Can Mint Endure Winter as a Hardy, Year-Round Vegetation?
In a breeze, mint plants, characterized by their incredible variety and delightful aroma, are a snap to cultivate. Yet, the intriguing question lingers: Are they an annual or perennial? The vast majority of mint species fall under the perennial category. Typically, these plants adapt to USDA Hardiness Zones 3-9, or even more extreme climates, and can often withstand Zone 2 winters when shielded by snow cover or mulch.
Perennial Mint or Annual Mint: What's the Difference?
Strikingly, the majority of mint species on display at garden centers and online are perennials. These frost-tolerant plants might retain their green leaves through the first light frost, but they eventually succumb to winter's cold grasp. Don't fret, they'll return abundantly as spring approaches. You'll notice, however, these tenacious spreaders may appear in places you didn't originally plant them, due to their inherent invasiveness.
Choose from a spectrum of mint varieties such as spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, apple mint, cocktail-themed varieties, pineapple mint, and more. Many of these are variations of Mentha spicata, the spearmint, while most plants labeled as peppermint are hybrids between spearmint and watermint (Mentha x piperita). All of these species are perennial and exceptionally cold-hardy.
The Advantages of Opting for Perennial Mint
Often, mint is cultivated as an annual because starting fresh in spring is cheap and simple. However, when grown as a perennial, you can benefit from a more substantial mint collection, earlier harvests, and late-summer pollinator benefits.
Superabundance of mint. Mint deserves its reputation as a bit of a yard bully, but these traits won't bother you when growing it as a perennial. Without bounds, a thriving mint patch will expand before your eyes. Edging your garden bed can rein in the most ambitious escapers. Additionally, harvesting, composting, or transporting an extra mint plant to another location poses no problem.
Sturdy groundcover. Mint's hardiness, eagerness to sprawl, adaptability to suboptimal conditions, partial shade tolerance, and deer repellence make it an attractive choice for a groundcover. Deploy it to conquer difficult-to-manage hillsides, serve as a deck beneath trees, forge a sizable pollinator patch, or even form a substantial patch to draw bees to its nectar-rich flowers.
Pollinator magnet. Apart from the never-ending supply of mint, the primary reason to cultivate this herb as a perennial is to feed the bees. After your initial harvest, or if mint overruns your garden, its flowers will bloom. Flimpsey and whitish, they don't appear especially flamboyant, but a vast patch of mint will be irresistible to bees.
Embellishment for flower arrangements. With the excess mint plants you're likely to grow, it's a cinch to snip a few for inclusion in your garden-grown bouquets. The robust stems, tall and slender, function effectively as greenery in a flower vase, and their sturdiness allows for versatility, whether as a tall element or a base tuck-in. Mint can survive even longer in a vase than many of the flowers alongside it.
Wisdom for Growing Mint as a Perennial
To restrain mint's penchant for invasion, take these measures:1. Plant the mint in a large pot to contain its rapid growth, and then plant the container in the ground.2. Create bed edging around the plant or keep it in line with a garden spade.
If your mint spread proves too large, simply divide it by shovel. Retransplant the root section you've removed, or let it dry in the sun for a week or two to kill it and then compost it.
Wayward rhizomes that spring up as new plants can be eliminated by hoe or chop. Mint typically fails to spread against lawn grass, so confining it to a spot bordered by turf will help thwart its advance. Any stragglers that break through the grass will struggle against your lawnmower.
8 Tips for Cultivating Mint Indoors for a Year-Round Supply of Fresh Leaves
Mint is an annual plant in some climates, but there are ways to extend its life cycle. Here are eight tips to help you grow mint indoors year-round.
When Winter Approaches: Overwintering Mint
Mint plants, be they spearmint or peppermint cultivars, are remarkably cold-resistant and durable. They'll fade away just before winter, but a robust mint plant will bounce back in spring. In milder climate zones (zone 4 and above), mint typically requires no additional care, but in colder areas, apply a thick layer of mulch before the first frost to shield the mint's roots from the cold. In the spring, remove the soggy mulch to forestall issues like root rot or crown rot.
Section your mint plants in the spring when fresh new shoots emerge. This practice promotes the mint's ongoing vigor and provides you the opportunity to relocate it if desired.
Mint can flourish in a container, making it a convenient choice for indoor cultivation. Naturally, the container's root area will experience more cold than the soil in the ground, so grant it protection and tender loving care. In areas with harsh winters, bring the potted mint indoors, provide ample light, and water only when the top inch of soil becomes dry. Come springtime, return the mint to its outdoor territory, and reestablish your normal fertilizer regimen.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does mint choke out other plants? Mint thrives when properly managed. Proper cultivation involves confining it to containers or gardens with rigid borders. Regular inspections will ensure that any rogue mint plants don't overtake your precious garden.
2. How long does mint live? As a perennial, mint is designed to return year after year, emerging anew in spring. With adequate care, a single mint plant can persist for up to five years, and continuous cultivation from replanted divisions allows for a constant supply of mint for diligent gardeners.
- The edible gardening of perennials like mint offers numerous advantages over annually planted mint, including the potential for earlier harvests, late-summer pollinator benefits, and a more substantial mint collection.
- Perennial mint is a sturdy groundcover that thrives in difficult-to-manage hillsides, under trees, and as a sizable pollinator patch, due to its hardiness, invasive nature, adaptability to suboptimal conditions, partial shade tolerance, and deer repellence.
- One primary reason to cultivate mint as a perennial is to feed the bees, as after an initial harvest, its flowers, which are irresistible to bees, will bloom.
- To contain the growth of perennial mint, consider planting it in a large pot with rigid borders, or create bed edging around the plant.
- Mint plants are hardy and durable, and with adequate care, a single mint plant can persist for up to five years, and continuous cultivation from replanted divisions allows for a constant supply of mint for diligent gardeners.
