Whether you ’re sip a homemade mint julep on your front porch , realise mint ice cream or brewing a fresh , minty teatime , get your own great deal plants adds to the expiation . However , if you ’ve grow your own peck before , you also know its permeant drug abuse — it spreads!—so rise them in containers can keep you in invigorated mint all growing - season long without the risk of have it take over your garden .
Depending on the miscellanea , mass is hardy in zones 3 to 11 — it ’s one of those almost - everywhere plants . Mulching around it helps keep the soil moist and turn away much of the wintertime ’s shivering , but if you subsist in a cold mood , you ’ll want to move your quite a little indoors if you want it to perform as a perennial .
Mint is also one of those low - maintenance herbs . concord to the Colorado State University Extension , disease seem to be limited to rust and Verticillium wilt disease , a fungus . Unfortunately , there are no treatments for either , so if you see signs of them , bump off and destroy septic plants .
harvest home great deal at any point in the develop season , though rather before inflorescence . For the most acute relish , wait until midday , when essential oils are at their high levels . you could snip leave or staunch . Because mints ramify out just below where you cut , you could shape / prune at the same time , encouraging the plant life to become lush and dense . To store cut mint , place the stems in weewee in the icebox for up to a week .
Mints are easily root by putting stems in water , and these cuttings make majuscule gift for ally and neighbors . Pair flock with buoyant flush in colorful container for your patio or porch , or spring up them in your windowsill . They ’ll aromatize the air with a pinch of novelty and beckon to be used . Here are four tasty variety to hear .
1. Peppermint
If you dig very deep into its origins , you ’ll come up that peppermint is connect to Grecian mythology . Hades , with typical god drama , change state his affection toward a houri by the name of Menthe , and accordingly , his wife , Persephone , turned her challenger into an herb , banished eternally to the kingdom of moisture and shadows . So it is no surprisal that red gum ( Mentha piperita ) uprise best in dampish and shade . However , it can do by partial sunlight as long as it has pretty rich grunge and does n’t get too wry . Watering approximately an inch a week is a good rule of thumb .
peppermint candy has a reddish stem and big , dark gullible leaf with a hint of red , and it can reach up to 2 or 3 feet in tallness and width , though a container will curtail some of that exuberance . To stretch out your harvest time time of year , keep flower prune off and expect to pluck leave-taking until your industrial plant is well established—10 - 12 column inch tall — so it remain strong .
Peppermint is a genius in the mint world — medicinal use range from clearing sinuses and settle down breadbasket to freshening breath and taming hiccough . In addition , peppermint can be used in swallow and foods and to refresh room and carpets while gross out fleas and other plague . works peppermint near cabbage to discourage the white cabbage butterfly .
Oil cognitive content of peppermint will be highest just prior to flowering , and this is the best time to reap . To dry this herbaceous plant , peck after the dew has evaporated , so that even in the dead of wintertime , you may brew up a fragrant cup of tea .
2. Spearmint
Spearmint ( Mentha spicata ) rivals peppermint in potency , being stronger and less sweet , if anything . Originating in the Mediterranean , its popularity distribute to Britain and was carried to America by the Pilgrims . Bright - green , crinkly will on bright - green stem will create a sprightly batch in your container . plant usually grow 1 to 2 foot magniloquent , and if allowed to flower , sport a 4 - in - recollective lavender - tinct blooming spire . Like all plenty , spearmint prefers partial Dominicus and fat , moist , well - run out territory . As a container plant , you might want to fertilize once a calendar month and separate the plant every dyad of years to preclude overcrowding and promote healthy development . Mentha spicata will make a undimmed dapple in a gay window in insensate wintertime regions .
As both a culinary and medicative herbaceous plant , spearmint can be used to treat fevers , shiver , stomach disturbed , cramps , bronchitis and more . Use it as a poultice for bruises , as the indispensable oil helps ease muscle soreness and arthritic pain . Spearmint has long been used to repel insect , both dried and fresh . Like peppermint , spearmint makes a tasty summation to various culinary creations as well as a soothing yet novel afternoon tea taken live or moth-eaten . Mint jelly . quite a little sauce . Mint Juleps . The possibilities are practically limitless when it comes to spearmint .
3. Pineapple Mint
Mentha suaveolensis a cultivar of apple mint and is arguably the pretty pile on the stop . With its yellow / emollient leaf edge that see like lacy furbelow on the hopeful - gullible foliage , it ’s gorgeous as a garnish , in potpourri , tea or just gracing your terrace container garden . This raft reaches 12 to 18 inches tall and can handle more sun than some change once established , though it still likes to keep its ancestor moist . It will grow more upright if it gets more Dominicus .
Pineapple mint blooms with clean or loose pink flower spires , though like other quite a little , you ’ll desire to harvest them before this stage for optimal authority . That said , bees and butterfly bonk the bloom ; deer dislike its hairy stem and strong odor .
Because it is a cultivar , you may glimpse solid unripe leaves within the creamy choker . This will be the parent plant life making itself known . Your good bet is to take away those greenish sprouts , as most cultivars are not as hardy as their parent plant , and you could rule your pretty pineapple mint overrun by green apple mint .
While pineapple plant wad can hold up its own in pretty much any culinary and herbal capability with other peck varieties , it beam when paired with pineapple fruit or succus in salad , smoothies , ice pops , fruit - infused amniotic fluid , juleps , mojitos and more . Herbal tea gets a heave from its fruity bouquet , and when added as garnish or ingredient , it has a stinker / Ananas comosus partial tone .
4. Chocolate Mint
This variety is gorgeous — deep , almost chocolatey - brown stem and rich bronze - green leaf — with a hint of chocolate smell and flavor entwine the Hellenic mintiness . It ’s brilliant for Camellia sinensis , adding nicety to mojitos and mint julep and pizazz to ice cream formula and chocolate afters .
This mint care nerveless temperatures , so site it where it can get dawning sun but avoid the more extreme afternoon heat energy . Keep it moist . It prefer nutritive copious territory but can go less - than - ideal conditions amazingly well .
