This mint is an excellent digestive and is used for this purpose in after dinner mints. It makes an excellent tea for treating the common cold. As a fast-spreading perennial it may be better to grow in a container. 9x9cm pot (8cm depth)
Description
- Lovely dark leaves
- Aromatic
- Easy to grow
- Excellent for tea
As well as a culinary herb and its use in confectionary, mint has traditionally been used as a tea for treating headaches and digestive disorders, in modern medicine it is widely used in the treatment of gastrointestinal tract disorders and relieving wind and colic. The flowers are very attractive to bees and it is thought to be a mouse and rat repellent. Black peppermint is especially high in volatile oils and makes an excellent tea to help relieve cold and flu symptoms, and as a good digestive herb helps alleviate indigestion and wind after a heavy meal.
Plant Care
- Height: 60-100cm
- Type: Hardy
- Aspect: Sun/shade
- Soil: Any/alkaline
- Flower colour: Purple
- Flowering period: July - September
On the whole mints are fast growing perennials that love good rich soil and grow in both sun and shade successfully. Planted in heavy soils they spread rapidly and unless you have plenty of space can become a bit of a menace, in lighter soils their spread is limited and in very dry summers they can die. Most people grow their mints in containers and in the first year they are usually gorgeous and lush, it is in the second year when they emerge again in spring that the leaves are tiny and grow mostly around the edges of the container. This is because they grow so fast that the roots have filled the container completely and though additional feeding helps, there is just not enough oomph left in the soil to support a vigorous plant. The easiest thing to do is tip the whole root ball out and replant half of it back in the container with some fresh compost; it won’t be long before you have a fantastic looking mint again. The other half you can grow in another pot, give away or add to the compost heap.
Usage
The highly aromatic leaf of peppermint is a commonly used culinary and medicinal plant.
Its cooling mint flavour makes it a wonderful flavouring to sweets, drinks, savouries and salads.
A cooling herbal infusion can be made from fresh and dried leaf and both have been traditionally used to cool the body in the management of fevers
The essential oil, made by steam distillation, can be added to creams or inhaled to open up the chest.