Which mint is best to grow?

Where would we be without this fragrant herb? Here's your guide to growing it successfully.

A reader asked us the following question.

Q: “Which is the best mint to grow? We have a basic variety of mint in our garden and want to add different varieties to create an area with a wonderful aroma of mint. What others are there and where can I buy them? And what is the best way to deal with rust on mint? (Read The Field’s recipes using mint.)

The best mint to grow

There are more than 50 different varieties of mint in the UK and some imports from the USA, where a lot of breeding takes place.

A recent import is Hillary Sweet Lemon, named after Hillary Clinton.

Traditional mints

• Ginger
• Eau de cologne
• Black peppermint
• Pineapple
• Peppermint
• Spearmint.

Also popular are apple, banana, basil, lavender, lime, orange and buddleia. Chocolate peppermint is a seller with its dark bronze leaves and its After Eight scent; Moroccan is ideal for making mint tea; and Corsican is a ground-hugger with small leaves and an extremely strong scent.

The Herb Nursery in Rutland supplies all of these mints and a large variety of wild ones. The majority of its plants are propagated and grown on site.

Mint can also be ordered online from The National Herb Centre.

Keeping mint healthy

Mint with rust should be cut off at ground level and the old leaves cleared away. Feed with high-nitrogen fertiliser.

This article was originally published in 2009 and has been updated.