How to Grow and Care for Peppermint Plants Mentha x piperita
If the very thought of a peppermint patty makes your mouth water (guilty!), or the idea of peppermint tea sends you running to the kettle, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t grow this marvelous herb at home.
Mentha x piperita is a hybrid of watermint (M. aquatica) and spearmint (M. spicata). It’s sometimes called black or candy mint.
Peppermint has a pungent, peppery bite with a cool aftertaste that sets it apart from other types of mint. It’s a flavor that almost all of us have tried in candies, desserts, or health care products at some point.
In the garden it’s prolific, attracts pollinators, and is easy to grow.
If there was ever a plant that could make the blackest thumb turn green, it’s mint. Give it enough water and it will happily do its thing.
In USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 8, it will continue to grow – and spread – year after year.
Ready to add peppermint to your herb garden? Here’s what I’ll cover:
What Is Peppermint?
Peppermint is a natural mint hybrid that grows wild throughout Europe, North America, and Australia.
The name comes from the Latin word Mintha, the Greek name of a nymph who was transformed into a mint plant (it’s a whole story) and piper, meaning pepper.
The “pepper” part of its name is particularly apt since it has a spicy, pungent flavor derived from a unique combination of menthol, menthone, and menthyl acetate, as well as limonene and other terpenoids.
Peppermint plants can grow up to three feet tall and two feet wide at maturity, depending on growing conditions. Most often, plants top out at one to two feet tall.
The stems are usually red and smooth, though some cultivars have green, hairy stems. The leaves are broad and oval with toothed
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