Australian Mint Bush Question

[blueadzuki]

Hi all,
This is adressed primarily at those people on our site of Australian extraction, though anyone else feel free to join in.

Amongst the herbs I brough out of my house for a summer in the sun this year was an Australian Mint Bush (Prostanthera rotundifolia) Between the cold weather and the following heat waves and deep deluges, the year as been quite hard on it, so hard in fact that the plant now has two tiny tufts of living leaves on the end of two long branches, with pretty much all of the other shoots in between completely dead (and I don't mean "no leaves, but leaves might come back" dead, I mean "dried up brown, crack off, dead to the core" dead.) Basically it's in the state where I know the next thing that will happen is that the central stems (that are currently providing those two sprigs with nutrients) are either going to close up or rot through. So my question is a follows, does anyone know how easy it is to root Australian mint bush cuttings? If it is very easy, and they do so readily, I'll just clip the two living sprigs off and root them and get two much smaller bushes. If on the other hand, they are very hard to impossible to root, and odds of sucess are virtually nil, it may make more sense for me to simply chuck it and simpy order a new bush. Please advise.

[templeton]

They should strike really easily, but Raymondo might have some other advice.

In the past I've had no problems at all with cuttings of Prostanthera. I've got in some cuttings I took myself this week, so a bit early to give you a strike rate.

Check out the brief info here anpsa.org.au/p-rotun1.html
Or try a search on Society for growing australian plants SGAP

We have a few native Menthas as well - I thought you were going to give me some info on them.

[raymondo]

T is right. Prostanthera strike very readily, including the round-leaf mint bush (P. rotundifolia) that you have. A little rooting hormone will help. Seed is much more problematic.
They can be very straggly plants blueadzuki and need frequent tip pruning to keep them well-shaped. They don't appreciate heavy pruning though and will often simply keel over if pruned too hard. In fact, they will often keel over for no apparent reason at all.

[blueadzuki]

Sept 13, 2011 5:30:55 GMT -5 raymondo said:

T is right. Prostanthera strike very readily, including the round-leaf mint bush (P. rotundifolia) that you have. A little rooting hormone will help. Seed is much more problematic.
They can be very straggly plants blueadzuki and need frequent tip pruning to keep them well-shaped. They don't appreciate heavy pruning though and will often simply keel over if pruned too hard. In fact, they will often keel over for no apparent reason at all.

Oh so it's like my Conehead thyme bush, where it took me 4 tries before I got one with the will to survive. Thanks for the clarification. I normally tend to do my herb pruning culinarily (i.e they get pruned when I go and break of peices to use.) but I suppose I can dry some extra when I don't need it right now. Still don't know why they call it mint bush, to me, it tastes more like oregano.

[templeton]

blueadzuki,
prostanthera is in Lamiaceae, mint family. Not used for culinary purposes. Has some traditional indigenous medicinal applications I think.
For culinary purposes, the Mentha species like M.australis are probably better, although some of the samples I've tried can be falntly acrid in my experience.
T

[raymondo]

I know a PhD student who is looking at the oils found in two genera of Australian plants - Eremophila and Prostanthera. Some of the Prostantheras have high volatile oil content, not surprising given their smell. The oils he's extracted have excellent bactericidal and fungicidal properties.

[blueadzuki]

Sept 14, 2011 5:45:53 GMT -5 templeton said:

blueadzuki,
prostanthera is in Lamiaceae, mint family. Not used for culinary purposes. Has some traditional indigenous medicinal applications I think.
For culinary purposes, the Mentha species like M.australis are probably better, although some of the samples I've tried can be falntly acrid in my experience.
T

I'm not sure how tradtional it is, but I can certainly vouch for the fact that at least some people use mint bush culinarily. The first time I heard of the plant was when someone gave me a shaker of crushed mint bush leaf as part of a Zingerman's gift basket.

[templeton]

Interesting, I've never noticed it in 'bush food' offerings over here...ah you yanks, such innovators
T

[templeton]

My abject apologies! I've just gone to the cookbook shelf, and from 'Wild Classics: Traditional and easy recipes with a bush food difference" they note Native Mint Prostanthera ssp rotundifolia, incisa (sic)
"The native mint leaf has a strong mint flavour but with a savoury aromatic finish...The flowers are edible and make attractive garnishes for deserts and cakes. The leaf can be used fresh or dried, but remember it is a very strong flavoured herb that intensifies over time. Err on the side of caution..."
Interestingly, they don't list Mentha sp ...
T

[blueadzuki]

Sept 14, 2011 17:26:06 GMT -5 templeton said:

My abject apologies! I've just gone to the cookbook shelf, and from 'Wild Classics: Traditional and easy recipes with a bush food difference" they note Native Mint Prostanthera ssp rotundifolia, incisa (sic)
"The native mint leaf has a strong mint flavour but with a savoury aromatic finish...The flowers are edible and make attractive garnishes for deserts and cakes. The leaf can be used fresh or dried, but remember it is a very strong flavoured herb that intensifies over time. Err on the side of caution..."
Interestingly, they don't list Mentha sp ...
T

It's quite alright, and I do appreciate you looking out for me potentially poisoning myself inadvertently. I agree it's rather powerful (and as I said, smells and tastes more like thyme or orgegano to me, so I might keep it's main use to more savory dishes than most desserts.) But the thing is, I'm sort of used to dealing with powerhouse flavor herbs. Back when I still had my Syrian Oregano (Originatum maru) I used to shy away from using it fresh, simply because the amount of leaf I could use for some recepies to avoid overpowering the dish was often smaller than I was able to cut!(dried, I at least had the option of crumbling a leaf up into something else and then adding more and more of every else to "cut" the flavor, then storing the extra. And that conehead thyme I mentioned earlier is almost kept as a curiosity by now (and becuse, after having put so much effort into getting one of them to survive, I am not at all keen about letting it die and having to start again if I actually do need it.) It's extremely strong, so stong putting a leaf in your mouth actually verges on the painful. If you have never tried this herb, imagine a what would happen if you mixed thyme and black pepper, distilled both into their essential oils, concetrated it down to about 100x it's orginal strength and then poured the result on your tounge, that's a pretty good description of what eating one of the tiny (caraway seed sized) leaves is like. I understand the flower clusters (which mine has only ever made one of, which prodiced no seeds) are even stronger.

[templeton]

Wow, that conehead thyme sounds powerful!
T

[stevil]

I remember the surprise at seeing another Mint Bush from South Eastern Australia, Prostanthera cuneata (picture) growing in the Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden in the city of Tromso in Northern Norway at close to 70N - hardier than you would think, but then Tromso has milder winters than you would think and usually deep snow cover...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic-alpine_Botanic_Garden

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[raymondo]

Prostanthera cuneata is from sub-alpine regions in Australia. Its common name is Alpine Mint Bush. There is a lovely cultivar of this plant with gold-edged leaves often referred to as Prostanthera cuneata 'Alpine Gold'.