Hairy Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum pilosum verticillatum
Silver-white summer blooms alive with bees, wasps, and butterflies over fragrant pale foliage. Robust to three feet, fills in as a mass.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Sep 248 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Sep 258 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Sep 268 AM – 2 PM
No native perennial attracts more pollinator diversity per square foot when it's in bloom.
Walk past a patch of mountain mint on a hot July afternoon and you will stop. The minty fragrance hits before you see the flowers: sharp, clean, and distinctly cooling. Hairy mountain mint covers its white flower clusters with tiny blooms that seem to glow silver-white against the pale, hairy foliage. On sunny days, the plants are alive with insects: bees of every kind, wasps, butterflies, beetles, all feeding together in an open pollinator convention. The hairy variety grows slightly more robust and upright than some of its relatives, topping out around three feet with a spreading habit that fills in beautifully as a mass planting. The foliage stays fragrant and attractive all season. Few native plants can match the sheer density of pollinator activity mountain mint produces during its bloom period.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown hairy mountain mint propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
Plant hairy mountain mint instead of Spearmint (Mentha spicata) in garden beds. Same job in the garden, without the spread.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average
- Mature size
- 2–3 ft · 18–24 in wide
- Bloom time
- July–September
- USDA zones
- 4–8
- Family
- Lamiaceae
- Native range
- Eastern and central United States from New England south to the Carolinas and west to Missouri
Care notes for hairy mountain mint.
Full sun in average to dry soil. Spreads by rhizome and can colonize an area over several years. plant where you want it to spread, or contain with edging. Cut back hard in early spring. Deer rarely touch it, thanks to the strong fragrance.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside hairy mountain mint.
Or skip the guesswork.
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