Culinary Thyme: comparison of five varieties

I have grown a lot of varieties of thyme over the years.  People often describe a variety, yet irritatingly no one ever seems to compare different varieties.

Jekkas Thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, Regular thyme

I wrote a comparison of thyme varieties a while ago, and thought I would do another quick comparison.  

My tabor thyme and regular thyme are just about the be phased out.  They take too much effort to grow for too little reward, they grow too slowly, they don't produce enough leaves, and my Jekkas thyme has largely swamped them with its incredible vigorous growth.  

Jekka's thyme grows so fast, and produces so many leaves and tremendous numbers of flowers in spring, it really is hard to go past this variety.

Five varieties of edible thyme

I thought I would show you the amount of leaves per sprig of each variety, as well as the different sizes of leaves between each variety. 

All of these photos from left to right have: Jekka's thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, and regular kitchen thyme.

As you can see, regular thyme (on the far right) has few leaves per stem, and the leaves are small. 

Orange peel thyme has tiny leaves, and the plant doesn't grow very large, but nothing else really smells of orange peel.  I am growing this for now but will eventually lose it as it grows slow and will likely get over run by something and starved of light.

The lemon thyme has small leaves, but makes up for that in smelling like lemons as well as thyme, and having a lot of leaves per stem. 

Tabor thyme is good, it has large leaves and good numbers of leaves per stem.  It needs a bit of extra water to get through summer.

Jekka's thyme (on the far left) has larger leaves and the leaves usually aren't too sparse.

Five leaves: Jekka's thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, Regular thyme

It would take a lot of regular thyme to get a decent amount of leaves as they have so few leave on a stems, and the leaves are so tiny.  Jekka's thyme and Tabor thyme each have a lot more leaves, and the leaves on both are much larger than regular kitchen thyme.  The taste of all of these is much the same.

The incredible rate that Jekka's thyme grows and spreads means that getting a decent harvest really doesn't take too long.  Any place a stem touches the soil it seems to put down roots.

Thyme leaf comparison - ruler for scale

All of these thyme varieties seem to cope well with heavy frosts.  They don't grow much over winter, but they don't die or decline either.  

I know garden books always speak of how thyme is drought resistant, but none of them love dry conditions.  Tabor thyme seems to perform the worst in the dry.  Perhaps my garden is drier and more harsh than most, but I have never seen any variety of thyme that can survive drought without extra water.

Jekkas thyme, Tabor thyme, and regular kitchen thyme all smell and taste much the same.  I sometimes think Jekka's thyme may be a little stronger, but that changes with the weather or something.

Jekka's thyme also flowers like crazy in spring, while my other varieties of thyme always flower very sparingly.  The bees and other beneficial insects seem to love thyme blossom so the huge numbers of them on Jekka's thyme is a benefit to spring bees.

Jekka's thyme flowers

Jekkas Thyme starting to flower

Out of these thyme varieties I prefer Jekka's thyme as it is the most productive and very simple to grow.  I won't grow many varieties of thyme for much longer because it is too hard stopping Jekka's thyme from overrunning the other slower growing but similar tasting varieties.  There is no real point trying to protect a poor performer when I have a stand out like Jekkas thyme.

Jekkas thyme used to be rare in Australia, but I am happy to say that it is becoming far more common.  I sell bare rooted Jekkas thyme plants through my for sale page, and I may sell other varieties of thyme on occasion.

Venus Flytrap Winter Dormancy

I have been growing carnivorous plants for more years that I care to admit.  I have grown a lot of different species over the years, some were simple while others had more complex needs.  As with most people, the Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) started it all for me.  

Venus Flytraps perform best with winter dormancy.  At first their dormancy was a scary mystery, now I understand dormancy a little better I know it is nothing to be worried about. 

Last year my son wanted a venus flytrap.  I gave him a small typical venus flytrap, and he looked after it really well.  The thing grew really large, got some great colouration, then when winter hit it went dormant and looked like it was dead.  All of this is fantastic and shows he was looking after his plant properly.

Contrary to what most people have been told, venus flytraps are not tropical plants.  They do well in areas that are frosty over winter.  I grow them outside, certainly never in a terrarium, and allow them to be hit with frosts and ice and hail and snow.  When days get short and cold my Venus flytraps experience partial or complete dormancy. 

My son's venus fly trap looks horrible over winter, and he worried that he had killed it.  I had to assure him that this was a great sign and that he was doing everything right.  We repotted the plant ready for spring, and I showed him the healthy fat white rhizome, and he felt a lot better about his plant.  I expect this to grow well and divide in spring.  It should make three or more plants for him.

Pictures of my son's dormant Venus flytrap are below.  Once repotted it still looked utterly dreadful, before being repotted it looked like the moss was going to over take it.  

To be clear, (apart from the moss) this is normal and healthy for a venus flytrap in my climate.

Dormant VFT repotted (ignore the tiny sundews) and ready for spring growth

The same vft before repotting - not much to look at

Different varieties of venus flytrap seem to cope with winter differently even if they are growing side by side.  This different in growth is due to their genetics.

The picture below shows how they some of my plants coped with dormancy this year.  Note that all have small traps and short leaves, just as they should over winter.  None of them are large magnificent plants over winter.  If they did look great over winter then something would be terribly wrong and they would likely rot and die in spring.

Various Venus Flytraps at the end of winter

Some of the venus flytraps pretty much disappeared, like Nanuq's plant, but the rhizome under ground is strong and healthy.  This is normal and healthy.

Others retained some above ground growth, but looked very shabby.  Leaves were shorter and sometimes the traps were weird and mis-shapen.  This is normal and healthy for these ones, and in spring I expect them to grow well.

These Venus Flytraps retained some growth over winter

Some of my larger, more upright venus flytraps go dormant in a different way.  Over summer they have large traps and upright growth.  Over winter they grow shorter leaves that stay close the the ground, and the traps produced over winter are much smaller.  

Again, this is normal and healthy.  That is how they do their dormancy.  If they kept growing large upright leaves over winter I would expect them to rot and die in spring.

Once the weather warms they will have upright growth and large traps again (and probably a flower stalk).  For now they are doing everything they should be doing.

'Big Vigorous' VFT has short leaves low to the ground over winter

 

Breaking dormancy, low winter leaves and tall summer leaves

Other vft varieties never have upright growth, 'Low Giant' is an example of this.  Over winter the rosette becomes more compact than normal as the petioles are shorter and the traps much smaller. 

This plant is also healthy and strong, exactly what I would expect to see over winter.  You may notice at the top of the picture some tiny plants, these came from a flower stalk cutting.

I need to repot and divide this plant soon.

Low Giant VFT over winter

Towards the end of winter/beginning of spring I usually try to repot my Venus Flytraps. 

Often they have divided a little and most have a large plant and one or two small offsets.  Some varieties are a bit more vigorous and will have up to half a dozen small divisions.  Others, such as Wally, can have a dozen or more divisions.  This has a lot to do with their genetics, and a bit to do with how well they were grown.

Sometimes when I am dividing plants that are emerging from dormancy I will also take a few leaf pullings.  I probably should wait until warmer weather for leaf pullings, but depending on the variety many will grow a baby plant or two even at this time of year.

Tiny VFT divisions - super cute but will grow fast

Vft divisions, and some leaf pullings

If you want to buy a venus flytrap it is sometimes difficult to find a good variety unless they are posted.  Luckily Venus flytraps do go extremely well through the post.  Apart from the ones I have grown from seed, I think all of my Venus flytraps were posted to me bare rooted.

I will have some 'typical' venus flytraps for sale and should have some named varieties for sale in late spring.  Many of my typical vfts are superior named varieties but I have lost their names, others are seed grown, and I think that all of them are pretty great.  Keep an eye on my for sale page in late spring/early summer if you are interested.

Drosera binata over winter

I have always wanted to grow Drosera binata because I really like the look of them.  They are a common, easy to grow, relatively hardy, Australian native carnivorous plants.  

I have grown carnivorous plants for many years and always wanted a binata.  For some inexplicable reason I was never able to get a binata until last year.

Last year I bought a D binata t form.  The t form is meant to be small but hardy, I am told this one will survive pretty much anything and is not meant to have any problems with the winters here. 

The plant turned up looking rather shabby, and declined very quickly.  Not too long after it arrived all above ground growth disappeared completely.  Spring came, and still no growth.  After a few months of warm weather and no signs of growth I figured it was dead.  I kept it in a tray of water, but was pretty sure it was never coming back and had planned to plant another sundew in its pot at a later stage.

A very generous person (Shane) then sent me some of his binata plants.  They were a different form, the leaves were thicker and more branched, and they looked great.  I had no idea if they would be likely to survive my winter but was more than willing to give them a try.

Drosera binata t form last winter

A few weeks after that my original binata t form came back to life.  Apparently it was just dormant, and it stayed dormant really late into spring.  

All the plants grew through summer, they flowered and set seed, and looked tired at the end of autumn.  Having several genetically different plants meant that they all set seed and there were not self-incompatibility issues.

I planted some seed, and now also have some tiny binata seedlings.

Then winter came.  My binata t form has lost all above ground parts.  The other plants have died back a lot but still look alive.  I can still see the growing points and a few new leaves unfurling.

I kept the binata seedlings sheltered, they sure don't love winter, but are appear to be surviving.  I expect to see some nice growth from them once the weather warms in spring and I give them more sun.

Drosera binata over winter

Drosera binata t form this winter

It appears that my binata t form loses all above ground parts over winter, and the larger form dies back a lot but still looks alive.  This is good to know.  

I have no idea how the seedlings will fare, I have a feeling that there is a bit of genetic diversity amongst them and I may end up with a range of things.  I have some seedlings in pots with venus flytraps out in the frost, some of these seedlings seem to be growing through winter while most of the others are dying back.  

Olive herb (Santolina rosmarinifolia)

I am growing a few new plants this year.  Some are species that I am familiar with but varieties that I have never grown, others are plants that I have never grown, and some I have only ever heard of but never actually seen. 

One edible herb I have been looking for years is called olive herb (Santolina rosmarinifolia).  

This is not 'olive leaf', which is just the leaves of the olive tree, this is a little perennial edible herb that smells like olives.

Olive Herb

I have been searching for this plant for a few years, but never seem to be able to buy it.  I am told that this plant withstands light frosts, but not heavy ones.  I am also told it smells and tastes like olives.  Other than that I know little of this herb.

Recently my kid's swimming teacher offered to keep an eye out for it.  Amazingly within a few weeks she found it and bought one for me!  Then a few weeks later I went to Bunnings and they had these plants for sale too.  

I now have a small olive herb plant.  I am keeping it partly protected from frosts in its little pot for now, and once the weather warms up I plan to plant it in the vegetable garden and see how it performs for me.  

This plant smells nice.  Other than brush my hand over the plant and smell it I haven't done anything with it yet, so can't comment on the taste or anything like that. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what this little plant can do.

 

Update 12/11/2021: my plant survived winter, grew a little taller, has been planted in the veggie garden, and is starting to flower.  I really like the smell of this plant, it has quickly become one of my favourite herbs.  I have cut a little and used it as 'garnish' on top of spaghetti bolognese and similar meals.  Olive herb goes really well with spaghetti bolognese!

Venus Flytrap - Wally

A year or two ago I was sent two lovely "Wally" Venus flytraps from a very generous friend as a surprise.  I had no idea that this was being sent until I opened the package!  All the pictures below are of my Wally Venus Flytrap plants.

I grow a few different flytraps, some are named varieties, others are seed grown, some have upright growth, some always stay close to the ground, some produce clumps, some are colourful, and others are very green.  Plants grown side by side often look and perform differently as they have different genetics.

I'm not sure how many different venus flytrap clones are in Australia, out of all of the ones I have grown so far my favourite clone, and the easiest venus fly trap to grow, is this Wally Venus flytrap.  

Wally Venus Flytrap

Wally VFT

I made a blog post with pictures of the growth rate of Wally VFT over a year.  This is the most vigorous flytrap I have ever grown.

Wally has large traps, stays low to the ground, has great colour, is very vigorous, it either grows impressively large or clumps like crazy (I don't know how it decides which to do), and it survives some really harsh conditions that would kill many other varieties.  Wally is my fastest growing Venus flytrap, and it produces far more natural divisions each year than any of the other varieties that I grow.  

Being so hardy, and so impressive looking with incredible colour and very large traps, I think Wally would be a great Venus flytrap for beginners.

I wish I understood what makes it clump and what makes it grow into a large plant.  The two larger plants above produced the two clumps lower down in this page.

To give you a better understanding of Wally Venus Flytraps I figured I would cut and paste some descriptions from the breeder and a few other places.

Wally Venus Flytrap

Descriptions 

1) Description from Sam1greentmb (the breeder of this variety who has also developed more VFT cultivars than I have ever seen):

This is an incredibly beautiful cultivar which I grew some time ago. It came from the seeds of a "Big Mouth" Venus flytrap. The plant sometimes clusters into many plants, or it grows as a single plant and turns gigantic in size!

What does Wally have that many other Venus flytraps do not?
It always has red purple traps throughout the seasons, not just during cool weather. Wally also can give out the most amazing dark red purple traps when grown under artificial lighting. This colour is the most darkest red, intense red purple colour of any venus flytrap cultivar that I know!

Wally Venus Flytrap - my baby plant is growing well

2) Description from FlytrapStore:

If you like Big Mouth and Low Giant, you'll love Wally! Wally is very similar in neat growth habit, with its year-round ground-hugging big traps, but can impressively develop even more exceptional and eye-catching bright red coloration on its trap interiors. It reproduces more than most other Venus flytraps, producing baby Wally flytraps so you can have more Wallys! Not to mention, it's one of the hardiest Venus Flytraps we know of. Everything to like about this one - it has become one of our favorites since being able to acquire it.

Wally originates from Venus flytrap grower and breeder, Sam1greentmb. In his description, Wally distinguishes itself from other flytraps by its ability to get very large or clump a lot and because it has red-purple traps throughout all seasons (provided it gets good sunlight), not just in cool weather. And it gets the deepest purpled-colored traps Sam has ever seen.  'Purple Ambush' is the most colorful Venus flytrap we've ever seen.

Wally vft clumping - divided into 2 very large plants and 12 smaller plants

Another Wally VFT clumping over winter

 3) Description of Wally VFT from https://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/wally-has-arrived-t16844-15.html 

Some of the features Wally has that I think are catching are its low to the ground growth and it seems to hold its coloration even in the hot hot parts of the summer while most of the rest of my VFTs lose lots of their color and it tends to be a clumper.

Wally won't get deep purple traps without strong light but does get deep red traps without strong light. In that way it colors up very easily. Even my Wallys from Matt, have a lot of color on them for plants not too long out of TC and not in one of my sunnier spots in my yard either.

Wally gets about as big as a Big Mouth, which was its parent plant. But it has even shorter leaves than Big Mouth does and can get even more purplish in its traps than Big Mouth too. I've seen my Wallys red all over with purple traps before. It almost can be called a red clone. 

It also tends to multiply like crazy. One large plant can make 15 or more natural divisions a year easily. Keep in mind this is strictly from natural division, unaffected by TC at all. Who knows what the TCed ones will do. Wally also is a pretty fast grower and I have found can grow at a good pace in cooler temperatures as well just like B52 can, unlike all other clones that I know. For example, Wally can put on decent growth even in the high 60s (16-21C) and overcast.

IMO, there's not much point in buying a Big Mouth if you can get a Wally instead. Wally has more pronounced features of all the features that Big Mouth has that has made it popular. It's like a super Big Mouth.

Wally has darker color, not just that it tans darker and easier as well but the green non-tanned color is a darker hue of green as well. Wally grows faster than Big Mouth too. The deep purple tan it gets in its traps is darker than the purple tan that Big Mouth gets. When I saw my Wallys tan really dark the whole plant was red. There may have been some dark green in a few tiny spots not well exposed to the sun but the plant was basically 95% red or purple. I've never seen my Big Mouths do that though I have seen them mostly red and purple all over before too.

There is not much more I can add to these descriptions, these people have grown far more venus flytrap varieties than I have even seen, so they really know their stuff.

I plan to divide more of my Wally venus flytraps in spring.  If you are a carnivorous plant collector and would like to swap some plants please let me know as I have divided my plants and should have a few extra plants late spring/early summer.  My contact details can be found on my for sale page where I sell other carnivorous plants and perennial vegetables and things. 

Wally Venus Flytrap colouring up nicely

Burdock and salsify - obscure root vegetables

This year I grew some vegetables that I had never grown or eaten before.  Burdock (Arctium lappa) and salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius).  Although, now that I think about it I did find salsify growing as a roadside weed once, collected some seeds, grew some, and moved house before getting to eat any.

Budock and salsify are ancient root vegetables that are pretty rare here.  Only a few people seem to have heard of them, and they often talk highly about both of these vegetables.  So I thought I should grow some and taste them myself.

Both plants grew in similar conditions, I gave them full sun and a little water.  They grew over summer and died back over winter when we harvested them.  The salsify didn't die back completely, the burdock went from large impressively lush plants to nothing above soil in the blink of an eye.  Luckily I remembered where I planted them so I could dig up some roots to eat.

Burdock, Salsify, and Skirret

Burdock

The burdock grew rather large leaves that look similar to rhubarb.  The hottest days of summer scorched the leaves a bit, but it didn't seem to bother the plants too much. 

Burdock is said to be biennial, I am told it will flower and die next year.  I dug up some roots to eat, and replanted the stump to grow/flower over the warmer months.  I'm not sure if that is the best way to do things, but it seemed to make sense to me.

The roots were very long and went deep into the soil.  Most snapped off as I dug them and I didn't dig deep enough to get them all.  The yield per plant, had I dug up all the roots, probably would have been pretty decent for the amount of space they took.

Burdock plant - large leaves

Burdock in the garden

Salsify

Salsify grows as a roadside weed around here.  It has long strappy leaves.  I am told that it is perennial, but have a feeling it may be biennial too.  These easily handled summer heat, and seemed to cope with little water.

I expected the roots to grow long and fat like carrots, but all were thing and short and twisted.  I found the yield per plant to be disappointing, but that may have been my fault for not growing them properly.  They were very easy to grow, so a small yield isn't a deal breaker.

Salsify plant has strappy leaves

Harvest

I dug up some burdock and salsify during winter.  

I don't know the best way to cook them.  I tried some of each raw, that wasn't terrible but I won't be doing that again.

We washed the roots, cut them into small lengths, and roasted them.  We also roasted some skirret, pumpkin, and potatoes too.  I figured that would give us a good comparison of roasted root vegetables.  

The burdock, salsify, and skirret needed far less cooking time than the pumpkin and potato.

Burdock on left, salsify on right

 

The big fat things are the burdock crowns, you can see the growing point where the leaves will emerge from.  I removed the roots for cooking and replanted the crowns.  Hopefully they will grow and flower this year to produce seed.  I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but it made sense to me at the time.  Hopefully I haven't killed them.

I have never grown burdock before so this is all part of the learning curve.

Burdock crowns - roots removed before replanting

Burdock and Salsify Taste

Both burdock and salsify were simple to grow, burdock gave a decent yield and salsify a very small yield, but none of that matters compared to their taste.  I am glad we roasted them with other root vegetables as a comparison.

Out of all the vegetables I ate that evening I love the taste of skirret the most.  It is sweet and wholesome and delicious.  I rank potato and pumpkin next, they taste both good. 

Far behind them I would rank burdock as a distance fourth place in my preference.  I didn't hate it, but didn't particularly like it.  I would eat it again, but there are plenty of other things I would prefer to eat.

Salsify didn't taste great to me and I rank it as fifth.  I didn't hate it, but it sure didn't impress me.  To me it tasted kind of like carrot but without any sweetness.  Perhaps roasting is not the best way to cook salsify?

Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I am becoming a food snob after eating all the other things I grow, maybe they taste ok but the other roasted veggies we had that night were all better so by comparison it was lacking, maybe these taste better if they were cooked in other ways, maybe other people love the taste and it just doesn't appeal to me, I really don't know.  If you get a chance to try burdock and salsify I still say give them a go.  Who knows, perhaps you will love them.