How To Grow Creeping Thyme Magic Carpet From Seeds

Creeping Thyme (Thymus Serpyllum Magic Carpet) is a beautiful, low-growing ground cover perennial. This pink thyme with lemon fragrance is ideal for rock gardens, along walkways, gap-filler between stone steps or cascading out of containers.

The scented Thyme blooms attract bees and butterflies. The plants are deer and rabbit resistant.

Magic Carpet Thyme is a hardy plant with a short habit growth of 2 - 4 inches tall and a spread up to 24 inches wide. This dense evergreen perennial is a low maintenance plant, drought tolerant when established.  

Sow Creeping Thyme seeds in starter trays indoors 6 weeks before the last expected frost. This will allow the roots to develop and become strong enough before transplanting outdoors, then establish themselves through the growing season.

Scatter the Creeping Thyme seeds over the starting mix soil. Then press the Thyme seeds into the soil, but do not cover them. They need light to germinate. For a great germination rate a good seed to soil contact is required.

Keep the soil consistently moist during the germination - germination time is 14-21 days at 65 to 70°F.

Transplant the young seedlings into the garden 12 inches apart when seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall - large enough to plant out in the garden. When transplanting spoon out the seedlings to prevent damaging the stem by lifting them. 

Hardened off before transplanting outdoors. Accustom young plants to outdoor conditions by placing them outside during the day and bringing them back inside for the cold nights.

If the temperatures remain warm both day and night (above 50 Fahrenheit) keep the young Magic Carpet plants in a sheltered place outside for a week.

When the temperature is at least 50 Fahrenheit, seedlings should be able to manage more and more sunlight and can be left outdoors overnight.   

Magic Carpet thrives when gets at least four hours of sun per day, but can also tolerate partial shade.

Magic Carpet is a creeping thyme which accepts a wide range of soils as long as the drainage is good. However, Creeping Thyme will not develop well in a soil with high clay or sandy content. 

Creeping thyme is a slow grower and will take more than one season to develop at its full potential.

Creeping Thyme Magic Carpet is a ground cover that can handle moderate foot traffic.