Gadenin日本語Get the appTwo main groups
Mints divide broadly into the sharp, cooling group and the sweeter, milder group, with a third of fruit scented types. They all grow identically, so the choice is entirely about how you will use it.
| Group | Aroma | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Peppermint types | Strong, cooling, hits the nose | Tea, sweets, scenting things |
| Spearmint types | Sweet and mellow, less sharp | Cooking, cold drinks, using leaves whole |
| Fruit scented types | Soft, suggesting fruit | Eating fresh, syrups, ground cover |
None of them is harder to grow than another. Choose on scent alone.
Telling the common ones apart
On a nursery bench the labels are often unreliable, so it is worth being able to recognize the common types by leaf and stem.
- Peppermint Narrow, dark leaves on stems flushed purple. High in the compound that produces the cooling sensation, so it leaves your tongue cold. Strong enough to dominate a dish.
- Spearmint Rounder, noticeably crinkled leaves. Sweetness rather than cooling, which suits meat, yoghurt and iced drinks, and it is the one to use as whole fresh leaves.
- Apple mint Round leaves covered in fine white hairs, and a soft apple-like scent with little bite. It is tough and tolerates shade, so it is a good first mint.
- Variegated pineapple mint Apple mint with white markings on the leaf. A similar scent, less vigorous and slower to spread, so it suits a pot where you also want it to look good.
- Japanese mint Very high in the cooling compound, with a sharp aroma and narrower leaves than peppermint. Traditionally used in confectionery and for bathing.
Pennyroyal creeps along the ground but contains compounds that are not suitable for eating. Keep it to ornamental use and out of drinks.
Choose by what you want to do
Rather than choosing a variety and then finding a use, start from the use. It leads you to the right plant almost every time.
| What you want | First choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Herbal tea | Peppermint | Keeps its cooling scent dried, and releases it as soon as water hits it |
| Fresh in food | Spearmint | Mild enough not to bury the other flavors |
| In cold drinks | Spearmint | Less likely to turn bitter when bruised |
| Just for the scent | Apple mint | Hairy leaves hold the scent and release it when brushed |
If you want more than one use, keeping a peppermint and a spearmint in separate pots is the most practical answer.
Why the scent fades
A mint that has lost its aroma has almost always hit one of three specific problems, and all three are reversible.
- It is pot bound When the pot is full of roots the leaves get small and the scent thins. Divide and repot in spring or autumn and the aroma comes back within a month.
- Too much fertilizer Excess nitrogen gives large leaves with dilute oil. Stop feeding and grow it somewhere sunny, and the scent concentrates again.
- It has flowered Once buds appear the leaf quality falls and the leaves toughen. Cut two nodes below the flower and the young growth that follows is aromatic again.
Seedlings can replace what you planted
Mints hybridise freely, so seedlings from a flowering plant are rarely the same as the parent. Left alone, a pot of good peppermint can quietly become a pot of something with no particular scent at all.
- Do not let it flower The simplest way to keep the aroma consistent. Cut while it is in bud and no seed is set, and the cutting back is a harvest anyway.
- Keep varieties in separate pots Grown together or side by side in the ground, you cannot tell a seedling from the original. Separate the pots and label them.
- Propagate from cuttings Seed does not come true. A cutting or a division carries the parent's scent exactly, so propagate the plants you like rather than saving seed.
Buying a plant
Mint is cheap enough that people buy it without much thought, and the plant you get varies more than the label suggests.
- Rub a leaf and smell it Two plants with the same label can smell noticeably different. Rub a leaf in the shop and buy the one that smells right rather than the one with the name you expected.
- Look for short internodes A stretched, leggy plant was grown in poor light. Short gaps between dense leaves means it will get away quickly when you plant it.
- Count the shoots at the base Several shoots coming from soil level means an established plant. A single stem may be a recent cutting, and it will stay small for months.
A plant labeled only mint cannot be identified with confidence. Choose it on scent, and once you have it, propagate by cuttings so the plant you like is preserved whatever it is called.