I’ve grown a whole lot of types of thyme through the years. Folks typically describe a range, but irritatingly nobody ever appears to check completely different varieties.
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| Jekkas Thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, Common thyme |
I wrote a comparability of thyme varieties some time in the past, and thought I might do one other fast comparability.
My tabor thyme and common thyme are simply in regards to the be phased out. They take an excessive amount of effort to develop for too little reward, they develop too slowly, they do not produce sufficient leaves, and my Jekkas thyme has largely swamped them with its unbelievable vigorous development.
Jekka’s thyme grows so quick, and produces so many leaves and large numbers of flowers in spring, it actually is difficult to go previous this selection.
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| 5 types of edible thyme |
I assumed I might present you the quantity of leaves per sprig of every selection, in addition to the completely different sizes of leaves between every selection.
All of those photographs from left to proper have: Jekka’s thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, and common kitchen thyme.
As you possibly can see, common thyme (on the far proper) has few leaves per stem, and the leaves are small.
Orange peel thyme has tiny leaves, and the plant would not develop very
giant, however nothing else actually smells of orange peel. I’m rising this
for now however will ultimately lose it because it grows sluggish and can probably
recover from run by one thing and starved of sunshine.
The lemon thyme has small leaves, however makes up for that in smelling like lemons in addition to thyme, and having a whole lot of leaves per stem.
Tabor thyme is nice, it has giant leaves and good numbers of leaves per stem. It wants a bit of additional water to get by way of summer season.
Jekka’s thyme (on the far left) has bigger leaves and the leaves normally aren’t too sparse.
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| 5 leaves: Jekka’s thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, Common thyme |
It could take a whole lot of common thyme to get a good quantity of leaves as they’ve so few depart on a stems, and the leaves are so tiny. Jekka’s thyme and Tabor thyme every have much more leaves, and the leaves on each are a lot bigger than common kitchen thyme. The style of all of those is far the identical.
The unbelievable charge that Jekka’s thyme grows and spreads signifies that getting a good harvest actually would not take too lengthy. Anyplace a stem touches the soil it appears to place down roots.
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| Thyme leaf comparability – ruler for scale |
All of those thyme varieties appear to manage effectively with heavy frosts. They do not develop a lot over winter, however they do not die or decline both.
I do know backyard books at all times converse of how thyme is drought resistant, however none of them love dry situations. Tabor thyme appears to carry out the worst within the dry. Maybe my backyard is drier and extra harsh than most, however I’ve by no means seen any number of thyme that may survive drought with out additional water.
Jekkas thyme, Tabor thyme, and common kitchen thyme all odor and style a lot the identical. I generally suppose Jekka’s thyme could also be slightly stronger, however that adjustments with the climate or one thing.
Jekka’s thyme additionally flowers like loopy in spring, whereas my different
types of thyme at all times flower very sparingly. The bees and different useful
bugs appear to like thyme blossom so the massive numbers of them on Jekka’s thyme is a profit to spring bees.
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| Jekka’s thyme flowers |
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| Jekkas Thyme beginning to flower |
Out of those thyme varieties I want Jekka’s thyme as it’s the best and quite simple to develop. I will not develop many types of thyme for for much longer as a result of it’s too laborious stopping Jekka’s thyme from overrunning the opposite slower rising however related tasting varieties. There isn’t any actual level making an attempt to guard a poor performer when I’ve a stand out like Jekkas thyme.
Jekkas thyme was once uncommon in Australia, however I’m glad to say that it’s changing into much more frequent. I promote naked rooted Jekkas thyme crops by way of my on the market web page, and I could promote different types of thyme from time to time.
