Mint Peppermint

The mint to grow if you want tea. Where spearmint is the one for new potatoes, peppermint carries a high menthol content and that distinct icy candy-cane character that clears the head.

It is a handsome plant in its own right dark green leaves flushed purple on reddish stems, topped with lilac flower spikes in late summer that hoverflies and small solitary bees work hard.

Keep it in a container. Mint runners are unstoppable and will smother whatever is next to them within a season. Shear the whole plant back hard after the first flush and it will give you tender new growth for the rest of the summer.