Plant Heritage Autumn 2009
The Big Book of Thyme
The Thyme Handbook was published by Plant Heritage in July 2009.
Included are descriptions of just over 100 cultivars and species readily available in the nursery trade in the UK;
for gardeners and nurserymen who love growing thyme.
The Big Book of Thyme will be published as an e-book in late 2009 and will include descriptions of the thymes in The Thyme Handbook,
as well as all the European and American cultivars, together with UK cultivars which were omitted because of the constraints of space.
The International Thymus Register and Check List will also be published in late 2009 and I am very grateful
to the Finnis Scott Foundation for their financial support for the publication of the Register.
There are several Thymus cultivars which either have not yet been validly published, or which have only been published
with a name no longer acceptable for a variety of reasons; publication in an e-book does not constitute valid publication!
For many years Arthur Shearing of Highdown Nursery has been growing an attractive golden leaved lemon scented T. pulegioides.
This differs from T. pulegioides 'Aureus' in that rather than having purple-pink flowers 78C, they are a darker purple, 78B.
The leaves remain relatively golden during the summer months, unlike those of T. pulegioides 'Aureus' which revert to green.
Arthur and I have named it T. pulegioides 'Highdown Gold'.
The golden leaved T. pulegioides cultivar from Bertram Anderson was originally known by the cultivar epithet 'E.B. Anderson'.
It was wrongly considered that this epithet was invalid and it was listed as T. × citriodorus 'Bertram Anderson'
in the 1987 edition of The Plant Finder.
However research has also revealed that it was published as T. 'Anderson's Gold' in Bressingham Gardens 1980 catalogue.
Although the epithet 'Anderson's Gold' could be considered as the valid epithet, I propose that the 'Bertram Anderson' epithet should be regarded as
the accepted epithet, as it would be destabilising to change it to 'E.B. Anderson' or 'Anderson's Gold', neither of which is now in general usage.
I have been given permission to introduce to the nursery trade one of the creeping thymes I collected on Holy Island in 2005.
It has very attractive pale mauve flowers and will be known as T. 'Lindisfarne' and will be available in small quantities next year.
Two more pink flowered creeping thymes which I collected in Snowdonia in 2005 are being used in the DNA study
and will be included in the Thymus Register.
They have been named T. 'Snowdonia Megan' and T. 'Snowdonia Myfanwy'.
Thymus 'Caborn Pink Beauty' is another seedling I have selected in the garden, from T. longicaulis.
It is a vigorous ground cover thyme like its parent, which flowered very well in 2008 and in early summer 2009
was covered in pale rose-pink flowers. It also will be available in small quantities next year.
In The Thyme Handbook I proposed that the creeping thyme of Britain should be regarded as T. serpyllum and not
T. polytrichus subsp. britannicus, which more probably relates to the wild creeping thymes of central Europe.
This is based on many years studying creeping thyme, which I have collected in the wild, both in Britain and Europe
and which I have grown in the garden, together with the writings of Jalas.
There are several cultivars which have been available from nurseries, both in the UK and in America and which should
now be regarded as cultivars of T. serpyllum.
A hairy leaved creeping thyme was introduced by the Waithman Hardy Plant Nursery in 1931 as T. serpyllum lanuginosus floribunda
and should now be known as T. serpyllum 'Floribundus'.
When he ran Little Heath Nursery, Peter Foley introduced a variegated sport in 1977, which he named T. drucei 'Little Heath'
and which should now be known as T. serpyllum 'Little Heath'.
In 1994 Rosemary Titterington of Iden Croft Herbs introduced T. serpyllum 'Mudcross Hill', a wild collected creeping, hairy leaved thyme,
with pink flowers and a carmine centre. However she only issued a plant list, so it was not validly published.
In 1994 Edmund Camplin discovered a creeping thyme with yellowish green leaves, in the grounds of Brodsworth Hall, South Yorkshire.
He named it T. polytrichus subsp. britannicus 'Hazel Camplin', for his wife Hazel
and it was described in Plant Heritage in October 1996. It should now be known as T. serpyllum 'Hazel Camplin'.
It is unlikely that any of these thymes is still in existence.
Thymus serpyllum 'August Moon' is a creeping thyme with small dark green leaves and mauve pink flowers, which was listed in
the 1995 PPP Index, but research has not revealed a valid date of publication in Germany.
As far as American creeping Thymus cultivars are concerned, Harriet Flannery in her 1982 Thymus Study included them within
T. praecox subsp. arcticus, which was the accepted practice at that time. I propose that they should also be included in
T. serpyllum, whenever they meet the criteria for the creeping thyme of Britain and north west Europe.
George Schenk, nurseryman and garden writer, selected a lavender flowered creeping thyme and gave it the cultivar epithet 'Wild Garden Lavender'.
She published it as T. praecox subsp. arcticus 'Wild Garden Lavender', but it should now be known as
T. serpyllum 'Wild Garden Lavender'.
George Schenk also selected a white flowered creeping thyme and gave it the cultivar epithet 'Emerald Cushion'.
She published it as T. praecox subsp. arcticus 'Emerald Cushion',
but it should now be known as T. serpyllum 'Emerald Cushion'.
Another white flowered creeping thyme was also included in the 1982 Thymus Study as T. praecox subsp. arcticus 'White Moss',
adopting its common name, White Moss thyme. This should now be known as T. serpyllum 'White Moss'.
Also included in the 1982 Thymus Study is the mat forming golden variegated, lemon scented thyme,
grown for many years by American nurseries.
It is described as being very similar to T. 'Doone Valley', but retains its colour better in the summer,
originally with the cultivar epithet 'Mayfair Variety', but which Flannery rejected as being invalid.
She named it T. praecox subsp. arcticus 'Mayfair', although it is also currently listed by nurserymen as
T. citriodorus 'Mayfair'.
As its growth habit is more like that of T. pulegioides and it is likely to have this species in its parentage,
I propose that it would be more appropriate to name it T 'Mayfair'.
There is a creeping thyme, with mauve flowers, available from Larkman Nurseries in Australia, as T. praecox arcticus 'Lars Hall'
and described on the nursery website, but no catalogue is available.
I propose that it should be regarded as a cultivar of T. serpyllum and be known as T. serpyllum 'Lars Hall'.
A creeping thyme with small, hairy leaves and purple-pink flowers was available before 2002, from Jürgen Peters Nursery in Uetersen, Germany,
with the invalid name T. lantanii.
He has now given it a new name, T 'Jürgens Rosenteppich' and it will be listed with this name in the 2010 RHS Plant Finder.
Thymus 'Rosenteppich' was available in Germany before 2001, but research has revealed no published references.
It is very compact, with small hairy leaves and pink flowers and is suitable for growing in troughs and pots and on a scree.
Thymus 'Weinschrabb' is another compact, creeping thyme, with violet-pink flowers and dark green leaves,
available in Germany before 2003, but research has revealed no published references.
There are three very attractive thymes collected in the wild and introduced by German nurserymen,
which should be regarded as T. pulegioides.
In 2000 Werner Simon introduced a lemon scented, loose bushy thyme, which he had collected in the Bayerischer Wald in Bavaria
and which he named T. praecox 'Bayerischer Wald'; now known as T. pulegioides 'Bayerischer Wald'.
In 2000 he also introduced another loose bushy thyme as T. serpyllum subsp. chamaedrys var. adscendens 'Neuchatel'.
It came from his friend Hans Frei's nursery in Switzerland and is now known as T. pulegioides 'Neuchatel'.
Burghart Koch, who runs a nursery in Wiesbaden, collected a lemon scented prostrate bushy thyme at Komorni Hurka, in the Czech Republic,
near the Bavarian German border and introduced it in 1997 as T. fragrantissimus var. komorni hurka.
It is now known as T. pulegioides 'Komorni Hurka'.
My friend Roger Bastin, who runs a nursery in the Netherlands, introduced T. vulgaris 'Château Queribus' in 2004, but he no
longer issues a printed catalogue; on-line only now, like so many nurseries.
This thyme was collected by the well known plantsman Leon Doyen, at the Cathar château of Quéribus at Peyrepertuse in Carcassonne.
It is a superb culinary thyme with a distinct, slightly floral aroma and highly recommended.
Rosemary Titterington of Iden Croft Herbs listed T. vulgaris 'Zimbabwe' in 1995, but without a description.
According to Rosemary it is from Zimbabwe and is used medicinally.
Werner Simon introduced T. vulgaris 'Cromwell Auslese' in 2000 and described it in his catalogue.
However Auslese is invalid in a cultivar epithet, as it means selected and Werner and I have renamed it T. vulgaris 'Cromwell's'.
In 1999 Burghart Koch introduced a cream variegated culinary thyme from Sicily, which he described in his catalogue
as Weisser Sizilianischer Thymian and named T. vulgaris variegata, now known as T. vulgaris Sicilian.
Thymus 'David Baird', raised by David Baird of Fairie Gardens, Tumwater, Washington, was introduced by Cyrus Hyde of Well-Sweep Herb
Farm, New Jersey, in 2003, but the nursery does not issue a descriptive catalogue.
It is a hairy leaved creeping thyme and the stem tips are red in winter.
Another of Cyrus Hyde's introductions, is T. 'Dr. Blackburn', raised by Dr. Benjamin Blackburn of Willowwood Arboretum,
New Jersey and first listed in 1979. It is a creeping thyme with very hairy leaves and pink flowers.
Cyrus Hyde selected a variegated sport from T. 'Variegated English', which he listed in 1981 as English Wedgewood thyme;
it has a cream to chartreuse mark in the centre of the leaves resembling the Wedgwood china pattern.
Harriet Flannery in her 1982 Thymus Study named it T. 'Wedgewood English'.
However David Hyde says the name for his father's plant should be T. 'Well-Sweep Wedgewood'.
Victor Reiter, the great Californian plantsman, collected a low growing thyme in the Mediterranean region, described as
being suitable for ground cover, with thick, weed smothering foliage and it was introduced in his
La Rochette Nursery catalogue in 1949 as T. serpyllum 'Reiter's Variety'.
American nurseries offer it with the cultivar epithets 'Victor Reiter' or 'Reiter's Thyme', the latter an invalid epithet.
As it is unlikely to be T. serpyllum, which does not grow in the Mediterranean region and the growth pattern is not
characteristic of the species, I propose that it should be known as T. 'Reiter's Variety', adopting the 1949 epithet.
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