Hart's Pennyroyal (Mentha cervina) is best planted in a pond basket, lined with jute and filled with special pond medium. When planted in the basket, fill up with more pond medium and cover with the edges of the jute then a layer of gravel. Plant in the pond to just below the surface - maximum 20 cm deep in your pond. If your pond is too deep, stand the basket on a couple of bricks to make it shallower. Full sun or part shade. Best time to plant your Hart's Pennyroyal is May-June.

Combining Hart's Pennyroyal with other plants

The striking lilac flower spikes of Hart's Pennyroyal (Mentha cervina) will really stand out wherever you plant them. This pond edge plant goes great together with Butomus umbellatus (flowering rush) and marsh arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica). Mentha cervina (Hart's Pennyroyal) grew wild in marshlands but this plant will also thrive in much drying soils and as a summer flowering plant in the border it will also look terrific!

Hart's Pennyroyal (Mentha cervina) is a vigorous water's edge plant that actually grows everywhere. Hart's Pennyroyal will however, flower most profusely in a sunny spot. Snip all the withered foliage off in the autumn and remove it from the pond. If the clump gets too big for its spot, remove the whole plant from the pond in May, divide into smaller pieces and plant just one or two of the best pieces.

Hart's Pennyroyal in winter

Hart's Pennyroyal (Mentha cervina) dies back above ground in the winter. As long as the roots remain under water or underground, it will manage well with no extra protection. Cut away all withered foliage from the previous year in early spring. You will soon see new shoots appear and this plant will once again treat you to new flowers in the summer.

Hart's Pennyroyal (Mentha cervina) originally grew wild along streams and riverbanks and in other marshy places around the western Mediterranean. This is a variety of mint that looks very different to better-known varieties but the smell will give it away. Has much narrower leaves than other mints and the flowers are somewhat more noticeable due to its growing on different levels, circling the stems.
Mentha is classified under Lamiaceae.
This plant is possibly better known under its old name, Preslia cervina.