Growing Beebalm
The common name bergamot comes from the resemblance (at least to somebody’s nose) of the plant fragrance to the bergamot orange.
Beebalm comes from its ability to attract and apparently soothe bees while Oswego tea was used because of its use by North Americans as a tea drink. If you read the list of ingredients in Earl Grey tea now, you’ll see Monarda or beebalm listed on the packaging.
How To Grow
This is a plant of the full sun perennial border. The blooms are mostly on the red-violet side of the colour wheel with occasional dashes into whites and pinks.
Varieties range in height from twelve to a full thirty-six inches but all bloom from mid to late summer.
Mulch will keep the soil cool and evenly damp and this is the most important growing tip for obtaining a good bloom on this plant.
Renovation
If you find the center is dying out, dig up the dead areas and enrich the soil in these areas with compost. The outer shoots will quickly recolonize the well-composted soil.
Beebalm is a spreading plant and will colonize its neighbours without remorse or regret. A sharp shovel in the spring will limit its aggressiveness and the resulting offsets can be shared across the fence with neighbours.
Plants to Look For
The Monarda x didyma hybrids are the most common ones found in garden centres and these are among my favourites. Newer varieties include:
‘Dark Ponticum’ a new mildew resistant variety is 36 inches tall with deep purple blooms.
‘Gardenview Scarlet’ is another tall, mildew resistant variety with scarlet blossoms.
Jacob Cline’ is again, mildew resistant with large red flowers.
‘Marshall’s Delight’ – a Canadian introduction – is a slightly shorter form at 30 inches but with extremely good mildew resistance and hot-pink flowers.
‘Petite Delight’ with its lavender-pink blossoms and mildew resistance all packed into a bushy one foot tall plant.
Powdery Mildew
As you can tell from the above listing, newer varieties have been bred for mildew resistance. This tells us that many of the older varieties would get mildew very easily and the plants could quickly become unsightly.
I’m replacing all my older varieties with these newer, larger and more brightly coloured varieties to reduce the problems of disease in the garden. This is one case where newer is definitely better.
I would recommend you clean up plant debris in the fall as the leftover stems and leaves can shelter mildew spores over the winter. Mildew is the only problem that sometimes bothers these plants – particularly in a hot, dry summer.
If you want to ask a question about the beebalm, click here
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