminescent look. Hi Ho Silver Thyme, a recently introduced variegated Common Thyme, also remains variegated throughout its life. Unlike some variegated plants, this plant is not a sport but a mutated seedling that does not revert back to green. ![]() This is a slightly variegated Common Thyme with the same flavor but a different look. After all the word vulgaris means (no, not vulgar) common.Įvery once in a while, a really different form of Thymus vulgaris emerges, like Silver Thyme. ![]() ![]() Really a more appropriate name for all these slightly different thymes would be Garden Thyme, or even Common Thyme. Thus, from Thymus vulgaris seed, we have, not only the two mentioned above, but also ‘Narrow Leaved French’, ‘Greek Gray’ and ‘Broad Leaf English’ and what we call English Thyme. Why so many names for basically the same plant? A single batch of Thyme seed can produce a lot of minutely different looking thymes with minutely different amounts of flavor. After all recipes don’t call for a pinch of ‘German Winter Thyme’ or a spot of ‘French Summer Thyme’ they just call for Thyme. The myriad of names for this simple culinary plant can be more than a little confusing. Fortunately, it has only one Latin name, Thymus vulgaris. A humble little plant from the Western Mediterranean, Thyme is one of those plants that has so many different common names it can make your head swim.
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