My garden is a ‘wildlife habitat’ for bees, butterflies, birds and anything else that decides to walk, hop, or slither across our property.  I have a deer with a deformed leg called ‘Fawny’, a box turtle ‘Teddy’, a 5-foot black snake ‘Henry’ and, please don’t judge me, a wild turkey I call ‘Gertrude’.  I mention this so you have a better understanding of just how seriously crazy I am about my wildlife garden including my pollinators.   So, when my friend, Brian dug up a beautiful red bee balm plant ‘Jacob Cline’ and gave it to me, I was thrilled thinking that the honeybees, the poster child for pollinators, would love it.  Ah, well, not so much!

Bee balm in the genus Monarda blooms at the right time for active bees, June through fall.  It is an incredibly fragrant and beautiful herb that attracts various types of bees including bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees like sweat bees, mason bees and leafcutter bees.  But for the honeybee with a shorter tongue, it is a little more difficult for them to access the nectar and pollen located at the base of the narrow, tubular flower.   On the other hand, bumblebees with their longer tongues can access the nectar easier.  So, hardworking honeybees resort to ‘nectar robbing’ by creating holes at the base of the flower.  And, even the flowers reluctantly, if at all, release their pollen to the gentle honeybee, responding much more to the bumblebee’s ‘buzz pollination’ antics by using flight muscles to vibrate loose the pollen.  Apparently, honeybees are capable of this activity but do not use it much.  Therefore, not many honeybees visit my bee balm!

That does not mean I don’t like bee balm.  It’s simple to grow; and it is a reliable, beautiful, plant 2 to 5 feet tall that pollinators love and requires little or no maintenance.  It is a native perennial that flowers in the summertime and is a great, colorful addition to a pollinator garden.  Bee balm ‘Monarda’ is actually the genus name for a large family of flowers that are herbaceous perennials - dies back to the ground for winter - in the mint family ‘Lamiaceae’.  Like mint it spreads by ‘runners’ which are underground stems or stolons, and one plant can become many in just a year or two.  This means it can get a little rambunctious but dividing it every 2 to 3 years in the spring helps to prevent overcrowding.  Like any plant, once bee balm has finished flowering, it directs all of its energy into producing seeds.  Deadheading will encourage the plant to produce more blooms.  Simply remove any faded flowers by cutting them just above the first set of leaves or first set of flower buds beneath the faded flower.   

Several species of bee balm ‘Monarda’ are found in North American, with the most common being ‘Monarda didyma’ Scarlet Bee Balm known for its bright red flowers that attract hummingbirds; ‘Monarda fistulosa’ Wild Bergamot features lavender to pinkish-white flowers attracting many different pollinators; and ‘Monarda punctata’ Spotted Bee Balm is distinguished by its yellow flowers with purple spots.  Many different cultivars have been developed from M. didyma and M. fistulosa offering colors in red, violet, purple, pink, and white including desirable traits like mildew resistance.  For example, my ‘Jacob Cline’ that has huge red flowers is also mildew resistant including ‘Raspberry Wine’ and its reddish-purple flowers.   There are only 15 species of Monarda, but hundreds of cultivars have been developed giving us many wonderful selections of bee balm for our garden.

Bee balm also called Bergamot and Oswego Tea is part of both Native American and European settlers history and even played an important part in the American Revolution.  It is native to eastern United States and southeastern Canada and was used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes and is still used as an alternative medicine today.  In fact, it gets one of its names ‘Bee Balm’ from a popular salve made from its resin that can soothe bee stings.  Another name, Oswego tea, comes from the Oswego Native Americans living in the upstate New York area now called Oswego county.  The Oswego people would brew tea out of the leaves of the plant, a process they taught to the European settlers.  

After the Boston Tea Party, when American revolutionaries tossed the tea into the Boston Harbor to protest the British tea tax, people began drinking Oswego tea as an alternative.

Bee balm is easy to grow in at least 6 hours of full sun with a little afternoon shade.  It prefers moist, well-drained soil, and just a sprinkling of 10-10-10 around each plant in early spring.  Mulch the area to help keep the soil from drying out and don't water the leaves to help prevent powdery mildew.

It’s hard to resist bee balm with its beautiful colors, somewhat exotic look of the flowers that attract so many butterflies, bees and hummingbirds to our gardens.  The entire above ground plant is edible, and some people still brew tea from it.  The leaf can even be used to soothe a bee sting.  It’s easy to grow, useful, and a part of history.  So, celebrate the 4th of July and buy a bee balm plant.  And think about my red ‘Jacob Cline’ growing tall behind yellow coneflowers for it is a beautiful site to see and pure bliss watching the hummingbirds and bees partake in the riot of colors and nectar.  

What’s so special about bee balm? 

Everything. BUZZ! BUZZ!●