what's a healthy peppermint plant look like?

On something of a whim, I got a peppermint plant a couple weeks or so ago from a nursery. I've realized I've almost certainly been overwatering it. I just looked at it and noticed one of the main stalks/stems (canes? I'm not sure the proper terminology) coming from the center of the plant has a lot more green covering the stems and hairs, where a lot of the other stems are brown. Is this a problem? It's a similar green to the leaves. Or maybe the ones that are more brown are not as healthy? Wondering if I've created a fungal problem or something with overwatering. It's my understanding that peppermint plants are hard to kill, but I'd like to identify a potential problem anyway - maybe cut back that particular stem if it's diseased, etc etc

Sorry for no pictures, I don't have a smart phone or digital camera. Main question is the subject anyway, "what's a healthy peppermint plant look like." Thanks for reading

Maybe take the plant back to the nursery for advice. I saw this in a Big box Store commercial.

A picture might also help folks here on the forum.

Hi J, it souds as if your plant is rotting from overwatering. You can try the following: replant it to a bigger pot with moist (but not wet!) soil, rich in humus.
Leave it in a shady / dappled sunlight spot for a couple of days, somewhere where airflow can blow through the plant a bit.
Your plant should get feeling better.
If needed, you could water it about once a week, depending on the weather. Always check if the soil is still moist before watering. If it's still moist, you don't need to water. I've killed a rose plant with overwatering in my early gardening years.

For the reference, here's healthy peppermint, from a well-established patch (there are some nettles too, they like the same growing conditions).

Thank you Nina! I'll move it to a new pot with fresh soil tomorrow.  

Repotted the peppermint with fresh soil and still noticed leaves struggling (yellowing). Also made note that the leaves look very different from the photo shared above and any other photos I have found of healthy mint online. The leaves on my plant have all been sort of rounder and softer, the shape reminiscent of a clover. I knew virtually nothing about mint plants when I bought my plant. If I'd known anything I'd have been able to tell the plant was already struggling (or at least in a rather unusual state) when I bought it. It was in pretty cramped conditions, for one thing.

Been quite a learning experience with this plant. I made some drastic cuts today, hoping it will grow into a new shape more adapted to the greater space it has now, and mayyyybe I'll see some leaves that look more like peppermint leaves apparently ought to. Or maybe I cut back too much and doomed it! I guess we'll see.

Hello J,

I'm beginning to suspect your plant isn't a peppermint at all.
Yellowing leaves are most often a signal of too much water, the plant is struggling.
The softness of the leaves, as you are describing, makes me think of plants in the Plectranthus family. They too belong to the huge family of mint-related plants, but their care and appearance is quite different. This plant springs to mind (it used to belong to Plectranthus family, now in Coleus).
It needs much less water than mint, but more water than succulents.
Good luck with your plant, I hope that it survives and then thrives!

Thanks Nina! That's a good lead. I wonder if it was mislabeled at the nursery. Thing is, it definitely *smells* a lot like mint, whether from simply touching the leaves and getting it on fingers or from cuts/pruning. It does bear a striking resemblance to this attached image 'nicoletta' plectranthus though.

And now I'm reading there are some varieties of plectranthus that do have a sort of minty/menthol smell. Hmm. This is starting to make more sense. Seeing things like "cuban oregano," "plectranthus menthol eucalyptus" . . . much to consider and look into.

Thank you again for the insight, and the well-wishing! Maybe I'll have a good and/or interesting update in another week or two.

Happy to help!
Give your plant less water than until now. If its green leaves are starting to hang = sign of thirst and you can water it.
In my experience the Plectranthuses come from warmer, sunnier regions than the peppermint, so you can also give it a sunnier spot. Keep an eye on your plant if it likes it or not - I'm expecting it to enjoy sun and warmth, but not desert-kind of dry.
Good luck!

For what it's worth, the pictures Nina shared look like spearmint to me.

In my experience, peppermint tends to have rounder, darker green leaves, a more prostrate growth habit, brown stems, and be much less vigorous than spearmint.  I had both planted together, and the spearmint smothered the peppermint.

Spearmint seems quite drought amd full sun tolerant, too.

Catie George wrote:In my experience, peppermint tends to have rounder, darker green leaves, a more prostrate growth habit, brown stems, and be much less vigorous than spearmint.  I had both planted together, and the spearmint smothered the peppermint.

I appreciate having another perspective and more data! I've been considering getting the plant out of the pot altogether and putting it in the ground where I imagine it'd be healthier and happier, but the strong possibility it is truly a 'proper' mint plant makes me hesitate. I read that plectranthus does not spread as aggressively as mint so that made me think I could put it in the ground. There's a rocky soil bed space on one side of my house, with a concrete walkway separating it from the rest of the yard, and if I could trust the plant not to send runners under the concrete and break containment (lol) I'd put it there. Also I've already got some new lavender planted elsewhere in that rocky bed trying to establish itself.

I was excited at the prospect of getting that plant out of the pot and into the ground, til I considered what might happen if it actually is proper mint.

Sometimes, I think, it takes time for mint to be established. I planted mint, chocolate mint, orange mint (Eau de Cologne), and spearmint on my property 8 years ago. I'm also in Western Washington, and my property is nothfacing, tree sheltered, and close to a wetland--so it's cool and damp! It took 4 years for that mint to finally start doing what mint is supposed to do and take over. For a while, I was sure I had utterly failed as a gardener because what type of gardener kills mint?!

Now, though, the mint has happily taken over and spread like I wanted it to, and I have a large supply for making as much mint tea as I need and want.

Catie, you're right - mine seems to be spearmint. It came with the house, in abundance, and I'm happy it's here.

Another mint variety here is what I call "woolly mint" because its appearance is woolly. With a quick search on the internet I find out it's also called apple mint .

i was also thinking of another wooly mint (here it's grown by Turkish immigrants to make kibbeh and to use with beef and after generations of this it's practically wild everywhere), one I have as a volunteer in my yard, rounded leaves with a mild mint smell, not strong enough for you to want to make tea with, for example.
Plectranthus, i think the smell is more "mint-adjacent" with some notes of mothballs, kerosene, etc. Also the leaves are much meatier.

Regardless, mint tends to really enjoy water (I used to find it growing in waterfalls when I used to hike in NY state), but don't go overboard. Generally it grows quite well; I have a lot of kinds of mint in my yard and some stems are green and some are brown depending on how old that part of the plant is.

I agree with Nicole, sometimes it takes a long time, and some mints are easier than others. I've managed to kill several variegated and flavored types, and I've never been able to start them from seed. I let my spearmint and normal mint run wild and even then, occasionally some dies. I try to always have a baby or two I pulled out of the ground growing in a pot in case I need to plant again.
Nina's ideas about watering are spot-on. As for whether it will take over your yard or not, it's aggressive, but it's not kudzu, and you can always use what you pull out.

It's interesting to also discuss where the different varieties of mint might fit in terms of taste. I was always wondering where the woolly mint might be good for, thank you for pointing in the direction of middle-east cuisine, Tereza!

Today I started a country wine with woolly mint, elderflowers, rose petals, strawberries, some peach leaves, lemon juice and raw honey. Hoping it will become a tasty wine.

I've used Plectranthus leaves with duck meat: cut a slit in the filet, insert a few small leaves ( a little goes a long way ), close the slit with toothpicks and fry. Yummy.
I think it would go well with any fat, wild-ish meat. It's also a good medicine for a sore throat, either as an infusion (tea) or infused in honey and used as a syrup.