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Red bee balm, Monarda didyma
Attract ruby-throated hummingbirds to your garden with bee balm's expressive scarlet red flowers. The flowers are stunning and up to 5 cm across.
Ecology:
Bee balm attracts hummingbirds and butterflies, but especially bumble bees with its rich nectar.
It supports pollen specialist bees who can only provide bee balm pollen to their larvae and different moth species as a host plant in the caterpillar stage of their life cycle. The seed heads create a beautiful winter landscape, and the birds devour the seeds.
A culinary delight:
The flowers are edible and a great decoration in salads. Bee balm flowers have some berry notes in addition to the fresh thyme and oregano flavour created by the essential oils thymol and carvacrol. These essential oils have many potent medicinal properties and are anti-inflammatory. Indigenous peoples have long used them to relieve symptoms of colds, headaches and bee stings. Bee balm is also called Oswego tea because Indigenous Oswego people used the flowers and boiling water to make a beverage. One tablespoon of fresh flowers in one cup of water creates an infusion with the fragrance and taste of mint and citrus.
Good to know:
Harvesting flowers and deadheading will create additional flowers and extend the bloom time.
Deer and rabbits find the taste of bee balm too pungent.
Bee balm is in the mint family and can spread by rhizomes under ideal conditions.
Bee balm is prone to mildew at the end of the season, which does not affect the plant's health. To avoid excess mildew, allow for good airflow by not crowding the plant.
Bee balm is an excellent rain garden plant and can thrive close to downspouts.
Red Bee Balm
60 cm -
1 m
great pollinator edible sun - part shade host plant rain garden any soil type pollen specialist deer resistant medium - moist bird seeds salt tolerant Growing conditions:
In the wild, red bergamot thrives in open woods, meadows, and along rivers. Therefore, it prefers moist, rich soil with good organic matter in a sunny or partially shaded location. It will grow well in average garden conditions if the soil is not boggy or dry.
To create organic matter, chop and drop last year's plant stems right in place when you cut them to heights between 20 and 50 cm in late spring. Let Mother Nature take care of the stems already cut the previous year because bees could nest inside at any time of the year.
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Garden symphony:
My favourite combinations are Culver's root, swamp milkweed, turtle head and sweet oxeye sunflower for a part-shade site and blazing star, black-eyed Susan, lance-leaf coreopsis and butterfly milkweed for sunny sites.