This is a lovely and dramatic plant with purple flower spikes and deep green leaves. When in full bloom Korean Mint stands about 36 inches. It is a perennial, so once you plant it you will have it (and despite mint being in its name, it doesn’t spread).
Korean Mint is a standout in our garden. It looks a bit like lilacs in bloom with its 2 to 4 inch flower spikes. Korean Mint will bloom from early to late summer. It is one of the last plants to still have blooms in the fall.
Pollinators love this plant! Its long blooming period keeps them well fed.
Korean Mint’s flowers and leaves make a sweet anise/licorice flavoured tea. It’s young leaves also taste great in a salad.
A bit more (or skip down to ‘How to Plant’):
This lovely plant is an important herb in Chinese Traditional Medicine. Its leaves, stems and flowers have antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties Yeo and colleagues (2023) summarize Korean Mint’s properties in a paper published in the journal Plants:
Agastache rugosa, known as the Korean mint, belongs to the Lamiaceae family found in East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan). It is a traditional medicinal and ornamental plant. A. rugosa can be used for physiological and pharmacological treatments, including antifungal, antibacterial, anticancer, and antiviral activities. Furthermore, Park et al. reported that different tissues (flower, stem, and leaf) contained phenolic compounds (catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, rutin, and kaempferol), and that methanolic extracts of the different plant tissues displayed antibacterial activity. Desta et al. described the antioxidant activities of extracts of flower, root, stem, and leaf tissues of A. rugosa, which were rich in phenolic compounds.
This beautiful low maintenance plant has a lot of things going for it!
How to Plant: Ease of Germination: Easy. Direct sow in spring or start indoors 4-6 weeks before last frost. If you don’t want Korean Mint to be a perennial, just plant it in a pot for the summer.
Location: Sun, Partial Sun
Life cycle: Perennial (Zone 4 and up) or Grow as an Annual
Usable Parts: Flowers, Leaves (dried, fresh)
Uses: Tea, Tincture
Height: 36 inches
