Growing Mint in Pots: Care and Picking

Mint is easy to grow and hard to stop.

It creeps underground on rhizomes and can regrow from small pieces left in the soil. The Royal Horticultural Society's advice is simple: grow it in a pot, keep it moist, and keep picking.

Updated 14 October 2026 · 5 sources

Pot it to contain it
Keep the compost moist
Pick the young tips
Fresh leaves from spring to autumn

Check your spot

THE SHORT ANSWER

Contain the roots,
crop the tips.

Mint asks for little.
The main job is stopping it taking over.

CONTAINING

Why the pot matters

The RHS says many mints are vigorous spreaders, best grown in pots to keep them contained. In a border, sink a bottomless pot with its rim just above the soil.

Check your spot

PICKING

Young tips taste best

Harvest from late spring to autumn. The RHS says the young, soft shoot tips have the strongest flavour so pick little and often.

How to keep it going

TYPES

Spearmint or peppermint

Spearmint oil is mainly carvone. Peppermint, a hybrid of watermint and spearmint, is mainly menthol and menthone, with a cooling aftertaste.

See the numbers

Two sprigs side by side on a wooden board, one bright green spearmint and one darker, purple-stemmed peppermint — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

FOUR STEPS FOR A GOOD POT

Plenty of leaves,
nothing escaping.

Young plants can go in at any time of year, but the RHS says they settle best in spring or autumn.

Pot it up
Plant into a container of peat-free multipurpose or soil-based compost so the roots stay put.
Keep it evenly moist
Check pots regularly in the growing season, especially in hot, dry weather.
Cut back after flowering
Take the whole plant down to about 5cm from the base and fresh leaves will follow.
Divide every few years
Repot into a bigger pot or replant a divided section, in spring or autumn, to keep the plant vigorous.

TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

A big family,
a hard cut back.

One figure on how many mints there are,
one on how low to cut after flowering.

≈ 25 species

Estimated Mentha species

The RHS says there are an estimated 25 species of mint, plus many hybrids and cultivars. Not all are suitable for eating: pennyroyal is listed as harmful if eaten.

SPECIES · RHS

5cm

Height to cut to after flowering

After flowering, the RHS suggests cutting the whole plant down to about 5cm (2in) from the base to encourage a fresh flush of leaves.

CUTTING BACK · RHS

Catmint and Korean mint smell minty but are not true mints. They belong to other plant groups: Nepeta and Agastache.

A QUICK SPOT CHECK

Where will your
mint live?

Pick a spot to see what the RHS advice says about it. The bar shows how much effort it takes to keep the mint happy and in its place.

Based on the Royal Horticultural Society's guide to growing mint.

Spot check

Choose a spotA pot on the patioA windowsill in winterA hot, sunny wallA sunken pot in a borderStraight into a border

A pot on the patioIdeal

The RHS's first choice. Use peat-free multipurpose or soil-based compost and check watering often in summer, as pots dry out faster than the ground.

A windowsill in winterBring it in

Move a potted plant indoors in autumn to a sunny windowsill and you can keep picking through winter.

A hot, sunny wallWatch the water

Mint grows in full sun or part shade, but pots in heat dry quickly. Moving them somewhere shadier in hot weather cuts down watering.

A sunken pot in a borderRim above soil

Use a bottomless pot or one with large drainage holes, sunk into the soil so the rim sits slightly above the surface.

Straight into a borderIt will spread

Mint spreads on underground rhizomes that regrow from small pieces left in the soil, so controlling spread becomes the main job.

Source: Royal Horticultural Society, How to grow mint.

A plastic pot sunk into a garden border with its rim just above the soil, mint growing inside it — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

WHY MINT FEELS COLD

Menthol talks
to your cold sensors.

Peppermint's oil is mainly menthol, which gives its cooling aftertaste. In 2002, a paper in Nature from David Julius's laboratory described a receptor in sensory nerves that responds both to menthol and to temperatures in the cool to cold range.

That receptor, now called TRPM8, was identified independently by Julius and by Ardem Patapoutian, who both used menthol to find it. The pair shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.

In conversation

Questions people ask

Why should mint be grown in a pot?

The RHS says many mints spread vigorously on underground stems called rhizomes, which can regrow from small pieces left in the soil. Growing mint in a pot keeps it contained.

What is the difference between spearmint and peppermint?

Spearmint (Mentha spicata) has an oil mainly of carvone. Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) is a hybrid of watermint and spearmint, and its oil is mainly menthol and menthone, which gives a cooling aftertaste.

Can I grow mint indoors?

Yes, for winter picking. The RHS suggests bringing potted mint indoors in autumn to a sunny windowsill. Stems also root readily in a jar of water.

What are the orange spots on my mint leaves?

Possibly mint rust, a common fungal disease the RHS describes as causing dusty orange, yellow and black spots on leaves.

Why does menthol feel cold?

Menthol activates TRPM8, a receptor in sensory nerves that also responds to cool and cold temperatures. Its discovery was part of the work honoured by the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Sources

Each figure on this page comes from the sources below.

Give mint
a pot of its own.