One of the great benefits of using the creeping forms of thyme for groundcovers is their rapid spread and an ability to cut or divide potted plants into small plugs, allowing a widespread dispersal and placement of not too many plants.

Seeds for groundcovers are just not common in my area and nearly everyone grows them from plugs or small pots. And, should you locate seeds, they may not be as amenable to direct sowing as say something like lawn seed.

If you can obtain growers flats (solid flats of GC without separate pots), this is often the most economical way to purchase thyme in quantity. You can cut these flats into small plugs of an inch or so square and space them out accordingly. Providing the growing conditions are good, you should see considerable coverage by the end of a single season. The same procedure can be followed with the smaller pots more commonly available.

Like most other issues with gardening, patience is a virtue. Few are able to afford an immediate full coverage with ground covers, nor would you necessarily want to - by nature they DO spread :-) Too close a placement of too large a plant or start will result in overcrowding.

Thanks so much for your advice! My landscape man came today and told me he would help me out by getting them wholesale next spring. Whew! I'll be sure to remind him and ask if he can get the flats like you described. I sure hope my knees don't give out....or I lose the plants before I get them all in the ground! Thanks again!

Starting tray (clear plastic top removed)
{{gwi:859910}}

A friend's WT heading across the walkway

Kinnikinnick on the left, wooly thyme on the right, parked in the lids from compost bins.
{{gwi:859915}}

Some of the mother plants (the ones with the little white tags):
{{gwi:859918}}

A couple more, with some of the starts next to the steps. The bigger pot sitting on the 4x4 is the second one-gallon plant I bought (for $2).
{{gwi:859921}}

More of the starts:
{{gwi:859923}}
{{gwi:859925}}

So you said you didn't have the space for starter seed packs. If you can use a corner of your patio for a project, you could propogate several dozen plants from cuttings in a fairly small area. Or just plant your first handful next to the walkway, and when it starts to look like the second picture, take cuttings for other locations.

Good luck.

Wow! Thanks Gardengal48!

I've printed your story and pics and will surely look at them for the future.

Thank you all for wonderful information on Wooly thyme! How much foot traffic can it take? Could it take daily foot traffic (10x10 area)- if not, is there any other low-growing hardy evergreen ground cover that can? I live in Maryland. Thanks!!

I planted WT 4 years ago which is still struggling in my walkway made of driveway chips. I read that WT prefers poor soil and likes to be dry. The walkway gets a lot of forest refuse from Douglas Firs and also grows moss. I wonder if I should sprinkle dolomite on top to sweeten the soil?

I planted some whooly thyme about 3 weeks ago in between some stone pavers that get alot of sun. So far they are looking pretty good but haven't seem to grow much. I need alot more but they are quite expensive and I was told they might not survive the western PA winters. I hope I don't have to replant them every spring. I was thinking about trying some irish moss instead which I was told will come back. Has anyone used irish moss?

Elfrieda, if you have moss growing, it's likely that the area is too damp for woolly thyme to do well. It's a dry-climate Mediterranean plant.

Cleanqueen, my hunch is that you just need more time for your thyme. It can take a while (a couple of months) to really get acclimated to new conditions. This is especially true if the soil you have on the ground is very different from the medium the plants were potted in.

Over the past year and a half, I have started over 300 WT plants from two one-gallon pots (one of which was on the "distressed" rack at a local nursery). My basic approach is to divide them into pots and let them get well established before they go into the ground. I'm doing one small section at a time, and snitching cuttings from each established section to propagate more plants for the next section.

I would definitely see how they overwinter in your climate before investing a LOT of money in dozens of new plants. But, well established they should be hardy in zone 5.

I have a large patio area next to our swimming pool with 6' x 6' concrete slabs seperated by 4" gaps of soil in between each slab. My plan is to plant a low growing groundcover in the gaps. I have installed an underground watering system to water whatever it is we end up planting (to avoid surface puddles on the concrete).

I am wondering what my best planting option is. I live in the central valley of California where summer temperatures reach 110 degrees on occassion. The patio will get full sun & foot traffic. My biggest concern is the sun (& heat). Would woolly thyme be a good choice? Or is there a better option? I appreciate any feedback!

I am in the same situation. Are you planting only one ground cover. Or do you have ideas for mixing to create a color effect and different bloom times?

We live in the NorthEast, I am just a beginning gardener as this is our first house so please forgive me.

We have a dirt front yard that gets quite a bit of shade. I am not interested in having grass and a friend suggested Woolly Thyme which is how I found you all! Do you think it will work in my area? What other hardy ground coverings might do well?

Thank you in advance for your time and help!

Where can I find in northeast, Philadlephia area.... looked everywhere. Would really like a few flats as have a large area I want to do. Thanks.

i've had no luck with wooly thyme. my area is too damp. i went with english thyme & it is doing very well. my friend in santa fe, n.m. has great luck with w.t. so it does prefer a dryer climate.

I have woolly thyme in the front and sides of my house (sun/partial shade) and I just love it. It spreads beautifully... but a little slower in the shade it seems. This is the third year for it and it's doing great. The one thing no one mentioned is that it smells like Froot Loops cereal when you walk on it. You can really smell it, too. Yum!

HERBICIDE QUESTION

Sorry to jump into the thread with a new question, but it's related.

Three years ago, I planted 2-3 dozen WT plugs in the spaces of a natural stone patio. They're doing great and filling in well. This Spring, however, I've been inundated with some nasty weed-- the leaves of which actually look like WT until it matures, then is grows stalks and a purple flower.

These weeds are everywhere and very difficult to remove without ripping up the WT too. I'm going to keep pulling, but is anyone aware of a herbicide that I might try that is not fatal to the WT?

Thanks for any help.

OK all you knowledgable gardners out there.... I have 675 sq foot of flag stone to plant wooly thyme in. I have already bought 3 flats of WT at $30 each so I'd really like for it to live! Full sun area about 3 inches between stones. We did install sprinklers with a timer so we should be able to regulate the right amount of water. The question is the soil? Stones are set in sand with several inches of drain rock underneath. Should I fill in with all sand between stones for planting or a sand soil mixture? I know it likes well drained soil. I saw a bag of "cactus/succulent" mix , but it's expensive and the stones are about 3 inches thick so we'd be talking lots of bags! I'm leaning toward mixing sand into topsoil that I can buy by the tractor scoop at the landscape yard rather than bags at the garden store. I really want this stuff to live and be happy so I want to do it right the first time! Any input would be appreciated. AND Mr. Herbicide in the last post....I'm sure anything that would kill a weed would kill your WT too! Happy pulling I really don't think you have any other option!

Cleanqueen: irish moss is neither irish nor moss. It wants full sun and hates drought, but I have it and it is doing just fine in my winters, in a fairly exposed location. It does not spread very quickly. However, it has no problem being divided up and spread around.

As for creeping thyme.. if you have patience, a single plant is enough for a whole lawn. Just keep dividing and planting.

Does it come in seed form ??
Pls send links to purchase seed form
tks

I would like to try growing woolly thyme from seed. Does anyone know where to get seeds? I have scoured the web and so far no luck. Thanks!