I'd love to see some of your garden pictures with bee balm. The pictures I've seen haven't shown the whole plant, just the scapes of blooms.
I've got some started and wonder if they will bloom this year or not. Also, I have no idea how big mine will get. Right now it is spread out on the ground in my flower bed. It has completely covered up my red hot poker plant.
Could use some advise as to the best place to plant it. I don't think my flower bed is going to be big enough. Will it grow upwards or does it just spread out? I'm I suppose to stake it? Help please.
Deborah
Bee Balm
Bee Balm SPREADS. I don't have a lot of room, and every year I have to haul some plants out of the garden. OK...a lot of plants.
How tall it grows depends on what types you grow. I have dwarf plants which are slower to reproduce, and they are only 1' tall. I also have Jacob Klien which gets to be 4.5' tall in my garden. Bee Balm can really stress in heat /drought like we are having and can get mildew and flop. I grow (or at least I try to keep growing, but again, it runs...) Jacob Klein between a smoke bush which grows 8' tall and a spirea which I let grow to about 3' tall. That covers the mildewy foliage and helps hold it upright. The dwarf stuff I grow behind yellow sundrops and blue salvia. Their foliage helps hide mildew and they bloom at seperate times which I want...plus, all spread and fairly quickly so they can 'fight it out' amongst themselves.
GGG
Thanks, that gives me the notion to re-plant it so some of my other larger plants can help hold it upright.
deborah
Yes, GARedClay gave me this little plant last fall, and I didn't know a thing about it and I planted it.. This spring, it had spread five feet and swallowed up everything around it ! :) I have moved it to a contained area and it should completely cover all the ground there by next year. It is planted with things that can't be overtaken like cannas and ginger. The Bees LOVE it! I don't stake mine and I like the way if gentlly falls to the side over my sidewalk. It does mildew some, but not enough for me not to like it. Good luck.
Susan
Hey fellow Georgians, is Bee Balm also known as Bergamot? If so, I just bought some seeds, is it too late to sow it here?
Thanks,
-Sunny
Yes, bee balm is also known as bergamot. The only problem I have had with sowing seeds in the ground is the heat of July will wilt them before they get true leaves. Now that its August, it'll be even worse. I do have some sown in a seed bed under the shade of a small tree. I have also propped up and leaned some old screen from a window over the seedlings and have to water them every other day. You may want to start some in pots under shelter or inside.
Susan, is your bee balm blooming now? Good looking picture of the blooms. Is it a recent picture?
Deborah
I still have some of the petals on the heads, but for the most part the round heads are showing. It's still attractive to me! :) They grow pretty tall.
Susan
Thanks Deborah. Flowers have always been a challenge for me, so I'll pot them up in little pots and wait until they get bigger to expose them to the red stuff and the sun.
Does anyone have a good site or knowledge base for what grows in the shade here? I haven't had time to get to the library, but my back lot gets very little sun due to the large trees - but weeds grow wonderfully there and I'm wanting to get the ground covered with good stuff instead of weeds. I'd really like to put creeping Thyme and wildflowers, but I think the flowers need more sun than they'll get until late winter, and then they'd be done anyhow!
If you more experienced peeps can provide some direction, I'd appreciate it.
-Sunny
Hineni, I'm no expert on shade plants but do know that www.bluestoneperennials.com has lots of shade plants. They even have a printable shade border plan with a plant list.
Thanks Cordeledawg, I'll check them out!
-Sunny
GGG - I had read that Jacob Cline was introduced (by Gene Cline) because it did not mildew as badly as the other cultivars. Can you attest to that? I have been considering getting it. I have a wild variety of beebalm that I lifted from our woods and put nearer to the house. It's doing sorta good so far, considering the drought, even in our poor soil. (Actually maybe it's not taking over BECAUSE of the poor soil.) Sheila
Soupcon, I'd say that Jacob Klein is now equal in mildew tollerance to most of the newer introductions out there the last few years. Fairly good. Nothing is perfect in our climate. Especially this year!!
That said, if your soil is better (better draining, retains more moisture during drought, well mulched) than mine currently is, and you give more air circulation (mine has been moving itself into a smoke bush...why, I have no idea!!) it is quite mildew proof on a "normal" year in Atlanta. Two years ago it was gorgeous.
Next to salvia guarantica it's gorgeous!
GGG
Here is a picture of my Jacob Cline bee balm...hope it helps...
JanetS
edited to say: I have not had a problem with mildew on mine since I planted it more than four years ago...
This message was edited Aug 3, 2006 11:30 PM
My bee balm is spreading on the ground, just laying there. However, no signs of mildew thank goodness. Do you think mine will ever stand up like yours? Your stems are erect and that's how I'd like mine to look.
Deborah
Well, I am not sure what the name of yours is, but I also have a purple one that has thinner stems. I ususally pinch it back a couple of times to make it bushier and it seems to help with the laying over...the red one is very strong and the stems will lean when the flowers are too heavy after a rain, but mostly it has a nice erect habit. So you may want to try the pinching and also it may take the plants maturing a little more...
I'll try pinching them, and yes, they are quite young too. There's hope! Thank you.
Deborah
Here's where Susan's, Soulgardenlove, came from. Moved the pond to a new place. I think I need to move it back. Susan wrote a poem about me moving the pond. I have 5 different colors. Never had any problems other than it likes to spread.
Anyone see any thing wrong with this picture.
This message was edited Aug 5, 2006 2:20 AM
This message was edited Aug 5, 2006 2:23 AM
Ok, I give up. What's wrong with it. And.... What pond? I'm I blind or just thick....I do see the Bee Balm. Do I see a plastic bag over a bloom...to catch the seeds, right?
Deb
No plastic bag and the water is under the plank that runs from one side to the other of the pond.
My two cents....
I just brought a division of a bee balm from my aunts house in Maine to start in my yard...we'll see if I have any luck, as it didn't particularly enjoy the trip and is not especially impressed with the climate change.
Bee balm, bergamot, oswego tea, and firecracker plant are all common names of this plant, Monarda didyma.
Although I do not find the scent of the fresh bloom very attractive as it is strong and quite pungent, the foliage, when rubbed, smells nice. (My experience is only with a red variety)
The bergamot used in Earl Grey tea and in soaps, perfumes etc., is not from this plant, it is from the Bergamot Orange, but there are similarities.
It is hugely attractive to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. This past trip I was visiting my grandmother in an assisted living home where she had a small balcony about 4'x8'. My aunt had given her a potted bee balm that was in bloom there on the deck, and I was sitting out with my father while he was smoking, and we are both large people. We are sitting there and a hummer comes to the flower not 18 inches from me, and stayed even when I moved to point him out to dad.....must have been some snack!