Peppermint 'Chocolate'

Chocolate Mint (Mentha × piperita f. citrata 'Chocolate') is that rare plant you want to smell as much as look at. The leaves are dark green with a reddish-purple sheen in sun and a coppery red cast in shade, and rubbed between the fingers they smell of menthol with a warm cocoa note.

The clump stays low at 0.1-0.5 m, but its rhizomes travel 0.5-1 m, so it is best grown in a container or held in by a sunken edging. Give it a moist, fertile spot: mint will not tolerate drying out. In July and August small lavender-lilac spikes rise above the leaves and draw in butterflies.

Key characteristics:

• What makes it special: The leaves smell of menthol with a sweetish cocoa note, and in tea the flavour stays mild, without the sharp bitterness of ordinary mint.
• Dimensions: Height 0.1-0.5 m, spread 0.5-1 m - filling out in 2-5 years.
• Hardiness: It overwinters down to -29 °C (USDA zone 5).
• Flowering: In July-August small but charming lavender-lilac flowers open in terminal spikes.
• Light: It grows in full sun or partial shade: in sun the leaves are reddish-purple, in shade coppery red.
• Soil: It loves fertile, moist clay or loam soil of any pH. Dry soil it will not put up with.
• Watering: Water generously: the soil should stay constantly moist - the plant even copes with wet spots.
• Care: Cut the shoots back after flowering - this removes the flower stems and brings on a fresh flush of young leaves.
• Landscape use: Its place is in the herb bed, a cottage garden, a container, a rain garden, or as ground cover.
• Origin: Peppermint is a natural hybrid of water mint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (Mentha spicata).