Hi Gardenlad,

Thanks for the reply!

Oh, I agree that lapsang souchong is perfect, and not in need of any further flavors. I mentioned it only to show where my tastes are, teawise. I'm less interested in adding new flavors to my favorites as I am in starting from scratch.

Jasmine is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to read up on passionflowers.

Interesting question, about usage. I'm mostly interested in the beverage/taste. However, I do appreciate relaxing effect of chamomile. Medicinal herbs could become an all-consuming hobby, and I'm not quite ready to really dive into that, yet, but would be interested in the medicinal effects of various herbs that happen to also make good-tasting tea.

I'd also be interested in anything that can stand fairly wet conditions. I have some room in a boggy area.

--Jonathan

Jonathan, You may be interested to know that there is only one Tea Plantation in the US. It is in Charleston, SC. I grew up in the piedmont of SC and visited there several times. The plants were established there over 100 years ago.. This is a small blurb about it from the Charleston places to see:

Charleston Tea Plantation - The only tea plantation in America and home to descendants of tea bushes brought to the U.S. over 100 years ago. Open for free tours the first Saturday of every month May through October. Take Highway 700 to Wadmalaw Island.
Enjoy!
Gary/Louisville

Nichols Garden Nursery in Oregon sells tea plants, although I have never tried one. They are on the web.

Mary

Hi Jonothan -
Check this out -
www.boldweb.com/greenweb/herbaltea.html
I grow various things to add to my teas, and this was an interesting reference source. I've used lemon balm, lavendar, german chamomille.
Also check out Vermont Liberty tea - you can do a searh for that - they have nice varieties already package.
Mickey

All of Luv2's suggestions are also medicinal, Jonathan, so fit your needs.

Lavender, of course, is the ultimate "feel good" herb. Just the aroma fills you with a feeling of well-being.

Others include any of the mints (with peppermint particualrly useful); anise; catnip and catmint; sage among those with pleasant flavors.

Given your preference for lapsang, you might even like rosemary. Rosemary is good for treating headaches, and has other medicinal uses. But it's not a flavor most people care for.

You might want to experiement with any of the edible flowers, too, to see how they work out. Borage might add a interesting taste, for instance.

I don't think you can grow tea (camellia sinesis) in your region..... However..... you can grow chamomile and other teas (like mints) just fine.... Wild bergamot grows well all over the east and is a good tea in its own right without regular tea..... I grow jasmine (maid of orleans) indoors and sometimes clip the blossoms to add to regular tea..... It gives a nice flavor.... I think a tea garden is a nice idea.... be sure to include a broken tea pot with a trailing plant inside it.......

You might include Mondarda - bee-balm can be used for tea.

You might not be able to grow it in your area, but Yaupon holly has long been used for tea. It was known as South Sea tea or Carolina tea. It is the only North American holly with caffeine in it and the Native Americans used it for the "Black Drink," used daily as well in ceremonies. However, during cleansing ceremonies, they would drink large quantities at once and throw up (to cleanse their bodies from impurities). Because of it, yaupon is known as Ilex vomitoria. It still makes a pretty good tea, though.

Here is my current list, compiled from here, and various other sources, about plants used for tea. I make no promises about any of these. It's just what people/books/Web sites have recommended, so far. My apologies for any duplication, typos, etc.

Angelica
Anise
Anise hyssop
Applemint
Bergamot
Blue balsam tea mint
Boneset
Borage
Catmint
Catnip
Chamomile
Cinnamon basil
Comfrey
Fennel
Feverfew
Ginger
Goldenrod
Horehound
Hyssop
Jasmine
Lavender
Lemon verbena
Lemon balm
Lemon thyme
Lemongrass
New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus)
Orange or bergamot mint
Oswego Tea (bee balm)
Passion Flower
Peppermint
Pineapple sage
Rhubarb
Rosemary
Sage
Scented geraniums
Spearmint
Strawberry
Sweet Gale
Valerian
Wood Betony
Yaupon holly

one plant no one has mentioned is roses. not only do they add a nice perfume and taste, rose petals also add a nice colour to teas. also violets, and any edible flowers. My son and daughter have always run outside and gathered lemon mint leaves when they have an upset stomach. put a handful of the clean leaves in a coffee cup full of water, nuke it for two minutes and allow it to steep for three or four minutes, then drain the water into another cup. great alone or you can add honey. horehound makes a nice tea as well as good candy.
for a spicy tea try oragano or thyme mixed in with your favorite tea leaves. ginger is great too and adds a spicy taste and aids in digestion.
hope this helps
bella ;?

I'm currently growing 3 passiflora caerulea, and was wondering if these were suitable for making passionflower tea. If they are, would anyone mind telling me how, as web searches only seem to throw up addresses of people who sell it ready prepared for the teapot!! Any advice would be hugely appreciated,
Lisa

zootjs,

Thank you, thank you for the list of tea plants. I started a small tea garden last fall. And will expand upon it this spring. Tea is great!

Hi SallyPainter,

So glad you found the list useful!

I've been ordering seeds like crazy, and am gearing up to start some indoors. March 15 seems to be the magic date for starting most things, in my area, though I see that I'm already a bit late for some things.

Let's keep each other posted about our tea gardens. I'm so looking forward to mine.

--Jonathan

I agree Jonathan, this is a fun thread. It will be great to hear what everyone is doing.
I have collected a few odd tea cup and saucers with the plan to glue them together and set on rods to scatter about the tea garden. When the weather gets better.

I did hang a few tea cups in a small tree. Took them down when the wind started. So they will go up, hopefully, before to long.

Sally

I don't think I saw it mentioned above, so I wanted to add that if you grow Chamomile for tea, make sure that it is German Chamomile which is an annual (I think). The Roman Chamomile is a perennial groundcover and the flowers do not have a pleasing flavor. It is nice as a fragrant groundcover though.

Visit Strawberry Banke in New Hampshire :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Strawberry Banke

Strawberry Banke is terrific! I was there last winter, after the gardens were all past, but I look forward to going back. Great suggestion.

--Jonathan

I just had a sweet book on tea gardens out from the library - a relatively new pub, with chapters on developing several different kinds of gardens. I enjoy going out & just picking a bunch of fresh herbs in the AM - Lemon Balm, Sage, rosemary, lavender, thyme, marjoram, wood betony, hyssop, a rose, perhaps a leaf of Motherwort or wormwood (very bitter, so only one leaf); & recently read that adding an artichoke petal or piece of leaf (also bitter) will make the other herbs seem sweeter. I also grow Stevia, (annual), so I can add a leaf or two if I want a sweeter brew. One favorite that no one has mentioned yet is "Yerba Buena," tho we always called it "Oregon Tea." Satureja douglassi. It's related to winter & summer savory, but tastes more 'minty,' tastes & smells devine! It likes a shady spot, Nichols sells plants. I got a tea camellia from Nichols this spring, & have been adding a few fresh tip leaves to my morning brew every few days. Then there's Chai - adding a spicey mix (ginger, cinnamon, cloves); in China tea was originally called 'Ch'a' & received its own character about 725 AD. Lavender is another option for adding a floral touch to black tea. A doctor friend is growing a Ginkgo plantation, keeping them trimmed as a hedge for picking the leaves as they begin to turn gold - you can add a few to tea. Rose hips, hawthorne berries, wolfberries, any of the raspberry, blackberry, strawberry leaves; (raspberry is especially good during pregnancy), red clover flowers, (if you dry them, discard any that turn brown), & of course nettles! (OK, so urban gardeners don't usually grow nettles) Hop 'cones' can be added to that PM brew to promote sleep. I was lucky to inherit an herb garden planted by a Master Gardener; pretty much the 'basics,' to which I'm adding my favorites. Most of the 'mint family' herbs contain antioxidents, as does Camellia senensis; 'how can a man die with Sage in his garden?' & drinking lemon balm daily is said to promote healthy, long life. Adelma Simmons has several sweet 'tea garden' books - look in the library or used book stores for these. ENJOY!!

Jonathan, You may find this article of interest:
Curiously, around this time, a New York Times article dated 26 October, 1863 reported on the discovery of tea plants growing natively in Western Maryland and Pennsylvania. According to a Boston Bulletin report reprinted in the Times:

"The American Tea Company, an association chartered by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, have [sic] employed Dr. Spencer Bonsall, a man of experience and character, to examine the American tea plant... He declares that the tea plant exists in Pennsylvania and Western Maryland beyond all doubt. "It grows indigenously," he states, "in the greatest luxuriance and abundance in the places that I have visited, limited, however, to those localities which afford the peculiar soil indispensable to it, as is the case in China, Assam, and Japan. "...The leaf is almost identical with some of the varieties from which the best tea is made in Assam; and Dr. Bonsall expresses his belief that tea equal to any that is brought from China could be made from this plant."

http://www.teamuse.com/article_011201.html

With every good Wish.
Gary/Louisville

Don't forget to use rosehips for tea...... and bronze fennel is pretty and the seeds can also be used for tea...... :) That list is good but feverfew tastes funny and the kind of goldenrod you use is solidago odora...... :) Looking for seeds myself...... tell me if you find some...... :)

As previously stated also New Jersey tea plant..... and just for fun..... (can't use it for tea) cup and saucer vine...... :)

This is an old thread so I hope you're still interested. I thought about one I heard of recently and googled it, and it likes to grow in swamps and bogs, so might be perfect for your situation- Labrador tea
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/labrador_tea.htm

Some other perennials that can be used for tea are peonies - roots
Epimedium-leaves, great groundcover for dry shade, zone 3

Some seeds make good teas- fennel, caraway, and anise.

Can you grow licorice where you live? It makes great tea...and is already sweet. But too much is a very effective laxative, so take it easy.

Hibiscus and Raspberry leaves makes a really good tea...I just happened to come across your posting and pretty much a year later I know but thought I would add that to it. I am starting my own tea garden, for medicinal purposes and taste. How has your turned out?

Thanks for reviving this thread!

Let's see, how to describe the current state of my tea garden....

Let's just say that we had a baby in June, and the tea garden is way, way at the other side of the property, in my "back orchard" which I don't take very good care of. So, it's been on the back burner. Weeding has not been a priority...

The current state, though, is that I've got a lot of wild bergamot, running riot, and covered with mildew, so I need to cut them all down to the ground. The valerian did pretty well. I've just added a number of echinacea plants that were evicted from my mother-in-law's garden. I've got a witch's caldron filled with mint, catnip, anise hyssop, and skullcap, which I should likely separate out into different containers because they are climbing all over each other and I'm tired of lecturing them.

My chamomile and borage from seed didn't do well, but I haven't given up yet. Growning from seed seems needs a bit more attention than I can give at the moment.

It turns out that goldenrod can be turned into tea, and I've got tons and tons of it growing around my pasture, so if I can figure out a way to make it behave, it might be granted citizen's status. I've also got a lot of wild raspberries which I've been digging up and transplanting in part of my orchard, to see if a wild raspberry patch will work. We've also got some roses growing now. Little does my wife know that I plan to drink them....

My thinking has changed from trying to have a number of specimens in a tight space to having various larger sections with several of the same type of plant. This may change back again, at some point, but for now, it's easier for me to manage and tell who's whom.

So, I'd call it chaos, but not a complete wash. There's hope for next year. In a decade or two, maybe I'll have it right.

My focus, for the next couple years, needs to be in taking better care of my current plants and not adding new ones. Though really, who am I trying to kid....

--Jonathan

There's a plant called moujean tea. It smells devine, small bush like character, with tiny leaves. It has to be grown inside since it's from the bahamas but some use it for bonzai. Its really nice. It is supposed to impart a vanilla flavor to tea but I haven't tried it yet.

I also have a jasmine tea a friend gave me from china. I'm not sure what kind of jasmine (I think it is the flowers that make the tea). Its very nice and soothing tea.

As a child I had pine needle tea at one of those 'colonial places'-apparently made by the seminoles is high in Vit C. Tastes absolutely AWFUL.

Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs lists (in addition to the ones above):-I put warnings on the ones I know about.
elderberry-blossoms
tansy-caution potential toxin
costmary-leaves minty
nutmeg-hallucinogen only in very high doses
sassafras-carcinogen
chicory
pennyroyal-unsafe, abortifactant
ginsing
bay
sweet woodruff: flowers and leaves in tea suppposedly delicious, and wine-traditionally steeped in wine to make may wine by the germans.

What a wonderful thread! I'm getting so inspired! I like the idea of teacups as ornaments in the tea garden! I wonder if Tea would grow well here in San Diego--I have some neighbors who have camelias growning well...

I also wanted to mention that the Bergamot that is used in Earl Grey is the oil of a citrus tree, and doesn't come from the Bergamot that we also know as Bee Balm or Monarda. Though I imagine it would still make a lovely tea.

Heidi

Heidi, Camellia sinensis grows very well here in SoCal. Other Camellia species also make "tea" harvest the tips and give it a try. The Bergamot orange is also one of the most fragrant flowered citrus too, so you can flavor tea with the blossoms as well. Heronswood has a dwarf form of Honeybush if you don't have the room for the full size one. It's often combined with Rooibos but I've not seen that here, yet.

Here I am again with another update.

I'm drinking tea from my tea garden like mad. It is still chaos out there, but that doesn't mean it's a bust.

I'm making active use of the following:

catnip
chocolate mint
wild bergamot (flowers)
goldenrod
rose (petals and hips)
raspberry leaves
spearmint

It's a start! Chamomile just isn't happening, out there. Maybe I'll try buying a plant rather than starting seeds.

The wild raspberry patch is booming. I added some apothecary roses that I hope will make it through the winter. My elderberry is finally finding its feet, after spending two years dead, and I'm hoping for fruit this summer.

Here's a funny story. Well, funny to me, anyway.

I was out harvesting my carefully cultivated (well...) catnip, from my witches cauldron, which is really the only part of the tea garden that I weed. It actually looks pretty good, as my gardens go. Maybe the catnip was a foot high in the thing.

I carefully clipped about a third off about a third of the stalks--not too much, as I didn't want to hurt the plants by overharvesting. Then, I started to walk back to my house, which involves crossing a meadow that was allowed to just do its thing pretty much all summer. It never got mowed and the weeds were five feet tall.

I passed by a big, homogenous clump of weeds, maybe 15 feet square. They looked a bit familiar--very lush and green and healthy. I took a closer look at this, and then at the piddly little cuttings I'd just carefully/surgically clipped. I took a sniff, noticed the square stem and the distinctive leaves.... Yep, it was catnip, growing wild, doing far better than the stuff under my careful care. Maybe it's four feet tall. I picked a huge armload of it, yanking it roughly from the ground with both hands.

It makes lovely tea.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

--Jonathan

P.S. Someone be nice and tell me that it was probably "Great Catnip," a little-known giant variety....

Jonathan -

Did ja keep any seeds from this Great Catnip?????

McPeg

I love when a thread continues to capture the immagination of new members. Zootjs, I wonder what you're planning for your 2007 garden. The idea of a tea garden is something that's been on my mind for some years. I grew camelias at our last home. They were in big ceramic pots. That was zone 9 and they bloomed between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Their exquisite scent would lift you off the ground. I had to leave them behind because of their size, but I am hoping to grow them here, and in this case I'd like to try Senensis. Update us if you get a chance.

Thanks for asking.

I didn't save any seeds from the wild catnip, but I will this year and e-mail you.

My plans for this year are modest, regarding the tea garden, basically keeping what I've got going. I am most excited about the apothecary roses I put in last year. I visited Hancock Shaker Village last year on exactly the right day, at exactly the right time: when the herb gardener was busily thinning his apothecary rose patch, and he was kind enough to give me some of his rejects. I hope they survive!

I'm hoping that the echinacea finds its feet this year, and will try to do a better job weeding.

There's a kind of wild mint that has been very aggressive near my elder and wild raspberry patch, which I want to control without decimating.

The major addition to this back area will likely be a couple of Pilgrim geese. First, I need to figure out how to keep everyone I care about from getting eaten.

In terms of new additions, if I see a chamomile plant in a nursery, I'll likely buy it. Also, I'd like to find a bearberry plant. Maybe borage. But only if I see them while looking for something else. No special trips, and no deliberate buying!

A neighbor offerered me a lemon balm, a couple years ago, and I've been meaning to take her up on it. I believe that lemon balm runs riot in her garden like wild bergamot does in mine.

Besides that, I really shouldn't be allowed to add anything new until I can take better care of what I've already got. But plants are addictive, you know?

--Jonathan

reading this thread has been lovely. i didn't see where anybody mentioned mullein, and it make a wonderful tea. i used a mullein leaf and a couple of cooking sage leaves to make a medicinal tea for the cold i was getting on saturday, and woke up sunday without symptoms. i think both leaves just taste good as well.

Yes, this has been fun reading, Jonathan. There was a discussion on herb teas on the herb forum recently but it wasn't as comprehensive (I suppose, certainly not as "historic").

I've also found catnip growing in unlikely places and doing really, really well. Chamomile was difficult to grow from seed a few years ago and produced only a few small plants. Hardly had enuf flowers to make a cup of tea.

I have really enjoyed catnip tea for a number of years. We also have mints including lemon balm in our yard. And, this year started more plants for a larger tea garden. You may be able to see that IÂm going for more of the licorice-like flavors:

anise hyssop
wild bergamot (hope it doesn't do quite as well as yours ;o)
Korean mint (an agastache)
sweet fennel

All of the seedlings are doing quite well right now except that I only got a few Korean mint seeds to come up. I see that fennel seed is mentioned above as a tea but I'm hoping that others have used the foliage for tea. True?

Steve

The various mints area great for teas, chocolate mint etc.
Catnip has been mentioned a few times, that is one of the herbs I grow for tea. Fennel is nice as you can also use it as a vegetable.

The one I wanted to mention that I'm not sure has been mentioned yet is Ginseng. I grow Siberian Ginseng which is supposed to be one of the varieties that has many of the properties that we associate with Ginseng.

I have never tried a tea made with raspberry leaves . . . I think I'll try that this year!

several years ago in this thread, someone mentioned jasmine flowers in a tea of chamomile and passionflower, which sounds really nice. what kind of jasmine flowers can be taken in teas? i have night blooming jasmine, and of course cape jasmine or gardinia flowers. does anyone know what the classic jasmine flowers are, and if the ones i have are drinkable?

The starts of my tea garden:

middle of the dial  Sweet Fennel
1 oÂclock  Lemon Balm
3 oÂclock  Catnip
5 oÂclock  Anise Hyssop
9 oÂclock  Wild Bergamot
11 oÂclock  Korean Mint

Steve

Lovely photo digit! But watch out! Lemon balm and catnip can become real bullies. They should all outgrow that pot by mid-summer. In fact, the only mint I've grown that didn't spread like crazy is apple mint. Lemon balm is now a weed in my yard.
Does anyone know a mint named Swiss? I made the mistake of adding it 2 years ago to my mint bed and it's taking over. I thought it was supposed to be chocolatey, but it seems very stong spearminty.
Amelie

I believe you are right, Amelie_danjou. The only 2 of these that I already have are lemon balm and catnip. The catnip shows up most everywhere and the lemon balm is battling it out with the lawn.

I'm expecting to move these to a larger container in a few months. And, I'm hoping that they can all live happily together.

Steve

Hmm, I think tea gardens are supposed to have more weeds in them than this.

Start with grass and dandelions. Jewelweed is good too, and maybe some burdock, if you want to get more advanced.

My camera is currently in the shop, but I'll try to show you what I mean in a couple weeks.

--Jonathan

From your earlier postings, Jonathan, I'd think you'd allow that Wild Bergamot as a weed.

And, catnip . . . I recently moved a pile of fruit tree branches that had been on the ground for 2 years. (The rabbits and quail had enjoyed the housing.)

Every blade of grass was dead beneath the branches but here was a charming little clump of catnip. I put rocks around the plant and will avoid it as I mow the inevitable thistles that will begin to colonize.

Steve

A miracle has happened in my tea garden!

I mentioned my echanacea? Well, it magically transformed into comfrey.

I'm not sure how that happened. It was either divine intervention or I inadvertantly weeded out the real plants and comfrey,which is a menace on my property, took advantage.

--Jonathan

Jonathan, I recently heard of an unusual danger from comfrey . . . Digitalis looks a good deal like comfrey early in the year. Some folks have made the mistake of thinking the digitalis is comfrey and used it to make tea . . . oops! Poisoned.

Steve

This didn't turn out to be a very good photo - I had trouble with focus because of the various heights. The anise hyssop and, especially, the Korean mint are the big guys. That surprised me somewhat since I was anticipating crowding from the catnip and the lemon balm (completely hidden in the photo).

Anyway, I'm sitting here after about 2 1/2 months of growing these babies (& taking the pix below) enjoying my first of what I hope to be many cups of tea. The lemon balm, even tho' it only contributed 1 leaf comes thru brightly. I'm leaning on the Korean mint and anise hyssop and took a sprig off the top of each  a leaf or 2 of the others.

This herb combo is heavy on the licorice flavor and that is just as I'd wished. I've only had experience with catnip (& I can't think how to define its flavor) and lemon balm in the past altho' I've also grown anise hyssop. The fragrance includes the lemon balm but the aftertaste belongs to the licorice flavored herbs  very pleasing, just wonderful!

Still hoping to grow the group together but think it more likely that they will go in the open ground rather than a larger container. They must learn to "play nice" or I'll need to separate the plants and that will take away some of the fun for me. But, I don't want to put too much stress on the plants as they are becoming established. Just have to wait and see.

Steve

Hi Digit,

Thanks for sharing the photo!

Here's an even less revealing/useful photo. But it's the area that serves as my back orchard and tea garden. The trees are my "experimental" specimens: two pawpaws, a medlar (center), a serviceberry tree, a couple pears, and an apple. There are some blueberries hidden in the grass, and then my wild raspberry patches. Actually, the wild raspberry patches serve as both a mad scheme (successful!!) and part of the tea garden, as the leaves can be used in tea.

Then the rest is tea. The front left corner of weeds is my primary tea bed, with the wild bergamot, valarian, and the giant catnip I moved from the paddock, as my new ducks would be certain to eat it in its original location.

You can perhaps just see the witches cauldron (mint and catnip) on the left. Well, not really. Scattered in the weeds in front of the witches cauldron that you can't see are my little apothecary roses, just three inches high. The far left corner of weeds, infesting my older wild raspberry patch, is my wild mint patch, currently attacking my elderberry.

Oh, you can't see any of this. I'll try to get some better photos.

--Jonathan

{{gwi:878979}}

Jonathan, I think I need a tea garden the size of yours. Truth be known, I don't have just one of those planters - I've got 6.

However, I haven't been able to average 1 cup of herb tea each day yet this season. I've even been force to "dip into" the catnip and lemon verbena in the yard to compensate. Makes me wonder how many square feet of growing space the commercial outfits need for me as a customer.

After a blast of heat the 1st few days of June, it has been unseasonably cool here. The days are once again back in the 80's, thankfully. It is now time to get these plants out into the open ground where they can GROW!

Steve

This is a fantastic thread that I am going to enjoy referring to in the coming months.

My favorite tea herb is lemon mint, especially since I read that it has a cooling effect.

Hi! I am new to this sight and love it! Jonathan, I have Aromatherapy Roses handed down from my Great Aunt effie; after many tries I have beautiful bushes loaded with Roses each year! The secret to my patch(I think) is annual winter application of manure and lots of 6 to 9 inch rocks surounding the immediate root area of the roses(Aunt Effie grew them in an old rock pile) and good sun and never let them dry out(not soggy either). They will travel underground and come up outside the rocks...
Pamela

Hi Pamela,

I'm so glad that this thread periodically gets revived. It's become like a history of my life as a grownup.

My apothecary roses are actually doing great, despite my extreme negligence, and I've been thinking about moving one to a new spot closer to the house to see if it does well there. But I suddenly have a half dozen or so pretty healthy looking plants. It flowered last year for the first time, though I didn't get any rose hips.

--Jonathan

It is rather remarkable, Jonathan. Obviously, a half-dozen years need not expend all one's interest in tea gardens and plants.

My anise hyssop plants have gone thru a few generations since I last posted. They are still my favorite herbs for drinking but I've found a blend of anise hyssop and lemon verbena to be unmatched by anything else I've grown.

The care of these 2 plants couldn't be much different, however. The lemon verbena I have to keep in an unheated greenhouse through the winter - setting it on the floor and covering it as protection from the cold, sometimes for days on end.

The anise hyssop plants are destroyed by the "tractor guy" in the veggie garden each year. Then, a dozen or more little seedlings show up and grow to maturity in a single season. They self-sow without any help from me.

Thanks for starting this thread, Jonathan.

Steve

What a great thread!

Lemon balm is a favorite of mine to add to teas. In our area it's an annual, so I dried the leaves for winter use. I'd add a few to tea and they plumped up beautifully and looked absolutely fresh again. This fall I dug up the plant and will try to overwinter it.

Of the many mints I've found that spearmint has the strongest flavor. It spread so much in my garden that I've put it in a large pot instead. I'll try to overwinter it this way as I think it's one of those plants that's impossible to kill. I read somewhere that, if you leave it potted, then you should remove two-thirds of the plant in the spring and let the rest grow again.

I've also added a leaf of basil to tea and the flavor is quite nice.

I grow a lot of the other plants mentioned in this thread and never thought of them as ingredients in tea, but this wonderful thread has made me anxious to try them next year.