Plant Profile: Mint

This year I really want to focus more on growing herbs in the garden. Having herbs readily available to use while cooking is very handy. It is amazing how a dish can be easily transformed just by adding fresh herbs. 

One herb I have grown for many years is mint. Mint is a fun, heat-loving, easy to grow herb. I love adding mint to water. It gives the water a pleasant, refreshing flavor. If you are just beginning your first herb garden, I would highly recommend mint. There are many different varieties to choose from and the plants are very prolific. 

Mint Varieties 

Mint has over 600 varieties! A unique characteristic about mint is that all varieties have square stems. So, if you ever wonder if you have a mint plant or not, check the shape of the stem. Here is a short list of the more common varieties of mint. I only have 4 varieties right now but I am always on the lookout to add to my mint collection!

• Spearmint: The most common variety of mint, also known as sweet mint, is most often used for culinary purposes.
• Peppermint: A hybrid of spearmint and watermint. Peppermint has a stronger, more bold mint flavor than spearmint and is often used in teas and desserts. Peppermint is a sterile hybrid and will not produce seed.
• Apple mint: Fuzzy leaves and smells like Granny Smith apples. Apple mint is often used in teas and salads.
• Pineapple mint: A variety of apple mint with crinkled, cream edged leaves and a sweet, citrusy scent. Pineapple mint is often used in teas, salads and grown for ornamental interest.
• Orange mint: Mild, citrus scented/flavored leaves and often used in salads and garnishes.
• Chocolate mint: Peppermint flavor with a chocolate overtone. To me, it tastes like eating an Andes Chocolate Mint candy. Chocolate mint is often used in desserts.
• Banana mint: Smells and tastes like bananas! Banana mint is often used in desserts and drinks.
• Pennyroyal mint: Pennyroyal’s history dates back to the Roman Empire and was used in culinary dishes. Today, Pennyroyal is mostly used for medicinal uses and repelling insects.
• Lavender mint: Mostly grown for ornamental purposes because is grows upright reaching 2’ tall. Lavender mint is also used in shampoos, creams, lip balm and teas.
• Grapefruit mint: Smells like fruity grapefruit and is mostly used in salads and desserts.
• Horsemint: Horsemint has a light lemon scent and can grow up to 4’ tall. Horsemint is mostly used for medicinal purposes but is also used in savory dishes and teas.
• Corsican mint: Native to Corsican and is the smallest of all the mint varieties. Corsican mint is best known for flavoring creme de menthe.
• Calamint: Native to the United Kingdom and grows vertically up to 2’ tall. Used as a basil or thyme replacement and medicinal purposes include treating contusions because of its high menthol content.
• Catmint: Not the same as catnip but like catnip, catmint is enjoyed by our furry friends. Catmint can also be used in culinary dishes and teas.
• Licorice mint: One of the taller varieties reaching 4’ tall and has a licorice flavor. Most commonly used in ice cream and fruit salad.
• Basil mint: Hybrid mint that has the scent of basil and mint. Mostly used in pestos, salads and teas.
• Ginger mint: Also known as Vietnamese mint and most commonly used in Vietnamese cooking, it has a beautiful green and yellow striped leaf. Ginger mint has the flavor of both mint and ginger.
• Watermint: Watermint grows along waterways and is best known for its medicinal uses for treating wounds and sore muscles.
• Egyptian mint: Egyptian mint dates back to ancient Egypt and many historians believe this is the mint referenced in the Bible. Egyptian mint flavor is most similar to apple mint crossed with spearmint and peppermint and used in savory dishes and used as a skin toner.
• Corn mint: Native to North America and is often used raw to clear-up congestion and soothe coughs. Also used in teas.
• Strawberry mint: This is a new variety that smells like strawberries and is used in teas, flavoring drinks and in salads.

Growing Mint

Mint spreads by underground, creeping stems. If you dig up a stem you will see many joints. Each joint can be propagated into a new plant. All the joints are what makes mint spread so quickly. Since mint is so prolific, I do recommend growing it in a pot. I have grown mint in the ground and for me it was easily controlled because they do not like dry soil and did not grow beyond the moisture from the drip irrigation. I have read that in other areas that have more moisture than the high desert, mint spreads so easily that it can be considered invasive. So because of that, I would recommend only growing mint in a pot and it will quickly fill that pot.

Mint loves the heat and can handle being heavily trimmed. It is recommended to cut back your mint plants to encourage fresh new leaves and discourage long, leggy stems. Since we regularly use our mint, I do not usually trim our mint until late summer if needed. By the late summer, some of our plants begin looking a little tired and leggy, so I will trim them back to encourage new growth. At this time of the year, if you don’t want to trim your mint plants, you can leave them and let them go to flower. The pollinators absolutely love the mint flowers! Where I live, zone 8b in the high desert of California, I trim my mint plants completely back in the winter because they go dormant. Then in the spring the plants come out beautifully from their winter sleep and do not have a bunch of dead branches around them.

I am bad about regularly fertilizing anything in my garden and the mint does really well without the extra care. One thing I do keep up with is using worm castings. Rick has several bins of worms and he harvests the castings almost weekly in the summer and I do add a generous amount to each of our mint plants.

Overall, mint is a very hardy, tolerant plant. It takes our triple digit heat in the summer and our freezing temperatures in the winter. My mint plants have not been overly fussy and really only require regular watering. I thoroughly enjoy having mint in the garden and using it in the kitchen and for our drinks.

Mint is an excellent pollinator plant. Bees love mint! So let some of your mint plants go to flower for the bees. If you are not a fan of eating mint, consider still growing mint in your garden for the pollinators.

Mint symbolizes cheerfulness. I think that is hilarious now that I have discovered the Greek mythology behind mint. I mean did the person who decided that mint symbolize cheerfulness not know of this story? Keep reading to find out about this amusing myth…

The Greek Story Behind Mint

According to Greek mythology, mint came into existence after a love affair between a river nymph named Minthe and Hades, also known as Pluto. Hades was the God of the underworld and was married to Persephone, the Goddess of agriculture and vegetation. Minthe was a river nymph of the underworld and once Persephone discovered the love affair between Hades and Minthe, Persephone was outraged and turned Minthe into a plant. Specifically she wanted Minthe to become an ordinary looking plant that would be stepped on for eternity. Hades could not undo what his wife had done but he was able  to give Minthe a pleasant, sweet fragrance so she could continue to captivate those in her presence. 

Medicinal Mint

The use of mint for medicinal purposes dates back to the Egyptians. The oldest surviving medical texts in the world, the ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus of 1550 BC stated using mint as a digestive aid and to help soothe flatulence. Dried mint leaves have been found in the pharaoh’s tombs. 

Romans and Greeks used mint in funerary rites and to scent the body. They also would wear mint crowns during feasts. Pliny the Elder believed mint could give relief to headache sufferers by making a mint broth and applying to the temples. Greek physicians believed that mint prevented people from vomiting blood and prevented women from getting pregnant. In Athens, they believed every part of the body should be scented. Mint was used for the arms.

During medieval Europe the entire mint plant was considered useful. Dietaries believed mint was effective against poison and powdered mint was believed to aid in killing stomach worms. Mint eaten raw was believed to increase circulation and during this time period is when people began using mint as a breath freshener. 

During the 1870’s toothpaste was invented and Altoids entered the market using mint extract. By 1870 Listerine was invented using menthol from mint.

In 1890 Wrigley’s introduced chewing gum with spearmint flavor and it was better liked and lasted longer than the first chewing gum flavor, licorice.

By the 1700’s the production of mint oil became “big” business and was exported from Britain all over the world. The original American colonists discovered that mint plants grew really well in New York and New Jersey and began farming peppermint and spearmint. A soil borne virus forced the relocation of farming mint in the 1920’s to the Midwest and Pacific Northwest of the United States where it remains in production today. The use of mint oil continues to be a part of our daily lives so much so that the United States produces 5.38 million pounds of mint oil a year. Mint oil is a $100 million export trade farmed in California, Idaho, Indiana, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.  

Quick Facts:

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the care of mint, the many interesting varieties of mint, the mythology and history of mint.

Thank you for reading and happy desert gardening!

Joy Simper has a full time job as a home schooling stay at home mom. She is the one that holds the house and yard together and keeps the kids in line. She enjoys gardening, including seed starting and propagating plants.