Peppermint Seeds

Peppermint is the mint for tea: dark, purple-tinged stems and deep green leaves with a cooler, sharper menthol bite than spearmint. Mentha x piperita is a natural cross between spearmint and water mint. Steep a handful of fresh leaves for tea, chop them into fruit salads, dressings and mint sauce, or dry them for winter. Left to flower in late summer, its spikes of small mauve flowers draw bees and butterflies.

Sowing and growing

• Sow in pots or trays from April to June, indoors or outside; small seed is easier to manage in compost than in open ground.
• Sow on the surface and barely cover (Piccolo suggests 0.5 cm).
• Germination takes 10 to 15 days.
• Partial shade to full sun, in moist, well-drained soil.
• Grows to about 50 to 70 cm tall and spreads widely by underground runners, so a pot at least 30 cm across keeps it in check.
• Pick leaves from about 60 to 90 days after sowing; the flavour is best before flowering.
• Hardy perennial that dies back in winter and regrows each spring.

What you receive: a packet of about 50 seeds from Piccolo Seeds, with growing instructions on the back.

Browse our full range of herb and flower seeds, start your seedlings with our seed trays and propagators, or grow it alongside our lemon balm seeds for a herbal tea patch.