I have a nice little collection of scented mints that I started getting last year with the purchase of some Jim Westerfield mints, plus a few more I got this year.
I have a pretty good nose for scent but for the life of me I cannot tell any difference in the mints I have which range from pear, fruit, chocolate, hazelnut to marshmallow. No matter how much I rub n' sniff, they basically all smell the same to me...like plain ol' mint! Your thoughts?
Regarding the smell of so called scented Mints
I only have a few mints, but I can't tell the difference in smell so much as I can taste. The chocolate mint is SOO good. Tastes like a peppermint patty.
Ditto that! I have the chocolate mint and yes it tastes like a peppermint patty. I also have the hazelnut mint, banana mint, and the pear mint. You are right, I don't think the hazelnut tastes or smells like hazelnuts, the pear like pears, or the banana like bananas. I was hoping since I just got them that maybe they needed a little time to get planted and spread out a bit. I was little disappointed in the nutmeg thyme and the nutmeg geranium also but I have hopes. They are still pretty plants.
-Juli
Sorry, guys, are your sniffers working LOL. My banana is so close to banana it's unreal. I ask everybody who comes into the yard here smell this, wow it's banana they say. it's so obvious. the hazelnut is not near as strong as plain ol peppermint is, peppermint is very very strong in scent,
chocolate mint, is very close to blue balsam and blackberry, but blackberry grows low to the ground blue balsam is a medium height and chocolate can get pretty tall. Pear is a sweet smelling mint, not necessarily like pear, but very very sweetly scented. mild kind of like. I guess the hybridizers change up the looks, feel , growth habits etc... on the mints other than the scents. too, I gues you have to look at that. I have to go pick the marshmallow and smell it again to see what it smells like.
have you guys tried lavender and grapefruit, they don't spread well for me, but the scent is a knock out scent, very much like true lavender, and grapefruit is a pungent scent like true grapefruit,
just my opinions though
.
You also need to consider where you buy or trade from as well, especially buying from nurseries, some nurseries change the names of the mints. not saying fragrant fields do, they are allowed to sell jim's mints, not all nurseries are allowed to sell his mints. Sooo they change the name,
BTW< you can propigate and sell mints on ebay as long as you don't live in canada, as far as I know, they only hold propigation rights in canada. I asked.
Thanks for that info KA.
I consider my nose sensitive but I cannot detect much at this time anyway.
I guess I will keep sniffing. :>)
I gotta get grapefruit and banana mint!
Growing lavender is enough to satisfy my lavender crave.
I grow an English rose called "Jude The Obscure" that is very grapefruit scented.
hey cool, a grapefruit scented rose, now that's something youdon't see everyday LOL or smell for that matter
Its quite unique for a rose.
Some roses have a nice fruity scent but Jude is definately grapefruit IMO.
Fragrance is often subject to the sniffer but Jude is known for that scent.
Gorgeous rose too...heres a pic.
wow, that's beautiful, just love it, I don't do well with roses, I think it's lack of care on my part, I have a red one about to bloom, looking forward to it's bloom.
boy if you can root some cuttings of this, I'd send you plenty a mints in trade LOL
KA maybe we can work out a trade but I can't root any rose cuttings until after they bloom, like not until July or so....and I'm not real lucky at getting them started so its hit or miss. As for roses there are carefree varieties to grow.
Too many people try to grow the commonly available Hybrid Tea roses and they tend to be disease prone. More and more modern shrub and landscape roses are being bred to be carefree and disease resistant.
Ask your local nursery if they carry any easy to grow roses.
I'll do that, I know wht you mean about rooting roses, I'm not any good at it at all
I'd sure like to get that sister Julie's wintergreen mint from Fragrantfields. The last time I checked they were out. Anybody else growing this? Is it true to smell?
-Juli
they told me they'd have it in a couple weeks, that was a week ago.
don't email them cause they rarely check their emails, but call them instead and ask
Can anyone tell me where I can buy all of these unusal mints? Some place on the internet? I'd love to try Lime, Banana, pear - all of them. I have Choco, Apple, Kentucky Col., Orange, Spear and another I don't know what it is.
Thanks!
GG
Have you checked locally?
I found a few of the more uncommon ones like pineapple etc. at my favorite nursery this year.
Fragrant Fields is limited but has some nice selections and then theres always Richters. (sp?) Do a google for websites.
BlossomFarms has some http://www.blossomfarm.com/plants_m.htm
I got mine from Fragrant fields http://www.fragrantfields/
and one from Mulberry Creek http://mulberrycreek.com/cgi-bin/herbman/page.cgi?p=a_z&letter=M
I'd like to see a mint swap but we haven't gotten one together yet.
-Juli
Smell and taste are very subjective, some mints i can tell the smell or taste is like the name but some, like chocolate mint, just tastes like common old pepper mint. Now eau de cologne, blue balsam and orange mint taste right, if you are suspicious of a variety, get a friend to try it with you and seee how that works out.
I agree, smell and taste is very subjective,
What is Blue Balsam like?
Kathy_Ann
are you going to have any grapefruit or banana mint for sale this year?
WEll, funny you mentioned that LOL, my grapefruit has been transplanted several times and still not happy, It's not in l00% full all day sun right now, and I"m thinking of moving the 5 in patch of it to full sun, LOL, it's several years old now and only 5 in ches around.
The banana was transplanted last year and doing well, it's always the last mint to come out of the ground in the spring time, I'll have a few of the banana for sale later , not really sure yet on the grapefruit.
kathy
Like duh...after I posted this message I figured out I have a banana mint coming from Richters.
Please D-Mail me if you are still selling via ebay since one can never have too many herbs!
Thanks! :)
I'll weigh in with thoughts on the new mints I got last year... :-)
My citrus mints all taste "citrus-y" and are definitely different from one another in habit/texture as well as scent/flavor (Orange Mint, Julia's Sweet Citrus, Jim's Candy Lemon Lime, Hillary's Sweet Lemon). 'Jesse's Sweet Pear' just started new growth, and I think a crushed leaf still smells *exactly* like canned pears. 'Oregano Thyme Mint' has a very pungent herbal scent & flavor. 'Marshmallow Mint' is light & sweet, but I'm not sure I get the "freshly opened bag of marshmallows" scent from it, and 'Wild Berries' is similar -- sweet, fruity, pleasant mint flavor, but no wow! of berry-ness from it IMO. 'Pink Candy Pops' is more of an ornamental, I think... to me, it doesn't seem to have much mintiness to it, but I like the soft foliage & am looking forward to the pink pom-pom blooms.
Critter Thanks for that review! :)
My orange mint croaked (left put in pot all winter).
I have one of the JW lemon mint, forget which right now and Candy Pops. Think I will reorder pear...mine never took off.
Of all the citrus mints mentioned (Orange Mint, Julia's Sweet Citrus, Jim's Candy Lemon Lime, Hillary's Sweet Lemon) which do you consider the most citrusy?
Orange MInt is coming up this spring with a strong balsam note to it... The other 3 are all strongly citrusy, with distinctly different flavors. Hillary's Sweet Lemon was pungent, very lemony, and almost a little harsh the way lemon balm can be... Jim's Candy Lemon Lime is probaby my favorite citrusy mint for nibbling, with a clean light flavor that's very citrusy but not in the least harsh.
Taste is such a subjective thing....
Rose, if you're willing to wait until later this year, I'd be happy to trade herbs & mints with you... no guarantee that mine will take off, of course, but so far they are doing fine & look quite happy in their new larger pots. I'm just suggesting it so if you're trying to narrow down your order list, you can figure that I can probably send you the ones I mentioned above... If you're not interested in trading, that's fine too. :-)
Yes I would love to do some trading.
you know my sweet pear mint is doing horrible, not spreading at all, and I've transplanted the grapefruit several times, some mints are not fast spreaders like th e stupid ol pineapple mint is LOL
I might have to find some more sweet pear too I always liked that one, smelled so much like pears
I will perform special chants over my pot of Jesse's Sweet Pear Mint! ;-)
Kathyann
Hmmmm, same with mine (pear mint).
I wonder if its a poor variety?
A mint that doesn't spread?!? Who would of thunk? :o
update... just wanted to note that my little clump of 'Jesse's Sweet Pear' was one of the first of my mints to fill up its new 12 inch pot! I need to check to make sure it is "layering" as it spreads so that I can make some divisions....
Critter glad your pear-mint is going!
Would you give detail on how you layer them in a pot??
With Mints spreading by runner...can you just cut a runner off at any point as longs as it has roots?
Do the roots have to be a certain length or amount?
This message was edited Jun 14, 2006 10:12 PM
Just about any little piece of runner with roots will make a new mint plant. The bed by my deck has spearmint growing all through it by summer, despite being plowed up each spring. In fact, the first year it was tilled, I dug up the spearmint so it wouldn't get plowed... well, I must have missed a bit that got choppped up and spread throughout the bed, since it came up from one end to the other!
If you have just a little piece of rooted runner to use as a start, I'd suggest putting it into a 2 inch or 4 inch pot and babying it with regular watering until it fills the little pot with roots, then planting it out or putting it into a larger container.
Sometimes you can get mint to fill a pot with roots faster if, in addition to runners, you layer the top growth as you would to propagate thyme or oregano. Simply flex the stems down so they reach the surface of the potting mix, and push them a little way under the mix in the place where you want new roots to form. Once the stem has roots, you can cut it to separate the new little start from the mother plant. With other plants, it can help to strip the leaves and lightly scrape or scratch the surface of the part of the stem that you're burying, but mints will root with minimal encouragement.
Thanks for the info critter! :)
Rose, which mints did you end up ordering? I haven't forgotten that you want to trade... just waiting until I can get some nice little starts from a bunch of them.
I've also got 'Crispa' now (from DeBaggio's), a curly leafed mint that reminds me of Doublemint gum.
Check ebay for some good deals. I recently got a shipment of mints I bought online from a seller there. 6 varieties for around 4 dollars...plus shipping. Got them in two days and they're a good size plug of different varieties and came to me healthy.
Chocolate mint (which came bare but now has 4-6 leaves on it)
Lime
Pineapple
Grapefruit
Spearmint
Curly spearmint
Well I totally forgot! LOL
I have to leave shortly so I'll get you my list later Critter.
No rush, Rose.... I'm still trying to get some of the mints big enough to divide, ditto with the creeping thymes that I think you were also interested in.