Bee Balm

About

The Bee Balm plant (Monarda), also known as Wild Bergamot , Horsemint , and Oswego Tea , is an aromatic eastern North American native herb that belongs to the Mint family. Growing into bushy, vertical stalks, full of minty aromatic foliage, Beebalm produces brightly colored flowers in the spring and summer that are a fan favorite for every bumblebee, honeybee, and native (solitary) bee around ! Even butterflies and Hummingbirds will stop by to sip the individual tube-shaped flowers that make up these fancy floral crowns. Bee Balm plants develop colorful, spider-shaped flower blossoms in the early to late summer months and resemble jester hats or fancy whorls of petals that sprout from the rounded centers. These flowers can be red, pink, or lilac, and mature plants can spout about 20-50 flowers each! The square, rigid stems are lined with eaves in green to pale green and wonderfully scented. Growing two to three feet tall, depending on the variety. Fine, dense hairs cover much of the stem and leaves, giving them a fuzzy appearance and feel. Generally, Deer and rabbit -resistant, Bee Balm has few insect or disease issues; they only desire good soil and good air circulation . How To Use Bee Balm In Your Garden Rely on these as a mainstay in your perennial border, children's and sensory gardens, and Cottage garden. Support your beneficial pollinators, bees, and butterflies! Nectar-rich Monarda is a mainstay in Pollinator Gardens. This is also a great plant to include near your Victory Garden by attracting beneficial insects to your veggie patch or fruiting trees for a larger harvest. Plant Bee Balm in long, meandering "ribbons", eye-catching groupings, or solitary specimen plantings! Go all out and create massed plantings . Space them 12 inches apart, measuring from the center of one to the center of the next. Simply add additional rows to cover a wider area, planted in a zigzagging, staggered pattern. Grow Bee Balm in-ground, or use as dramatic "Fillers" and "Thrillers