Lakeshore Garden Centres Plant Finder

Other Names:  Australian Mint

Description:

A compact, fast growing evergreen shrub featuring small, dark green leaves with rounded tips that are highly aromatic; an abundance of small, white to lilac flowers with red spots in late spring; a fine textured shrub that is stunning all season long

Ornamental Features

Alpine Mint Bush is covered in stunning clusters of white orchid-like flowers with lilac purple overtones and dark red spots at the ends of the branches from late spring to early summer. It has attractive dark green evergreen foliage which emerges light green in spring. The tiny round leaves are highly ornamental and remain dark green throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Alpine Mint Bush is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a ground-hugging habit of growth. It lends an extremely fine and delicate texture to the landscape composition which should be used to full effect.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Alpine Mint Bush is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Alpine Mint Bush will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 5 feet. It has a low canopy. It grows at a fast rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 30 years.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in sandy soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This species is not originally from North America.

Alpine Mint Bush makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden. Be aware that in our climate, most plants cannot be expected to survive the winter if left in containers outdoors, and this plant is no exception. Contact our experts for more information on how to protect it over the winter months.

This plant is not reliably hardy in our region, and certain restrictions may apply; contact the store for more information.