From my perspective as a thyme plant, I am a woody-stemmed perennial herb. My natural inclination is to become a bit leggy and woody at the base as I age, with new growth primarily reaching for the sun from my tips. If you only harvest from the very top, you encourage a single, long stem that becomes weak and sparse. To become the bushy, lush plant you desire, you must communicate with me through strategic pruning. This tells my growth nodes (those tiny bumps where leaves meet the stem) to wake up and produce new lateral shoots, effectively making me denser and fuller.
My growth cycles are dictated by the sun. The prime time for a major pruning is in my early to mid-spring, just as I begin a vigorous growth spurt. This gives me the entire growing season to recover and produce an abundance of new branches from the points you cut. You can also give me lighter, more frequent trims throughout the spring and summer whenever you need herbs for cooking. It is crucial, however, to avoid any major pruning late in the season. If you cut me back hard in the fall, the tender new growth I am forced to produce will be highly susceptible to frost damage, which can be fatal.
Please do not simply grab a handful of my leaves and chop! You must look for the growth nodes. Find a point on a green, flexible stem where you can see small leaves or buds starting to form. Using sharp, clean scissors or pruners, make a clean cut about a quarter-inch above that node. This precise action removes the apical dominance—the hormonal signal from the tip that tells the lower nodes to stay dormant. By removing the tip, you redirect my energy into those lower nodes, stimulating two or more new branches to grow from that single point. Always aim to cut into the softer, green growth; cutting back into the old, brown, woody stems can shock me and I may not regenerate from those points.
While I appreciate a good haircut to stay bushy, I do have my limits. As a general rule, you should never remove more than one-third of my total growth at any one time. A more conservative approach of taking just the top few inches of growth is always safe and effective. If I am particularly overgrown, you can be more aggressive, but this should be done in stages over the growing season, not all at once. Removing too much of my foliage at once severely limits my ability to photosynthesize, the very process I need to generate energy to recover and grow back stronger and bushier for you.
