Elfin thyme

Common name: Elfin thyme
Latin name: Thymus serpyllum ‘Elfin’
Plant type: Groundcover
Plant size: 2″ x 6″ and spreading
USDA Hardiness Zones: 4-9
Cultural needs: Poor, well-drained soil, moderate to low moisture, sun to partial shade

Elfin thyme deserves its status as practically everyone’s favorite scale lawn or meadow. It’s about “thyme” this rugged, low groundcover got a mention here in the “Plant portraits.” We have to list it as a Zone 4-9 plant but many railway gardeners in Zones 3 and 10 have had good luck with it, too. Branches or blankets of loose straw over the thyme in winter will keep help to it from drying if the snow goes away. Ideally, Elfin thyme thrives in full sun to part shade, but give it too much shade and the little branches will stretch and billow up like waves on a stormy sea. The plant is tidy and can be easily maintained; either pull out branches that try to jump the tracks or shear them back in a line, parallel to the rails. Push divisions into bare spots to easily multiply the greenery. In late spring the blue-green leaves will be covered with tiny lavender-pink blooms. When they are finished, spent flowers go away to leave the groundcover in its previous, low, almost glossy green flatness. Other names for this plant include T. praecox ‘Elfin’ and T. praecox ‘Minus’. Elfin doesn’t mind being walked on and likes to trail over walls, as in the photo, where it’s planted in feather-rock mountains.