A lot of thymes don't have viable seeds. This may be wrong, but I have been under this impression for many years... thymes are so prevalent nowadays that you can get many plugs from your nursery really cheap.

I grow English thyme and serphyllum from seed every year in early fall, since they seldom survive our hot and wet summers. All our local nurseries sell 3" pots of the other type thymes in fall and spring.

Yep, we must buy all the fancy new Thymes, Mints, Echinaceas, Scented Geraniums, etc. as plants, seeds just won't do the job...
Here's a link to a nursery with some fantastic thymes, I bet Papa Geno's has bunches too.
Enjoy! Lynn

Here is a link that might be useful: Thyme Garden

I am going to buy from Mountain Valley Herbs have quite a selection. I had elfin thyme in a pot indoors in a window
did quite well,till I put it outside that is and the wind burned the leafs. Back in it came and I trimmedd it,bounced back fine. Marisa

Only French Thyme Thymus vulgaris and creeping thyme Thymus pulegioides (usually found erroneously as Thymus serpyllum) can be grown reliably from seed. True english thyme does not make seed since all plants are female and is probably a hybrid. English thyme seeds produce French thyme (also called german thyme and winter thyme). True english thyme(Thymus 'Broadleaf English') looks a lot like lemon thyme thymus x citriodorous and has much more elliptical flat leaves than French thyme which are "pointier" and if you look real close the edges kind of roll over (they are revolute).

Francesco DeBaggio

Is English Thyme or Lemon Thyme better than French? I mean, for culinary purposes.

Hi,
Pinetree Seeds were selling Magic Carpet Thyme seeds. They are supposed to be a very short variety for growing between pavers. I started them but haven't come up yet.

Anyone had any luck with the Magic Carpet Thyme seeds since this thread was last active? I'm thinking of creating a large patio with cracks filled with Magic Carpet and plants would be prohibitively expensive. I want to use seeds, but would try other methods of propagation if the seeds don't work.

Creeping thyme is a rapid grower in my experience. Here's a garden path of nutmeg thyme, elfin thyme, gold oregano thyme, and alba thyme
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When I first planted the area I pulled "slips" from my parent thyme plants (grab a piece near the base of the plant and pull it away, it will have a few roots). I planted finger length slips every 12" on either side of the stepping stones the first week in June, watered once, and went on vacation. This picture is after it had grown in a few years, but keep in mind I trim out bushels of thyme from this path one to two times per year. My memory is that the finger length single stem slips that I planted the first June were at least 12" diameter by that fall.

I wintersowed Magic Carpet Thyme from Pinetree Seeds (www.superseeds.com)this year too. They are really short, BUT this thyme has no taste or smell! They are awful pretty tho and a lot neater appearing than the T. serypllum (Mother of Thyme) I have that gets to 8-10" in flower. The flowers on these ones too are formed in a raceme vs. the Magic Carpet that has a single flower that is dark pink.
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vs. Mother of Thyme...
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The Magic Carpet December 5th...
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