Silver Thyme

Silver Thyme, Thymus vulgaris Argenteus, is a variegated culinary thyme grown for both its kitchen use and its ornamental silver-edged foliage. Its small gray-green leaves are margined and splashed with creamy white to silver, giving the low mounding plant a frosted, luminous appearance that brightens herb beds and containers, sometimes flushing pink in cold weather. It retains the warm, savory flavor of common thyme and can be used interchangeably in cooking. The evergreen subshrub grows 6 to 12 inches tall with pale lilac flowers in summer that draw pollinators. Hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9, it needs full sun and well-drained soil and tolerates drought once established. Because the variegation does not come true from seed, Silver Thyme is propagated from cuttings or division. It is prized as a dual ornamental and culinary herb.