Apple Mint Plants

Mentha suaveolens

Apple Mint should need no introduction but it is rather special. The taste is more subtle than most so it makes an excellent cup of tea and is a good addition to chocolate mousses, sauces or fruit salads. The leaves are rounded and are slightly furry. Apple mint leaves (unsurprisingly) have a remarkably appley scent when crushed. The plant is very vigorous and can grow to one metre tall and spread like wildfire so preemptive action is described below. The flowers are not that distinguished but are a pretty mauve in the summer, although the flavour of the leaf is best before flowering. A must have mint from our range of UK grown herbs for sale.

A welcome addition to the herb garden

Apple mint has a more subtle, soothing taste than common mint. It is a bigger plant and vigorous, so no matter how much you love it, unless you want your entire garden overrun with the stuff, you are best to grow it in a large pot or, better, sink a bottomless bucket into the ground (leaving a 5 cm rim above ground) into which you plant it. Before flowering in June, it is worth cutting this mint down to the ground so that you encourage new young growth and also because the flavour alters slightly once the plant has flowered. Apple mint looks very good towering above other herbs like Marjoram or Chives so that you achieve a productive but fabulously purple patch in your garden.

Apple Mint Features

• Height: 60-100 cm
• Spread: indefinite unless contained
• Colour: green, rounded, slightly furry foliage, mauve flowers
• Flowers: July-August
• Uses: culinary, herb garden - good for cooking and tea
• Spacing: 30 cm
• Scent: apples and mint
• Habit: upright, vigorous
• Life: hardy perennial

A little minty history

MInt has a long and illustrious medicinal and culinary history. Mint is mentioned in the Bible: when the Pharisees collected tithes (remember those?!), they asked for mint, dill and cumin. As always there is a Greek connection to mint - Minthe was a nymph who caught Pluto's eye in the underworld and in a fit of rage his jealous queen turned her into a mint plant.