Learn How To Prune Thyme: Steps for Healthier Plants

When you learn how to prune thyme the right way you will get a much healthier plant that you can enjoy for many years.

This post will answer everything you need to know about how, when, and why you should be pruning your thyme plant. Keep reading so you can gain the knowledge and skills to confidently maintain your thyme throughout the seasons.

Growing Thyme in the Garden

What would an herb garden be without a thyme plant. This lovely, woody, perennial, aromatic, easy herb makes a great addition to any garden bed. Thyme is great for borders due to its low growing and mound like shape.

It is also perfect to use as a ground cover or living mulch as it loves full sun. Thyme will help retain moisture in your soil, suppress weeds, and provide habitat for beneficial bugs.

Also, I was watching a video on Charles Dowding’s youtube channel the other day called “Growing and using herbs, with Jekka McVicar”. In this video (about 19 minutes in) Jekka said that bees are not going to thyme plants to collect necter or pollen, but they visit those plants to heal themselves.

Can I just say mind blown… that is possibly the single most amazing thing I have heard. Another great reason why I love growing thyme and other herbs of that same Lamiaceae family.

Thyme is a very hardy plant and is very drought tolerant which is great if you live in a hot and dry climate. It actually prefers dry conditions. You will notice more of an issue if thyme gets too much water as it is very prone to root rot. So be sure to grow thyme in well-drained soil so any excess water can be moved away from the roots.

This herb has been used since ancient times. It is still very popular today in the kitchen as well as for aromatherapy, and other fun projects such as herb bouquets, wreaths, or sachets.

Thyme is also very easy to propagate from seed, by layering or with cuttings.

Does Thyme Need to be Pruned?

Yes – it is very important to regularly prune your thyme plant. This will encourage your plant to be bushier and more compact which is what you want. Regular pruning will promote new, fresh growth that will have the best flavour and aroma come harvest time.

If you let your thyme grow too long without pruning and re-shaping, you will end up with a lot of woody stems and fewer and fewer leaves.

Another great thing that I have noticed in my garden is that by pruning, you allow more light into the center of the plant. In turn this will again create more leaves with better colour.

I find this to be especially true when growing lemon thyme. You will notice that if lemon thyme does not get enough direct sunlight, the leaves will not be as variegated which is one of the main draws for that variety.

Lastly, you should trim thyme regularly, so it does not get too large or take up too much space. Although I would not consider it an invasive herb by any means, it will slowly take over a large space if you let it.

You can produce all the thyme you need in a relatively small area. If you let your thyme plant, get too big then that could become wasted space where you could be growing other varieties of herbs. Who doesn’t love some variety in life!

When Should you Prune Thyme?

Thyme should be frequently pruned throughout the growing season to maintain its shape. I like to go around my garden about once per week with a pair of sharp scissors and see what needs pruning.

It is also great practice to continually prune your thyme as you harvest it for fresh use. When I harvest from any of my herbs, I always cut as if I am pruning. Even if there are woody parts you don’t want to use in the kitchen, still cut them from the plant as you would to maintain a healthy plant and a good shape. You can always toss any other woody parts in the compost later if needed.

You can prune as often as you would like, just make sure that you do not take too much at one time. Small frequent pruning throughout the spring and summer is the best.

The best time of day you will want to prune is in the morning just after the dew has evaporated and dried but before the heat of the day. With that being said, if you are coming home late from work in the evening and need thyme for your dinner then of course go for it.

After your thyme plant flowers it is also a good idea to do some pruning. You can prune a little harder by removing the top 1/3 of the plant. By deadheading the flowers you will encourage the plant to focus more on growing new tender stems and leaves which is what we are looking for. This will also stop your thyme from becoming too woody.

Of course remember to share with the bees and other pollinators before deadheading those thyme flowers. I often plant herbs throughout my veggie garden and landscaping just for the pollinators.

Tools Needed to Prune Thyme

The best tool to use to prune your thyme plant is just a pair of clean scissors. When pruning you are only cutting through the soft new growth as opposed to any of the woodier, tougher stems.

If you are doing a larger cut back in early spring or late fall and removing some of that woodier growth, then you will want to use clean shears.

This is one of the wonderful things about herbs. They really do not take much to maintain. As long as you have sharp, clean tools when pruning or cutting back it will be all good.

How to Prune Thyme

In order to prune your thyme successfully it is important to know how much to cut off.

When you look at a thyme plant you will notice the stem closer to the tip is lighter green and more pliable, as that stem gets closer to the ground and the base of the plant it will turn more woody. When pruning you are only focusing on the upper level with the newer, fresher, greener stems.

I always like to make clean cuts just above a set of leaves. This is where the nodes are and that is the best way to jumpstart new growth on a plant. Also it looks nicer to have these little leaves left at the top of the stem.

Some other areas to focus on when pruning thyme are if you notice any dead flowers, insect damage or dead foliage, as well as sick parts of the plant. It is always important to remove these things so that you do not have any spread to the rest of the plant.

Also dead and sick foliage on a plant is a huge attractor that will invite bad insects to come in. The healthier your plants are the less pest pressure you will notice.

It is always good to watch your plant a little closer after pruning especially if you have done a larger pruning. You will want to make sure the colour still looks good and that you start to see new growth happening. If you don’t, you can give it a little more water, or fertilizer to provide a boost to get growing again.

When you are pruning you want to have an overall shape in mind for your plant. Always continuously work toward that shape with each sprig of thyme you cut.

What to do with thyme sprigs after you have pruned them

After pruning sprigs of thyme you can remove the leaves from the stem before adding to your recipes, or you can add whole sprig to a soup or stew and then take it out after cooking is complete.

Another very fun way to add thyme sprigs to soup is in an herbal soup wreath.

If you are drying your thyme I would leave the leaves and stems intact. You can either make a small bundle for hanging to dry or spread them out evening in a food dehydrator. After they have dried, you can remove the leaves and store in an airtight container.

Thyme can also be frozen your used in recipes like herb butters for later use.

And of course lets not forget that you could re-root those thyme cuttings to create new plants.

Pruning woody herbs and overgrown thyme

If you have inherited a very overgrown thyme plant, or just been busy and your thyme plant has gotten away from you and is now super overgrown…then this section is for you.

To tackle a very overgrown thyme plant you will need to do it in stages.

You can start to lightly shape your thyme throughout the summer, but your major project will start in the fall about a month before your first frost.

It is important not to cut back too much all at once as you will risk losing your plant entirely. When the fall comes around, you will want to cut back about 1/3 of the plant including some of the woody, straggly, stems.

The following year in spring you can do some more shaping and cut back further to get the shape you are going for. Again, do not remove more than 1/3 of your plant.

The spring cut should be a little less drastic than the fall cut. Continue to maintain the shape throughout the summer. Then when fall comes back around you can do another larger cut back. Repeat this process until you have a happy bushy thyme plant.

Pruning different types of thyme – is there a difference?

In my personal experience it doesn’t matter which varieties of thyme you are growing. You will prune them all the same. The only thing I can mention is that the overall shape you are going for may be different. So that could affect where you cut the plant.

A creeping thyme for example is used as a decorative ground cover or in rock gardens and will naturally not mound up as high. This means the shape you are going for may be completely different when compared to a common thyme plant that you are growing for culinary use.

Will thyme grow back?

Being that thyme is a perennial it will absolutely grow back after it has been pruned. In fact it will grow back with more vigour.

How fast your thyme plant grows will depend a lot on your climate and the variety of thyme you are growing.

For me this plant does not grow very fast. But, that means it can also be easy to forget about as you focus on other faster growing plants. Then later in the season you come back and think holy moly how did this get so big.

In one garden season with no pruning I have seen thyme plants double in size.

Pruning will slow down this growth a bit. But, your plant will always continue to grow as long as it is healthy and getting good care.

What is the difference between pruning and cutting back thyme?

Pruning is a very light trim of your plant. Cutting back your thyme plant is much more drastic and is only done once or twice a year.

I like to cut back my perennial herbs pretty significantly in the fall. I do this about a month before the first frost comes. That way my plants have time to harden off again and be strong for winter.

It is also good to cut back thyme in the fall to preserve that flavour and aroma for winter.

When you cut back a perennial herb you will generally remove about 1/3 of the plant. You will also cut into the woodier growth more than when you are just lightly pruning. This means you will have a lot of leaves harvested afterwards which you can dry or preserve in other ways.

After your thyme has been cut back in the fall it will then have all winter to settle in. Then it can start growing fresh growth in spring.

Once you get into spring, you can start your pruning routine again. And continue to re-shape the plant as the new growth starts to come in.

Can you prune thyme in winter?

I would not recommend pruning your thyme if you are getting frost. I can see this being a negative for your plant. Also, if you live in Canada like me your thyme will probably be covered in snow in the winter.

Since thyme is considered an evergreen herb it does keep its leaves in winter. I will say that in mild winters I have snipped a few sprigs here and there to use in the kitchen and had no ill effects to the plant. I think this is fine, but I wouldn’t be looking at regularly pruning or cutting back thyme in the winter.

It is not necessary as the plant is pretty well dormant and not growing much. And, you could potentially be exposing those fresh cuts to the frost which isn’t great.

If you did not get a chance to cut back your thyme in the fall – no worries. Just do your 1/3 cut back in the spring if it is needed. The only downside to this is that your plant will take a little longer to get going again.

So in the end pruning should not be looked at as a scary thing. It is really just light maintenance. Like when you go to the hair dressers for a trim just to maintain the shape. Same thing.

I hope this was helpful, and you now feel inspired to go out and prune your thyme plants with confidence.

Also, don’t forget to pin this post to reference later.