Creeping Thyme
Thymus serpyllum
A low, creeping, aromatic groundcover for between stepping stones, along paths and over rocks, smothered in tiny pink-purple flowers through summer that bees and butterflies love, and deer and rabbits leave it alone. It thrives in sun and poor, gritty soil. Overwatering or heavy, poorly drained soil rots it.
- Mature size
- 2 × 6 in
- 5 cm × 0.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- Jun–Sep
Creeping Thyme at its mature size
A mature Creeping Thyme grows 1 to 2 inches tall and 4 to 8 inches wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Monrovia.
Through the year
What Creeping Thyme looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Winter · Dec–Mar
Low mat still green, a little duller, with a slight bronze cast on the tips; a living mat, not dead brown.
In leaf · Apr–May, Jul–Nov
Dense flat mat of tiny gray-green leaves.
In flower · Jun
Mat dotted with tiny pink-lavender flowers.
Photos
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Growing Creeping Thyme
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Groundcover, drought tolerant, deer resistant, pollinators, and fragrant
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Northern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Creeping Thyme, that’s about 6 in apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Creeping Thyme in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.