Jekkas thyme variety comparison

I wrote a previous post comparing different varieties of thyme.  Some were clearly better than others, some were far more vigorous than others.  Out of all the varieties of thyme I have grown over the years, the real stand out has been Jekkas Thyme.  

In my climate, Jekka's thyme grows far more vigorously than any other thyme variety.  It grows more stems, each stem has more leaves, and each leaf is larger than regular thyme.  It has more flowers, and larger flowers than regular thyme.  In my climate Jekkas thyme quickly grows, it throws down roots wherever a node touches the soil, meaning it can form  dense and expanding clump quickly.  

Regular thyme on the left, jekkas thyme on the right

For me, I find both varieties taste and smell much the same, and they both change over the season.  I can't easily tell the difference in taste, perhaps Jekkas thyme is slightly stronger, but not significantly so.  I don't think the average gardener or home cook could tell the difference in taste.  Perhaps I'm wrong and some foodie will correct me on this point and smugly point out how one is ever so slightly more [something] than the other, or one has more subtle notes of [insert some term I have no idea what it means].  

Below are some photos of regular culinary thyme next to Jekka's thyme for comparison. You will get a good idea of what I mean about Jekkas thyme being a superior variety.  

Regular thyme comparison with Jekkas thyme

Take a look at the sprigs of thyme below.   Both plants were growing in my garden over the past few years and have been treated the same, so the difference is due to superior genetics.  

The two sprigs on the left are regular thyme, the two on the right are Jekkas thyme.  It is pretty easy to tell them apart even from a distance.  

Comparison of Thyme sprigs

What you can see clearly in these photos is that the leaves of Jekkas thyme are very large for a variety of thyme.  

Not only are the leaves far larger, but there are a lot more leaves per sprig.  Jekkas thyme tends to produce a lot more sprigs than regular thyme, and if allowed to will develop into a sprawling ground cover.  

I like to grow Jekkas thyme where it can trail over the side of things.  I really like how it looks when in bloom and cascading over the edge of a garden bed.  

Jekkas thyme blooming, good for bees

Raised garden bed draped in Jekka's thyme

Regular thyme vs Jekkas thyme

These varieties of thyme also flower differently.  I don't know the best way to describe this, but you can see that regular thyme flowers up the stalk.  The flowers are small, they are spaced out, and there are not many of them.  This means that bees or other pollinators need to do a lot of work to collect nectar and pollen from thyme flowers.   

Jekkas thyme mostly flowers in a dense clump at the end of a stalk.  There are more flowers, each flower is larger, and they are closer together.  I think this looks prettier.  

As there are more flowers, each flower with larger nectaries, bees collect nectar from them rather efficiently.  The bees spend less time searching for flowers (or less time and effort travelling between flowers) as the flowers are all there together.  This means they collect more honey, and they collect it faster.  This means more honey for the hive, and more time for the bees to be doing other things.  It is a win-win, the bees win twice.  

Thyme flower comparison

Rather than just mentioning how much more leaves you get from Jekkas thyme than regular thyme, I thought I would show photos of just how much more productive this variety is than regular thyme.  

I took two sprigs of thyme, and two sprigs of Jekkas thyme, stripped off the lower leaves, and put them in piles for comparison.  I don't tend to use the leaves at the very tips of the sprigs because the sprig tends to break if I try to pull them off.  

At this stage the remaining sprigs, with their few leaves, could be planted and grown into new plants.  

Yield comparison Jekkas thyme

The sprigs were all similar in length (the regular thyme sprigs may be ever so slightly longer), and the plants were grown under the same conditions in the same garden.  The difference in yield between the two varieties is quite remarkable.  

On the left are the small leaves of regular thyme.  On the right is a significantly larger pile of leaves from Jekka's thyme.  There is simply no comparison in terms of yield.  

If you are going to bother growing any edible herb, you may as well grow an improved variety that provides more food for the same amount of time and effort.  

While Jekkas thyme used to be rare and difficult to find in Australia, I am glad to say that it is now easy to find.  Most garden shops seem to sell it, as do a few online plant sellers.  I also sell Jekkas thyme plants through my for sale page and it easily survives postage with no issues if it is given some water to get it established.