Common Name: Meehan's mint
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Lamiaceae
Native Range: Eastern United States
Zone: 4 to 8
Height: 0.25 to 0.50 feet
Spread: 0.25 to 1.50 feet
Bloom Time: May to June
Bloom Description: Lavender blue
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Flower: Showy
Tolerate: Heavy Shade
Culture
Best grown in rich, humusy, medium moisture, well-drained soils in part shade. Tolerates full sun as long as soils are kept uniformly moist. Also tolerates full shade. Stoloniferous but not too aggressive.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Meehania cordata, commonly called Meehan’s mint or creeping mint, is a stoloniferous, mat-forming mint that resembles in appearance the common lawn and garden weed known as gill-over-the-ground or ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), but it does not exhibit the very aggressive tendencies of the latter. It is native from western Pennsylvania to North Carolina, Tennessee and Illinois, where it typically occurs in rich woods and wooded slopes. This is a low-growing perennial with trailing square stems and opposite broadly heart shaped green leaves (to 1” long) with crenate margins. Hooded, two-lipped, lavender blue flowers bloom in mid to late spring. Flowers (to 1” long) are somewhat large for the plant, appearing in upright 3-inch spikes on stems rising to 4-6” tall.
Genus name honors distinguished American horticulturist and editor Thomas Meehan (d. 1901).
Specific epithet means heart-shaped in reference to the leaves.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Some susceptibility to slugs.
Uses
Ground cover for shade gardens, woodland gardens or shady border areas.