Lemon Thyme

Thymus x citriodorus

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 5a-9b Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Herbaceous Perennial

Height or Length at Maturity: 6-12″

Width at Maturity: 18″+
Spacing: 15-18″

Growth Habit / Form: Spreading Mound

Growth Rate: Moderate

Flower Color: Lilac to White
Flower Type: Single, on clustered spikes

Flower Size: Small
Flowering Period: Early to Mid Summer

Fragrant Flowers: No

Foliage Color: Green

Fragrant Foliage: Yes, lemon scented

Berries: No

Sun Needs: Full to Mostly Sun

Water Needs: Average

Soil Type: Clay (amend heavy clay to ensure good drainage), Loam, Sand, Silt

Soil Drainage: Moist But Well Drained to Dry when established – Well drained soil is a must!

Soil pH: 6.0 – 7.0

Maintenance / Care: Low

Attracts: Visual Attention, Butterflies

Resistances: Cold temperatures (-20F / Zone 5), Deer, Disease, Drought (when established), Heat, Humidity, Insect

Description

Lemon thyme is great in the garden and the kitchen, and easy to grow. Although it looks like English thyme it tastes and smells like lemon. Use lemon thyme in any recipe that calls for lemon, including marinades, teas and other hot or cold drinks. Lemon thyme grows vigorously, so you can trim it back regularly at any time of year for culinary uses, and to keep it neat and compact. Evergreen in zones 8 and 9, the plant can be sheared into a tiny hedge if you are looking to create a knot garden. It can also be grown in containers situated outdoors or indoors on a windowsill. A really pretty thyme that is even more attractive during midsummer when abundant clusters of soft lilac flowers sit atop the foliage.

Landscape & Garden Uses

Growing to 6 to 12 inches tall and spreading to 18 inches or more over time, Lemon Thyme is ideal for use in the landscape or edible garden as a border along paths and walkways or massed as a groundcover or underplanting for shrubs, roses and small trees, such as Japanese maples. Also excellent as a soil cover and spiller plant in pots, planters and other containers. Can be trimmed regularly to form a low, tight hedge. A fine addition to herb gardens, edible landscape gardens, rock gardens and the Xeriscape (low water needs).

Suggested Spacing: 15 inches for mass planting or solid borders

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Growing Preferences

When planted right and in the right spot, Lemon Thyme is easy to grow. It grows best in light, lightly moist to dry well-drained soil and full sun. We suggest at least 6 hours or more of dir3ect sunlight per day. Will tolerate rainy periods but constantly soggy or wet soil is a killer. So make sure to plant in a well-drained site! Harvest leaves as needed in the morning after dew has dried or before flowering in midsummer.

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