My Kart
One of the easiest and most rewarding herbs to grow, and with the most astonishing array of delicious and unexpected flavours and scents.
From lime to lavender, lemon, sweet apple, and orange, mints can surprise and delight. Use them to create delicious herbal teas, either
hot or iced, to flavour fruit salads, cakes, biscuits, make delicious sauces, and jewelled fruit jellies for sweet and savoury dishes. Mints add
a fresh zing to salads and vegetable dishes. Use the leaves tucked into fragrant posies as refreshing personalised gifts to friends and visitors,
and use the dried leaves in summer pot pourri. Most mints appreciate a moist soil enriched with compost and a sunny, but not exposed situation.
Growing them in large pots will prevent them from spreading too far in the garden.
PLEASE NOTE:
Mints die down in winter. Please expect plants to be well established but not bushy if sent in winter. Our plants are grown under natural conditions, not forced in greenhouses.
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Apple or Woolly Apple Mint
Mentha x.villosa var. alopecuroides syn. M. suaveolens
A soft, finely furred, pale green mint with a strong Granny Smith apple and mint fragrance and flavour. Delicious with roast lamb, with peas, tucked into jugs of iced tea or summer punch, or finely chopped through fruit salad!
Click on the picture to view a larger image
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$6.50
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Basil Otherwise known as Bastardo
This mint has a marvellous refreshing combination of sweet basil and mint when crushed. An ever fresh, attractive plant, very disease resistant and heavy yielding. This variety can do wonders for tomato salads, in fact any salads. While humans love it, insects do not and it makes a good insect repellent (like its namesake, basil) when planted in the garden. Try crushing the leaves and rubbing them over exposed skin in summer. (The fragrance is definitely come hither, except to the insects).
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$6.95
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Berries and Cream
Jim Westerfield is a genius plant breeder from Illinois in the USA who has developed a stunning series of new mint varieties with the most amazing flavours and scents. This variety is a total delight, just like sniffing a sweet bowl of berries and cream. In addition it is a beautiful looking plant. The shredded leaves are delightful scattered over desserts of all kinds including fruit salads and make a superb garnish.
Rare and very special. NEW
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$8.95
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Black Peppermint
M. piperita
With dark green, intensely and richly peppermint scented leaves and dark stems, a single crushed leaf of this peppermint will clear the head. It makes a soothing tea for upset tummies. Use whenever requiring a strong peppermint fragrance is required.
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$6.95
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Bowles Mint
This is an exceptionally sweetly scented mint compounded of ripe apples and spearmint. The softly textured leaves are huge for a mint, delightfully refreshing. We tuck some into our tussie mussies (Elizabethan-style fragrant posies), dry it for our sleep pillows, and of course use it in everything from cream cheese flavoured with the finely chopped mint, to garnish long cool summer drinks, chopped finely and mixed through fruit salad, and to make a delicious apple mint tea served either iced or hot or added to a fruit punch. (Try a twist on the famous bellini by mixing a wine glassful of strongly concentrated sweetened mint tea with the blended flesh of half a dozen fragrant ripe white summer peaches. Allow to marinade for an hour, strain out the solids, and top up with iced sparkling Italian procecco wine Add fresh slices of peeled white peach as a garnish. For more homely occasions top up with ginger ale and plenty of ice.)
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$8.50
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Chocolate Mint
M. piperitavar.
Peppermint Patty in a mint! Imagine a fragrance that combines the strong scent of dark chocolate mixed with sweet peppermint. Introduced into Australia by Honeysuckle Cottage. For a sensational end to a meal, pick some perfect leaves and clean if necessary, then beat lightly one eggwhite and use a fine brush to paint both sides of each leaf. Sift over with fine castor sugar. Repeat with all leaves and place on a teflon tray or a tray lined with baking paper, in the sun (away from the ants!). When dried, the crystallised leaves make the most delicious and unusual after dinner mints. We tuck sprigs of the fresh mint into all sorts of chocolate desserts and serve on the side with chocolate cake. The smell is delicious!
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$7.50
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Corsican
M. requienii
Quite different to any other mint, this is an exquisite lime green, tiny-leafed, dense ground cover for dampish places. It originates from Corsica, and bears a strong resemblance to a fine matting thyme. The minty leaves are a nice addition to new potatoes. It grows beautifully in a pot which is regularly watered and kept out of hot sunshine. Children love to stroke this fine textured, sweet mint scented carpet.
Temporarily unavailable
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$7.50
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Curly Mint
Mentha spicata var. crispa
This old and less common variety of spearmint has the identical sweet cool taste and fragrance of regular spearmint but is particularly attractive with its frilled and curled leaves and bee and butterfly attracting purple flowers. It will grow to around 60 cm high and is one of the varieties we love to include in tussie mussies. It can of course be used for culinary purposes in exactly the same way as regular spearmint
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$7.50
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Eau-De-Cologne
M. aquatica var. citrata
A superb purple-leafed mint with the true refreshingly cool fragrance of eau-de-cologne. Crush a few leaves and rub your forehead for instant refreshment and to relieve a heat headache. Throw a handful into the bathtub, too. This is a perfect mint for pot pourri. Try a few leaves in the teapot to add wonderful extra zing to a cup of hot tea, or serve the tea cooled and poured over cracked ice in summer. Finely sliced leaves add an amazing new dimension to fruit salad.
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$6.95
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Egyptian Mint
M. niliaca
A distinctive upright growing plant with large, long, pointed leaves that are very finely furry and have a deliciously fragrant mintiness perfect for all culinary uses. Its also an ancient culinary plant andhas been used since at least the time of the Pharaohs. Delicious finely chopped in salads and fruit salads, or in cold summer drinks.
Rare
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$7.50
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French Peppermint
The French National Herb Collection reveals the intensive search the French made in selecting superb strains of mint for culinary and fragrance purposes.
This is a peppermint par excellence with none of that excessive hot pungence which characterises common peppermint. Just imagine the herbal tea you
can make from this variety, and the many culinary uses such a refined peppermint possesses.
Temporarily unavailable
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$7.50
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French Spearmint or Provence Spearmint
We imported this delightful refined spearmint from France. It is a tender, narrow-leafed bright green variety with a quite exceptional sweet minty flavour perfect for all culinary purposes. It yields exceptionally well.
Temporarily unavailable
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$7.50
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Garden or Lamb's
M. viridis
A large leafed, vigorous and very productive plant. This is the classic, strongly flavoured mint to use for all mint sauces including traditional roast lamb.
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$6.50
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Variegated Ginger Mint M. x gracilis
As pretty as it is useful in the kitchen, making a very handsome dense spreading plant with golden and chartreuse variegated foliage which is warmly aromatic and ginger-mint flavoured. The inflorescences are composed of dense tiny lavender coloured flowers. Use the attractive leaves as a garnish for summer fruit salads, desserts, and long cool drinks, as well as with tomatoes and melons. It is a fragrant addition to a posy. Excellent in pots, hanging baskets, as a groundcover and as a butterfly attracter.
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$8.50
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Italian Mint
A lushly growing taller spearmint type with abundant foliage. It has a sweet strong pure spearmint fragrance ideal for adding fresh zip to everything from iced tea and mint sorbet to salads, dressings, dips such as Greek tsatsiki, tabouleh, in a marinade for roast leg of lamb (simply made by whizzing together in a blender olive oil together with generous quantities of mint, two or more garlic cloves depending on taste, a dessertspoon of fresh oregano leaves, sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and the juice of a lemon; wrap the lamb after it has marinaded for at least three hours, and preferably longer, in heavy aluminium foil and roast slowly – most legs require around 3-4 hours with this technique – basting three or four times during the cooking with the marinade, recovering the lamb with the foil after basting). Of course this mint is also excellent with English style roast lamb with mint sauce. Like all herbs and vegetables from Italy, this variety has been selected for its superb flavour, ease of growth and high productivity.
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$8.50
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Lavender
A soft leafed mint of English origin with the soothing fragrance of lavender mixed with the tingling taste of mint. This is an excellent mint for
herbal teas, and is also delightful in cakes. It is an excellent addition to pot pourri and sleep pillows. The flowers are exceptionally beautiful,
borne in long spectacular mauve spikes, the foliage silvery sage green and finely furred, and the plant is used as an ornamental in Europe.
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$7.50
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Lemon
M. aquatica var. citrata
A soft leafed pale sage green mint with a delicious fragrance of fresh lemon mixed with spearmint. The tiny lavender flowers are arranged in dense
spikes. Superb with potato salad, summer salads, fruit salads and summer punches. Very rare, of English origin. (This is not Lemon Bergamot which
has masqueraded under this name.)
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$7.50
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Lime
M. x piperata cv.
Imagine a mint that combines the fresh clean fragrance of Jamaican limes with sweet mint! Sensational in fruit salads and summer punches
and perfect with tomato salads, to garnish grilled fish and chicken dishes, to add to iced summer soups, and finely chopped with orange zest
added to sweet scones, pancakes and muffins. Lime anytime! Beautiful fresh green shiny foliage, with leaves that are often notched or narrowed.
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$7.50
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Menthol Mint
M. arvensis var. piperascens
Mints contain menthol but this is the menthol king. A quick sniff will reveal its cool potency. It is grown for harvesting as a medicinal herb in India. A small handfull thrown into a bowl of boiling water and inhaled (particularly with a towel making a canopy over the head) will clear the head and nasal passages when suffering a cold or flu. A tea made with the leaves is used to relieve indigestion or nausea.
Rare
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$6.95
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Moroccan Mint
M. spicata cv.
This is the true mint of Morocco added to their their famous mint tea, and to salads. It is a small leafed, very fresh green, soft leafed mint,
utterly delicious, pure sweetness, pure mintiness. Fabulous. Released in Australia by Honeysuckle Cottage.
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$7.50
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Mountain Mint or Whorled Mountain Mint or Hoary Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum pilosum
This mint related species originates from the USA where it is found on the prairies and in open dry woodland. It is an exceptionally attractive species forming a small multi-stemmed shrub with soft little leaves and terminal branched whorled spikes of palest pink flowers. The whole plant is redolent of mint and was used by Native Americans in arefreshing tea. The leaves can be used either fresh or dried to make a tea
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$8.50
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Native River Mint Mentha australis
This perennial Australian native herb grows abundantly along the river banks of the Murray Darling Basin after floods have passed through and is also found in the moist forests of south-eastern Australia. The plant is very well foliated with soft serrated leaves which are spearmint scented. It produces delicate mauve flowers in spikes. Early colonists were delighted to find a source of fresh mint for their ubiquitous Sunday roast lamb. It is still used for that purpose and for any culinary use which would apply to common mint. It makes an excellent herbal tea served hot or iced. Indigenous Australians found similar medicinal uses for this herb.
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$8.50
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Old fashioned Mint Mentha x villosa cv.
This popular variety from the US (not Australia's Garden Mint) has very large soft oval leaves with a gentle sweet fragrance. In addition to its many culinary uses, it makes an excellent refreshing tea.
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$8.50
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Orange
M. aquatica var. citrata cv.
Released by Honeysuckle Cottage, this mint is utterly irresistible, intensely fragrant of sweet orange, spice, and mint, a delicious addition to fruit
salads, fruit punches, and sorbets, as an after dinner sweet crystallised with castor sugar, added to dressings for cold chicken dishes, and used to
flavour cakes and icing. Add some leaves to Earl Grey tea to make delicious iced tea. This variety from the USA is truly citrus scented and is not
synonymous with the heavier scented Eau-de-Cologne mint, although it belongs to the same species. It also differs in growing to around 75 cm, and remains
a clear fresh green, lacking the strong purple suffusion that is typical of Eau de Cologne Mint.
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$7.50
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Pennyroyal
M. pulegium
A glossy-leafed, dense, green groundcover as freshly coloured as the fields of Ireland. It sends up spikes of lavender flowers in summer.
The leaves can be used with a light hand, added to pineapple or to new potatoes, but avoid during pregnancy as it can cause miscarriages.
It is also an old medicinal herb and an effective flea repellent. Add a few sprigs to a dog or cat basket. We found it to be a very good repellent
of gnats which descend at dusk and can bite viciously. There don't appear to be any around Honeysuckle Cottage thank goodness, but one of
us suffers badly from gnat bites each year on working visits to Europe, and pennyroyal leaves rubbed over the skin have proved a real blessing
as a repellent.
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$6.95
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Pineapple Mint or Variegated Applemint
One of the most deliciously scented and prettiest of mints with soft fresh green foliage that is generously splashed and variegated with palestvanilla
cream, and a fragrance that is compounded of fruity sweetness and mint. It makes a delightful planting in a large pot.
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$7.50
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Red Stemmed Applemintor Scotch Spearmint or American Apple Mint
M. x gentilis var.
An elegant mint with slender red stems and long leaves with a clean fresh scent of green apples and spearmint. A rare and excellent culinary herb.
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$8.50
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Spearmint or Green Pea Mint
M. spicata
This is the true variety chosen for its delicious sweet fresh spearmint taste and fragrance, to be used for every culinary purpose.
(Many incorrectly named spearmints are being sold.)
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$6.50
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Stone or Hoary Stone Mint
Cunila mariana syn. Cunila origanoides
This rare North American perennial herb has the most intense peppermint fragrance imaginable in its leaves. In summer, it sends up many 80cm
flowering stems with silvered green foliage and whorls of tiny white flowers. Native Americans made a peppermint flavoured tea from this
wonderfully ornamental plant, and it was used to treat fevers and upset tummies in the same way that peppermint was used in Europe. It
is exceptionally beautiful and fragrant when used in dried arrangements or in herbal wreaths, and your greatest problem may be to keep it away
from the flower arranger. Very rare.
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$8.50
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Swiss Mint Mentha spicata Swiss Mint
This wonderfully productive mint resembles spearmint on steroids with extra large soft green leaves that are very sweetly peppermint scented. The dense spikes of tiny mauve flowers are charming and great bee and butterfly attractors. Use it in any dish where you would add peppermint. It makes a delightful herb tea too, perfect for settling the tummy.
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$8.50
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Vietnamese Mint or Ram Rau or Vietnamese Coriander
This herb with its incredible mixture of coriander, hot mint and spice flavours is quintessential to the flavour of Vietnamese cooking. Use it as you would coriander to finish a dish and have everyone guessing the source of that tantalising flavour.
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$7.50
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A perfect gift for gardeners,
cooks, and lovers of fragrance.......
Indulge In A Mint Collection!
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Mints are so easy to grow, and if you have limited space a potted collection will supply fresh harvests of mint for cooking, herbal teas,
refreshing herbal posies, fragrant cooling baths, hand made toiletries, for pot pourri, and for use as fragrant instant insect repellents.
We offer a mint collection of EIGHT different varieties of our choice together with suggestions for their use and advice for growing them for
$60.00 including the cost of postage and packing within Australia.
(We are sorry but, due to quarantine regulations in those states, we do not send plants to Tasmania or Western Australia.)
Would you like to send a collection with the handout to a friend as a thank you or to celebrate an event? We will send
a card with your message (not more than thirty words please). Make sure you provide us with your friend's address as well as your
own. Please order at least fourteen days ahead if ordering by mail, ten days ahead if ordering by email, Fax, or phone if you wish us
to deliver by a given date. Cheques will need to be cleared before plants are dispatched, but you can also pay by credit card (Visa, Mastercard,
and American Express) or postal money order.
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$60.00
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Would you like to explore more of the Honeysuckle Cottage website
filled with huge collections of rare heirloom flowers, gourmet herbs
and vegetables, seeds, fragrant and useful herbs, and masses of
fascinating articles? Then click here.
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