Thyme

Value to bees

Nectar

Very high

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Major honey crop — yields a surplus in good years

Which bees, and why

Densely worked when in flower — a mat of creeping thyme in full sun can carry dozens of bees at once. The florets are small and shallow, so short-tongued bees are well served.

Flowering

In flower

May to August (northern hemisphere)

When nectar flows

Yields best on hot dry stony ground. The finest thyme honey comes from land too poor to grow anything else.

Year-to-year variation

In Mediterranean thyme country the crop varies enormously with summer rainfall, and a drought year can produce very little.

What it does to the honey

Gives a warm, savoury, herbal honey with a distinctly peppery finish — one of the most aromatic honeys produced anywhere, and the one prized above all others in the classical Mediterranean.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun, sharp drainage, poor stony soil. Fails in shade and in heavy wet ground.

Size

5-40 cm depending on species and form.

Native range

Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, with wild thyme (Thymus polytrichus) native much further north across Europe.

Suits

Containers and window boxes, Small gardens, Large gardens, Meadow or wildflower area

Maintenance, and the bit that matters

Cutting a culinary thyme regularly for the kitchen prevents flowering entirely. Grow a separate plant to leave alone if you want both.

• Plant creeping thyme in gravel, between paving slabs or on a green roof — it thrives on neglect and turns unused surfaces into forage.
• Cut back lightly after flowering to keep plants dense rather than woody.
• Short-lived: expect to replace plants every four or five years.

What it looks like

A low spreading subshrub with tiny aromatic leaves and dense heads of small pink, purple or white flowers. Creeping forms make mats a few centimetres high; upright forms reach 30 cm.