Growing mints, pots or not?

UnluckyT

potting mint and 'burying' the pot as mint can be a real 'thug' and spread like anything.

lostinrates

Drafty duck, which do you grow and which would you most recommend or avoid and why?

ATM we have apple, morrocan, orange, lime and chocolate ( not at all fussed for that but use morrocan a lot, and have used lime and orange a fair bit.....apple by default, but morrocan more) I'm going to try black peppermint again. I like the sound of berries and cream. I have a different use elsewhere in mind for Corsican potentially.

poorly_scammo

I grow spearmint in a pot. I prefer it to peppermint as the flavour is less astringent. I've never grown it in the garden but the advice regarding burying it in a pot before planting is good, although it is possible for the mint to root in the soil and for it then to pop up elsewhere.

DaftyDuck

lostinrates wrote: »

Drafty duck, which do you grow and which would you most recommend or avoid and why?

ATM we have apple, morrocan, orange, lime and chocolate ( not at all fussed for that but use morrocan a lot, and have used lime and orange a fair bit.....apple by default, but morrocan more) I'm going to try black peppermint again. I like the sound of berries and cream. I have a different use elsewhere in mind for Corsican potentially.

Well, I can give you a list as all my plants are listed.... So a copy & paste. Not all these varieties are actually different... it's "as bought"... Eau de Cologne mint, for example, is orange mint by another name.

Mints

Applemint
Banana Mint
Basil Mint
Black peppermint
Chocolate Peppermint
Corsican Mint
Eau de Cologne Mint
Ginger Mint
Grapefruit Mint
Hillary’s Sweet Lemon Mint
Honeydew Melon Mint
Indian Mint
Korean Mint
Lavender Mint
Lime Mint
Moroccan Mint
Orange Mint
Peppermint Variegated
Pineapple Mint
Spanish Mint
Variegated Peppermint
White Peppermint


Well, that's the list. I doubt they are all alive, although many are no doubt hiding in various pots about the place (I can account for sixteen, as they are in pots in a pattern, two circles of eight pots).

Ones I actually use regularly... Lime mint, pineapple mint, apple mint, Moroccan, Corsican and spearmint. Mind you, if I'm honest, mainly Moroccan, apple and pineapple mints.

The rest are more for decoration, amusement, and because I'm an avid, OCD collector!

Hence the readily-available plant lists

I shall now hide my shame by sorting my flowerpots into size-order


Edit: Missed Pennyroyal. There's also Mountain mint, but that's Pycnanthemum pilosum, and not really a mint. Smells gorgeous though, not sure it's actually edible.

My list could also allow a "cheat" inclusion of ...
Catmint “Kit Kat”
Catmint Lemon
Catmint “Six Hills Giant”


... but I don't think they count. My kittens and cats would disagree....

lostinrates

Lol, thanks!

Mine are to help fill shadier beds in a new herb garden, they'll be under windows too.

I wish I were as organised as you with my garden record keeping! It would make life a lot easier!

wellused

I grow mine in pots and before winter cut the tops right down and turn the pots upside down as mint doesn't like waterlogging, I did this last winter and in the spring turned the pots upright gave the mint a snip to stimulate growth and a good watering and bob was my uncle.

Happygreen

I think it depends how big your garden is, how much time you want to invest in containing your mint and how tidy you like your plot!
Because we like abundance we planted mint in the ground so it spread from there into other beds. Each year it's like a trail we are following to see where it comes up this time . You can always dig them up and pot them to give to other people but it is a lot of extra work this way. And the varieties will "mingle".

Babafette

I have about five different varieties of mint and keep them in pots to stop them spreading. I do love the chocolate mint but I can't honestly say that I've ever really used it.