(Some peppermint from our garden!)
We absolutely LOVE peppermint! Currently we have peppermint, citrus mint, chocolate mint, spearmint, and lemon mint, growing in our garden!
A few interesting facts:
- Peppermint is not native to the USA. It was brought over with English colonists. Peppermint was not native to England. Peppermint was a hybrid of two European mints (watermint and spearmint).
- Peppermint is not very good as cross-pollinating. Instead it sends out underground runners which sprout genetically identical peppermint.
- Peppermint is probably one of the most well known flavors/scents
- Milkweed has very deep roots which enables it to continue to grow no matter how many times it has been cut back or dug up.
- Milkweed has a very unique way of pollinating. The surface of the flower is slippery and designed to have insect legs slide down until one of them has landed into a small hole in which pollen sacs are hidden. When and if the insect can get free, it transfers the pollen to another milkweed plant.
- Throughout every stage of it's life, it is edible! (If you want to eat it, if I were you, I'd research it to know how to prepare and eat it, etc.).
- Queen Anne's Lace is one of the most common abundant wildflowers! It's named after Queen Anne of England. We've all heard the story of how the red flower in the middle of the flower is a drop of blood from where "she pricked her finger while working on her lace."
- Queen Anne's Lace is related to carrots which is part of the parsley family! Celery, parsnips, parsley, dill, caraway, fennel, coriander, cumin, and anise (one of my favorite spices) are also related.
- Despite it being a wildflower, Queen Anne's Lace has a delightful scent!
