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When you want a riot of color in your organic garden or herb garden from midsummer to early fall and you live in zone 4 to 8 then consider planting Bee Balm and watch the hummingbirds, bees and butterflies flock to your gardens.
If you have fruit trees planting Bee Balm is a sure way to attract bees which your trees usually need to bear a good harvest.
Bee Balm is a member of the mint family and grows to four feet in height with a spread of three feet or more. The flowers are tubular petals that rise in a circular form from a lower burgundy green bract and you can get Bee Balm in red, pink, violet or white all of which will make stunning color effects in your herb garden or flower garden.
This perennial herb will spread by rhizomes and will reseed easily if not deadheaded. Its roots are shallow and when planted should be put in an area where you will not mind if it decides to encroach on other areas or you will be doing a lot of hand pulling weeding.
This plant can be planted in either sunny or partly shaded areas and you can divide a clump or chop off some roots each spring and plant them other places, give to friends, sell at a farmers market, share with your garden club, trade with other gardeners for something you do not have or just add to some other part of your flower bed to create color. This makes a good plant for frugal gardeners.
Native Americans prized Bee Balm and used it for many things. The leaves and flowers were brewed in teas, it was used to preserve meat, treat stomach disorders and treat the common cold. Today’s herbalist use the leaves to create an Earl Grey like tea and they claim it clears the sinuses, settles stomachs and controls coughing.
Many people use the leaves to create steam inhalation treatments for sore throats and bronchial treatments. As a folk cure for skin eruptions the plant is used externally and the leaf and flowers are prized by people who make potpourri.
You will also find this plant may be called Eastern Bee Balm, Wild Oswego Tea, Bergamot, Horsemint or Monarda. When you buy either seeds or plant you will discover that the red flowered plant is called Monarda didyma, the purple one is called Monarda media and the pink is called Monarda fistulosa.
When your plants start to look scraggly or the blooms go you might try cutting them back to about six inches above the ground and you will be rewarded with the Bee Balm re-blooming with late summer and early fall flowers.
“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…Peace, Light and Love,
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
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