What is the difference between lemon balm and mint, and is mint easy to grow?

Usually, when strangers look alike, you can basically tell who is who at a glance, but when plants look alike, you cannot tell them apart right away. This is especially true for friends who have just started growing flowers: as long as the leaves are somewhat similar, they easily mistake them for the same kind of flower, especially herbaceous plants.

Among them, lemon balm and mint are the easiest to confuse. How can you tell them apart quickly?

Although lemon balm and mint both belong to the Lamiaceae family, you can distinguish them by flowering period, height and leaves. In detail, lemon balm's flowering period lasts only 2 months, concentrated in July to August, and the flowers bloom above the leaves. By contrast, mint's flowering period is longer, from July to September each year, and the flowers bloom among the leaves.

Then, you can also distinguish the two plants by height. First, because lemon balm grows faster than mint, its plant height is generally taller than mint's, usually reaching a height of 60 cm, while mint's characteristic is that it speeds up during the growing season and grows slowly at other times, so its plants are generally around 30 to 50 cm tall.

In addition, although lemon balm and mint look similar, they are not the same variety after all, so as long as you put them together, you can also see the differences in their leaves. Lemon balm's leaf shape is triangular, its leaf color is darker, and its veins are distinct, while by contrast mint's leaves are more oval, its leaf tips are round and smooth, and its veins are not very obvious.

Finally, in terms of care, lemon balm and mint are not quite the same. Relatively speaking, lemon balm is easier to grow. It is robust by nature and has strong shade tolerance, and it can adapt to growing environments with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius and below 0 degrees Celsius. In daily care, it can be placed on a balcony. Although mint can also be placed on a balcony, its leaves are a bit more delicate. If the afternoon sun in summer is strong, its leaves are easily scorched by strong light. At the same time, in terms of care, it also needs to be given all-day sunlight so that the plant can carry out photosynthesis normally.