Our
outdoor garden behind the driveway of our little house is completely covered with snow right now. Before the snow came, the chocolate mint plants were looking a little dry, so I decided to chop off parts of two plants and bring them inside. That was in late November. One plant survived the transfer. I don't know how the mints outside are doing: they are under snow in the area where we pile all snow shoveled from our driveway. The snow may protect their roots, so maybe they'll make a come back in the spring.
This is how the one surviving indoor plant looked last week.
And here it is this week: the leaves are larger, the two tallest shoots are taller, a third one is coming along, and two tiny new shoots are growing from the roots. The two baby shoots are hard to see, but visible at the base of Shoot Number Two on the right.
Photos taken 15Dec09 and 20Dec09.
This is how the one surviving indoor plant looked last week.
And here it is this week: the leaves are larger, the two tallest shoots are taller, a third one is coming along, and two tiny new shoots are growing from the roots. The two baby shoots are hard to see, but visible at the base of Shoot Number Two on the right.
6 comments:
Does it really taste like chocolate mint? Sounds like the perfect plant to have inside for a cup of tea.
It does taste like chocolate mint - and is excellent for tea. Yummy.
Ah natural selection in progress.
These mints recently went through a power outage of unknown length, which caused the baby shoots to die and a couple leaves to dry up. Now, perhaps, they've been re-hardened for this area.
They should be hardy to zone 3a. Sometimes mine die off a bit above ground, but they come back from the roots at least.
I'm hoping the outdoor ones will come back from the roots. They had a sudden hard freeze (-20F?), and then couldn't be watered so dried out a lot.
We're in zone 4 or 5 supposedly, but most places can get colder than they are rated in Nevada. Like, Reno can get to -35F, and when that happens, a whole lot of plants die that were supposedly planted for the area. Only happens every ten to twenty years, maybe?
Mints should be good to -40F, I think. I grew regular mint successfully in Alaska.
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