Marrubium vulgare
Height MEDIUM

Used as a cough remedy by the ancient Egyptians and the main ingredient of Cough Candy from Dundee, this is also a pretty foliage plant with silvery hairy leaves and whorls of off-white flowers. And it works!

White Horehound

Melaleuca alternifolia
Height MEDIUM

Famous aromatic Australian shrub yielding oil with antiseptic, antibacterial and antifungal properties. Tea Tree may prove hardy once established in many areas, but will also do well in a cool, light, indoor position.

Tea Tree

Melissa officinalis
Height MEDIUM

A calming herb for infusions and used in aromatherapy; sweet lemon scent used in pot-pourris. Lovely chopped fine in salads - and try it with Peppermint for the most delectable herbal tea.

Lemon Balm

Melissa officinalis Aurea
Height MEDIUM

This gold and green variegated form is even prettier in salads. Lemon Balm is high in nectar, and said to encourage honeybees to stay together as a colony.

Golden Lemon Balm

Mentha aquatica
Height MEDIUM

All mints are wonderful, but if you're a bee you'll like this one best. Lovely native peppermint, preferring wet sites.

Water Mint

Mentha x gracilis Variegata
Height MEDIUM

Excellent flavour, fabulous foliage, green and gold, pretty flowers. A very ornamental addition to salads.

Ginger Mint

Mentha longifolia
Height PRETTY TALL

Silvery soft foliage, aromatic; like all peppermints, it aids digestion, eases blocked sinuses, and is slightly antiseptic.

White Peppermint

Mentha longifolia cv
Height PRETTY TALL

The long, buddleia-like flower spikes are this mint's notable feature, and they are also attractive to bees and butterflies.

Buddleia Mint

Mentha longifolia varigata
Height PRETTY TALL

Yellow and dusty green foliage make this Buddleia Mint an unusual addition to your herb collection

Variegated Buddleia Mint

Mentha longfolia cv
Height MEDIUM

Unusual, delicate perfume for a soothing tea. Not as invasive as most mints, with grey-green foliage.

Lavender Mint

Mentha x piperata
Height MEDIUM

Classic mint for peppermint tea, the oil is also used in confectionery, toiletries and medicines.

Black Peppermint

Mentha x piperata citrata
Height MEDIUM

Light lemony aroma, more pronounced when dried, I think.

Lemon Mint

Eau de Cologne Mint

Mentha x piperata cv
Height MEDIUM

The leaves just go on and on being produced in this exquisitely-scented culinary mint. MUCH easier to grow than basil!

Basil Mint

Mentha x piperata cv

Outrageously minty peppermint that empties your brain at a sniff. Not for the faint-hearted.

Swiss Mint

Mentha x piperata cv
Height MEDIUM

Bushy, well-shaped mint, powerfully aromatic, makes a real humdinger of a tea if you're feeling stuffy and lethargic.

Eucalyptus Mint

Mentha x piperata cv
Height MEDIUM

Smelling exactly like 'After Eights', I can't imagine why this mint just keeps on selling out..

Chocolate Mint

Mentha x piperata cv.
Height MEDIUM

Crinkly, sightly hairy leaves with a distinct smell of grapefruit, very unusual.

Grapefruit Mint

Mentha x piperata cv.
Height MEDIUM

Rather nice added to long cold drinks. Distinctively shaped leaves and upright stems, all very limey.

Lime Mint

Mentha pulegium
Very small or creeping

Short-lived perennial creeping mint, strongly peppermint-scented, and an effective deterrent for ants and mice. Readily re-seeds itself.

Pennyroyal

Mentha requienii
Very small or creeping

The darling of the mint family. Less than half a centimetre in height, it slides slowly along the ground, giving off the most amazing peppermint scent whenever it's touched. Minute mauve flowers sit on top of the tiny foliage. If you must have a mint you can control, this is it!

Corsican Mint

Mentha spicata
Height MEDIUM

This is the "just mint" your (and my) mother sent you to the end of the garden to collect. Utterly uncontrollable.

Garden Mint

Mentha spicata Crispa
Height MEDIUM

Outrageously curly leaves, a gorgeous spearmint flavour and masses of upright stems make this a very ornamental mint.

Curly Spearmint

Mentha spicata 'Spanish'
Height TALL

A vigorous, prolific mint, that keeps going into winter, producing long, spearmint-flavoured leaves, that make a lovely cuppatea!

Spanish Mint

Mentha x smithiana
Height MEDIUM

A rather choice culinary mint, whose flavoursome leaves are flushed red on the underside.

Red Raripila Mint

Mentha suaveolens
Height PRETTY TALL

Gratuitously tall, bearing masses of nectar-rich flowers, and lovely, soft, round, aromatic leaves which make just the finest, apple-scented mint sauce.

Apple Mint

Mentha suaveolens Variegata
Height MEDIUM

Green and white variegation make this a stunning ornamental mint, which looks brilliant in a tub (but don't they all).

Pineapple Mint

Mentha villosa x alepecurioides
Height MEDIUM

The Epicure Mint is said to have the best flavour of them all. The Harrods to Apple Mint's M&S. Maybe.

Bowles Mint

Mentha spicata 'Moroccan'
Height MEDIUM

This is THE mint to go with yoghurt, cous-cous, and Middle Eastern or North African dishes. It's green, straightforward, prolific and gorgeous.

Moroccan Mint

Monarda didyma
Height MEDIUM

A beautiful aromatic plant bearing whorls of showy, deep pink or scarlet flowers which make a refreshing tea and obviously attract bees.

Bergamot, Bee Balm, Oswego Tea

Monarda fistulosa
Height PRETTY TALL

Whorls of pink flowers make this a very attractive medicinal plant. Make into a tea against catarrh.

Horsemint, Wild Bergamot

Monarda menthifolia
Height MEDIUM

Unusual Bergamot, whose aromatic leaves are antiseptic and mildly anaesthetic, and have an oregano-like flavour, delicious for cooking.

Mint leaved Bergamot

Myrrhis odorata
Height PRETTY TALL

Freshen up salads or cut the sugar in your baking with this versatile native herb. Pretty white lacy flowers in summer and attractive seed heads later. Makes a rather excellent tisane for treatment of colds and coughs..

Sweet Cicely

Myrtus communis

Myrtle oil is much used in perfumery and skin care, and the leaves tasty with roast meats. A splendid evergreen shrub.

Myrtle

Nepeta cataria Citriodora
Height MEDIUM

A soothing tea is made from this sturdy medicinal and culinary herb, widely known for its ability to attract cats away from more easily damaged plants and borders. This lemon variety is beautifully aromatic.

Lemon Catmint

Nepeta mussinii
Height FAIRLY LOW

Clouds of blue flowers attract bees and butterflies in summer; lovely border perennial, great for informal edging.

Blue Catmint

Oenothera glaziomana
Height PRETTY TALL

This is a tall variety producing the characteristic, sweetly-scented, yellow flowers which open late in the day. Evening Primrose was long used as a healing plant, but its true medicinal value was discovered only in the 1980s.

Evening Primrose

Omphalodes verna
Height FAIRLY LOW

Pretty blue flowered perennial which is attractive to bees in spring.

Blue-eyed Mary

Origanum vulgare
Height MEDIUM

Important culinary herb; also herbal tea; medicinally for bronchial complaints, coughs and colds. Flowers very attractive to bees, hoverflies and butterflies.

Oregano/

Marjoram

Origanum Aureum Crispum
Height FAIRLY LOW

Compact golden form with flavoursome curly leaves . Eye-catching foliage and mauve flowers.

Gold Curled Marjoram

Origanum 'Sunshine'
Height FAIRLY LOW

Excellent gold-tipped aromatic foliage; when in flower attracts beneficial insects. Leaves add a lovely taste to salads.

Gold-tipped Marjoram

Origanum 'Country Cream'
Height FAIRLY LOW

Ornamental green and white variegated variety, with all the properties of the species.

Variegated Oregano

Origanum vulgare 'Compactum'

Flowering at not more than 5 inches, prolifically, I find this variety superb for flavouring, great in a pot by the door, and excellent for drying. Bees love it too!

Dwarf Marjoram

Ocimum basilicum

Comes in a range of very nice varieties and is a superb culinary herb fresh with salad or dried with just about anything. If only it were easier to grow, and less popular with slugs, Pythium disease, whitefly, aphids......

Basil