Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)

Pennyroyal | Mentha pulegium

Fragrant creeping pond plant with lilac flowers and excellent wildlife value

Pennyroyal, scientifically known as Mentha pulegium, is a beautifully aromatic native marginal pond plant that combines attractive lilac flowers, rich green foliage, and excellent ground covering ability. Perfect for pond margins, bog gardens, damp borders, and wildlife ponds, this low growing creeping perennial brings colour, texture, and fragrance to the water’s edge throughout the summer and autumn months.

One of the standout features of Pennyroyal is its wonderfully scented foliage. When touched or brushed against, the small oval leaves release a fresh peppermint fragrance, making it a fantastic sensory addition to the garden. During the flowering season, clusters of delicate lilac mauve flowers appear around the stems, creating a soft haze of colour that attracts bees, hoverflies, butterflies, and other important pollinators.

Mentha pulegium naturally forms a dense creeping mat, making it ideal for softening pond edges, covering bare damp soil, and helping suppress weeds around boggy areas. Its spreading habit also provides valuable shelter for insects, amphibians, and emerging pond life, making it particularly useful in wildlife friendly pond designs.

This versatile pond plant thrives in consistently moist soil and shallow water, making it suitable for pond shelves, stream edges, marshy planting areas, and damp borders. It performs best in full sun or partial shade and is particularly effective when planted alongside other low growing marginal plants such as Water Forget Me Not, Lesser Spearwort, or Mare’s Tail.

Pennyroyal is an excellent choice for gardeners looking to create a more natural pond appearance. The soft spreading foliage blends beautifully between stones, gravel edges, and aquatic baskets, helping ponds feel mature and well established. Despite its creeping nature, it remains relatively easy to manage and can simply be trimmed back if it spreads beyond the desired area.

As a hardy UK native perennial, Pennyroyal reliably returns year after year and copes well with British winters. Its long flowering season from summer into autumn also makes it particularly valuable for late season pollinators when many other pond plants have finished flowering.

Whether used in wildlife ponds, natural bog gardens, container ponds, or damp garden borders, Pennyroyal is a highly attractive and practical marginal plant that delivers fragrance, colour, wildlife value, and dense green coverage throughout the growing season.

🇬🇧 UK-grown aquatic plant: Grown at a dedicated aquatic plant nursery in the South of England and carefully prepared for delivery across the UK.

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Key Benefits

• Fragrant peppermint scented foliage
• Beautiful lilac mauve flowers from summer into autumn
• Excellent ground cover for pond margins and damp soil
• Supports bees, butterflies, and pollinators
• Ideal for wildlife ponds and natural planting schemes
• Hardy and easy to grow in UK conditions

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Reasons to Buy

• Adds fragrance and colour to pond edges
• Great for softening natural pond margins
• Helps suppress weeds with dense creeping growth
• Attractive to beneficial pollinators and insects
• Perfect for wildlife friendly ponds and bog gardens

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Care Instructions

• Plant Pennyroyal in moist to wet soil or shallow water around the pond edge.
• Position in full sun or partial shade for best flowering and foliage growth.
• Keep the aquatic basket slightly below the waterline or in permanently damp soil.
• Trim back after flowering to maintain a tidy appearance and encourage dense fresh growth.
• If growth becomes too vigorous, simply divide or trim clumps during spring or autumn.

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Flowering Period

July to October

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Size and Growing Conditions

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Dispatching Your Pond Plants

Your Pennyroyal will be carefully packed to protect the foliage and roots during transit.

Orders received by 11am Monday to Wednesday are normally dispatched on the following working day using a next working day courier service. During busy periods, dispatch may occasionally take an extra day.

To avoid plants being held in depots over a weekend, we do not usually dispatch on Fridays. Highlands and Islands orders using a two day service are not normally dispatched on Thursdays.

Available basket sizes:

• Pack of 3 × 9cm Pots
• 1 Litre Basket – usually 11 × 11 × 11cm square; some varieties may be supplied in a 14cm diameter × 10cm round basket
• Pack of 3 × 1 Litre Baskets – each usually 11 × 11 × 11cm square

Planting depth is measured from the top of the aquatic basket to the water surface.

Plants supplied in 9cm pots require potting into suitable aquatic baskets before being placed in the pond.

Finofil baskets are manufactured in the UK from 100% recycled plastic and are fully recyclable. Their fine dual-mesh construction helps retain aquatic soil while allowing water and nutrients to reach the roots. Basket shape may vary slightly depending on the plant and supplier availability.

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Similar pond plants

For another pond-edge planting option, compare Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) and Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata). Explore the Mentha pond plant group to compare the whole collection.

Explore more marginal pond plants or browse our complete pond plants range. Need baskets, aquatic soil or planting essentials? Browse our pond plant baskets and aquatic planting supplies.