Pennfeather sent me seedlings of her Raspberry wine bee balm last year and I am enjoying its beautiful blooms now. I know there are shorter varieties of monarda and I'd like to aslo try one of those. If any of you grow the shorter varieties and are willing to post pictures of them, it would be helpful. I am looking for a variety in the pink/lighter shade of purple to add to another flowerbed. I'm thinking Marshall's delight or Croftway pink. Any other suggestions?
Let's see pictures of your monarda/bee balm in bloom
Betty,mine is not blooming yet,But I will show photos when it starts blooming,I got 3 bunches in a trade ,and I grew Monarda Lombada from seed it blooms up the stem,in purple,I dont think it gets really tall...We will see soon..Iwill dig out what the names of what I have soon..
I wintersowed Marshall's Delight from seeds I bought from T's flowers and things but it has not blowned yet, so hoping it will be the answer. So far it seems to be about the height I am looking for. Will post more when it blooms. I have googled a lot of varieties and I forgot what it is supposed to look like so will repeat my search again. It looks about 24 inches now(my guess without measuring).
Mine have been blooming a couple of weeks now.....the bees are lovin' it! I forget the name, but it's a shorter, denser variety.
How tall would you say it is, do you know the name of the variety? It looks like what I am looking for. I Love the raspberry wine that Pennfeather sent me last year but wished it were a little bit shorter. It is beautiful! I wonder what that Blue Stocking Variety looks like?
Pippi21 ~ I researched the variety I have. It's called Monarda Grand Parade. Grows to only 16 inches (which is about the height of mine). You can find it on Bluestone Perennials' website. It really is a pretty monarda variety.
De, nice stand of Monarda,Mine are budding up, should be soon now..Not the Lambada though,its growing ,alot of my WS seemed to be slow this year,should have been feeding them ???
My Jacob Cline monarda. One of the first blooms for this year. It's very tall because of all the rain this year.
Don
And a winter sown purple (NOID).
Don
My Monarda 'Petite Delight' that I just brought home.
Don, I thought Jacob Cline bee balm was always a bright red color. On my monitor, that one looks like a burgundy/purple color.
I don't know what happened in my original posting but I didn't type in some of that wording. Where did that come from? Looks like somebody altered or edited my posting without my knowledge or permission. I thought I would have to be the one to edit my own postings.
I just looked up there again and all that "added wording" is gone now. What's going on?
This message was edited Jun 28, 2011 11:01 PM
Love that Grand Parade; that will have to go on my Wish List for 2012.
The volunteers that have popped up of the Raspberry Wine Monarda, can I dig them up now while they are not but about 4 inches tall and transplant them elsewhere?
This message was edited Jun 28, 2011 11:04 PM
A pretty for you!
So what's the big secret to getting Monarda to bloom ?
This is the third year for mine and not a bloom yet. They're in full sun, and everything else around them blooms just fine. All I get is foliage. They've spread but refuse to bloom.
I don't even remember anymore which ones I have.
Monarda didyma likes rich, moist moderately acidic soil.
I only use compost periodically for fertilizer.
My soil is heavy clay amended with compost.
I think I have the cultivar 'Jacob Cline'.
I grow mine in a rain garden with other moisture loving natives like cardinal flower
and swamp milkweed.
It also blooms well, if not as long, at the front edge of a stand of switch grass with phlox
as shown in the photo.
Sorry, the photo posted oversize and cropped somehow?
This message was edited Jul 7, 2011 5:52 AM
here is a rather bad photo of Monarda Lambada it blooms up the stem,its a pale lavander,i still dont have open blooms on my NOID,but its getting shaded from my over planting of sunflowers and malva and larkspur and hollyhocks and I dont know what else... ...!!!!! ...LOL
Bettypause ,that red is gourgous...my fav red...
Don that burgandy is really nice too,I love vivid Colors,I want that grab you color...LOVE those
My Jacob Cline was started with a few plants purchased five years ago from a spring catalog. They were never this high before. The bees love them. I even gave some six inch plants away in the early spring. They are more red than they look in the photo.
Don
In my garden bed here I have some dwarf monarda. They are called 'petite wonder'. They are the pink flowers in the lower right side of the bed. I love them! Hope this helps.
Sherry
sherry that bed is beautiful, I see the pink bee balm nice.mine is blooming finally,but its buried in the over planted bed ...LOL
Sherry ~ what a beautiful garden! Wish mine looked that nice :-)
Beautiful garden! Love the shape and all the colors. What are the tall white flowers in the back of the border? How did you get the yellow flowers(possibly BES?)to look like they were planted in a terrace form? Looks like they are different heights..beautiful display. I like that dwarf bee balm too. Mind telling us what other flowers you have there in that bed?
You wouldn't want to see my monarda, for the third year in a row it went over in the rain along with th meadow sweet---the cup plant may be next. At least I can now see the yellow digitalis, which is finally seeding itself. I am debating just cutting the monarda back and moving it back ten feet, behind the digitalis----I'm not certain anything would kill it but as sure as I try to over-care for a plant it bites the dust (clay, around here) that drys out to bricks when it's not in puddles of slippery pot material-------------Weedy
I think this is Jacob Cline, monarda didyma. This is the first bloom just beginning. I deadheaded the blooms, and they are reblooming much smaller. They are all medium to deep red.
somewhat better photo of Monarda Lombada,although it got smashed by several Lg sunflowers that toppled over.Its really a bit different.
I have a shorter Monarda that blooms in late May to Early June here. It's a species Monarda bradburianna. This is the only picture I can find of it. It is a picture of it last year.
That picture was a little bright so the flowers appear white but they are actually a very light pink. I also have the Monarada didyma that I grew from seed. I have a few shades of pinks and purples. This is it on July 13th this year.
I used to have a huge iumpressive patch of Jacob Cline but after a droughty summer last year I only had about 4 stems return. I am sad about that and plan to replaceit. I did try growing a red from seed. I got the seeds fro Park's. They are ok but not as impressive as Jacob Cline.. It is much more compact which may appeal to some.
Here's the tallest I have Monarda fistulosa. It peaks bloo right about the same time my Monarda didymas are finished. Again the picture isn't showing the true color. They are pink with some having a slight lavender hue to them.
The ones a bove are still blooming now that picture was taken a week and a half ago. Monarda provide plenty of oppurtunities for butterfly pics in my yard. Here's a pic of Monarda fistulosa that I have in another area in my yard. There were 3 butterflies on them but the lighting wasn't right so I was having a hard time getting a good shot. I need a better camera..
Here's a pic of the purple M. didymas just opening. They are the first to open after my M. bradburiana. They bloom about the same time as the Maltese Cross you see in front of the.
Another shot of a butterfly enjoying them. :)
I have too many to post them all! : )
Meredith, thank you for sharing your collection of Monarda. Very nice!
Your welcome! And thank you! :)
huggergirl,
Thanks! That bee balm bloomed from about the beginning of July to the end of July. I have sheared it down and will see if I get rebloom. Hope so! ;o) Glad yours bloomed for you too and I know what you mean about being buried in the overgrown bed as I have one of those too. LOL
Decolores,
Thank you so much! But believe me when I say I have other gardens 'going wild'!
Pippi21,
Thanks! The white flowers in the background are flowers on my Yucca plants. My husband hates them and always wants to whack them off. I always have to tell him to keep his shears away from my plants!!! I happen to like the tall white flowers. ;o) And, yes, those are Black Eyed Susans. They are different height because they sprout all over the place as I'm sure you know. I just pull some out at different times and let some of the others grow, so they are always at different growth stages. And about the other flowers growing in the bed, I don't mind telling you at all! That is, iF I can remember them all. Probably can't remember ALL, but I will look at the picture and try to name some of them. This is just the front side of this island bed so there are different things on both sides. And the bed changes as the season goes on.
In this picture, at this time of the season, there are of course, the Black Eyed Susans as you can see. There are several daylilies toward the middle of the bed. There are coneflowers, a few different varieties that I have just added in the last year or so. There are also a few different phlox varieties that are fairly new. There is a forever and ever hydrangea in there that is kinda hard to see as it is being covered by other things at this time. LOL On the left hand side is something new (an annual) that I tried this summer called 'Schizanthus'. They are pretty, but I'm not sure what their growth habit is really supposed to be as I've never has them before. I like them, but not sure I will use them again. They seemed kinda floppy to me. But maybe I don't know how to care for them since I'd never heard of them before??? I usually just put some annuals in the front of the bed. This year I used gerberas (which I've never really tried to grow before, but LOVE them), some geraniums, lobelia (which I think I will line the whole front with next year, LOVED them!), petunias, a few snapdragons here and there that popped up from last year and probably some other things I can't think of right now. Oh yeah, some lilies too and hostas under the crabapple tree at the far left end that you cannot see in this photo. LOL The 'bones' in the bed are a Flowering Crabapple with Knockout roses underneath on the left side of the bed. On the right is a Japanese Maple and a Flowering Cherry Tree. It changes always as our gardens tend to do. But I LOVE FLOWERS and COLOR and have 2 other HUGE beds! I usually use petunias for the front in mostly pinks, white and purple, but wanted something different this year. I will try to post a photo of the bed with the pinks and purples of the petunias I usually use. Not sure which I like best. Anyhow, that is most of what I can think of right now. Sure I am missing some things...oh yeah, see, shasta daisies too. LOL Probably a lot more than you really wanted to know! But hey, you asked!!! hahahaha
Sherry
here's a photo of what it usually looks like with more pinks and purples
Sherry, your yard is so inviting!
I only deadheaded my monarda, and the new blooms are small.
Cathy,
Thanks! Looking at both of my photos, from this year and last year, I think I like this years colors better. Or maybe it's just because it's different than what I usually plant. I know I really love the gerberas! But those things aren't cheap! And they're annuals so they have to be bought every year. ;o(
I have a couple more larger garden beds and they seem to look okay until about this time of year. Then they loose their 'flower power'. LOL I mean they still have quite a bit of blooms, but just not like spring through July. I need to work on that. I really need to add some later blooming things. I've been working on that. ;o)
I actually deadheaded my dwarf monardas too. ;o) I just took the trimmers and chopped off their heads. I'll see what happens now. I also have some monarda I added last fall that is blooming for the first time and I really like it. I think it's called 'Grand Marshall'. I was always afraid to put monarda in my gardens because some of them get sooooo BIG and some are so invasive, which freaked me out. Maybe, just maybe, these smaller versions will be better behaved. (fingers crossed)
Here's a picture of the 'grand marshall' monarda.
Sherry
What gorgeous monardas!!! So anyone have seeds to trade yet? I have gotten some monarda from trades but they have never bloomed!
One patch has died and only a few remain. If you're dividing them, LMK.
Absolutely spectacular..think I'd be framing this photo...