I have held National Plant Collection ® of Thymus
since the beginning of 1995. Over the years I have done a considerable amount of
research into the names of thymes currently available in the nursery trade. It
soon became apparent that the nomenclatural muddle was even greater than at
first envisaged. However, in consultation with the RHS Advisory Panel on
Nomenclature and Taxonomy, I am gradually resolving some of this muddle. The
results of this work, including new names where necessary, can be seen each year
in the new edition of the RHS Plant Finder.
I run a backgarden nursery, LW Plants, and when I sell thymes at plant sales and
shows, I generally find that the most popular creeping thymes are those with
dark crimson flowers.
Currently this thyme is listed in the RHS Plant Finder as Thymus 'Coccineus'.
However, although plants available under this name usually have small oval
leaves, some have small round leaves and for this reason I feel it would be more
appropriate to treat these plants as part of a cultivar-group. In addition
several thymes have been selected by nurserymen and been given cultivar names; T.
serpyllum 'Atropurpureus', T. s 'Purpurteppich' and its seedling T.
'Purple Kiss' from Germany, T.s. 'Purple Beauty' from the Netherlands
and T. 'Red Elf' from Britain. T. 'Hardstoft Red' has cream
variegated leaves and is a sport which occurred at Hardstoft Herb Garden in
Derbyshire. Although most creeping thyme growing in the wild has flowers in
various shades of pink and mauve, we have found dark crimson plants growing at
Malham in North Yorkshire. All these thymes have flowers 78A (Purple Group) with
a darker centre 71A (Red-Purple Group). The use of the epithet serpyllum
for these cultivars should be considered to be T. serpyllum auct. not T.
serpyllum L. The Linnaean epithet has been widely misapplied to the common
wild and cultivated thyme in this country and such plants are currently placed
in T. polytrichus subsp. britannicus. I am involved in ongoing
research into the distinctness of these two taxa.
The earliest reference I have found is in the 1889 catalogue of Backhouse of
York, where it is listed as Thymus serpyllum coccineus and the description reads
'Too much can scarcely be said in praise of this beautiful variety of the
mountain thyme forming as it does, perfect sheets of rich crimson blossoms'.
Craven Nursery of Ingleborough listed it in 1902 and 1906 as Thymus serpyllum
coccineus, describing it as 'deep magenta' and Six Hills Nursery of Stevenage
listed it from 1910. It became widely available after the First World War as
Thymus serpyllum coccineus from nurseries such as Ingwersens, Robinsons, Orchard
Neville Nurseries, Stuart Boothman, Blooms of Bressingham, etc. It has also been
awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit.
It is proposed that the name Thymus Coccineus Group should be used to
designate dark crimson (78A/71A) creeping thyme with hairs on two sides of the
stems and either round or oval leaves. Plants selected by nurserymen and given
cultivar names will retain these names within the Coccineus Group, but without
the specific name for the cultivars T. 'Atropurpureus', T. 'Purple
Beauty' and T. 'Purpurteppich'. The Latin form of the epithet Coccineus
is permissible as it is based on the pre1958 usage as a cultivar for plants that
now fall within the new Group. There are however cultivars, either with dark
crimson flowers, or with the epithet Coccineus, which should not be included in
the new Group. Thymus s. coccineus 'Minor', which was introduced by
Blooms of Bressingham in 1961, has much paler, purple-pink flowers 78C; T. s.
coccineus 'Major', which was introduced by Six Hills Nursery in 1914, is
probably a hybrid of T. pulegioides; and T. s. 'Fulney Red' has
dark crimson flowers 78A, but the centre of the flower is white and not 71A.
This article was first published in Plant Heritage Vol. 8 No. 2, Autumn 2001
Page updated April 2005