Bee Balm
The bee balm in the Butterfly Garden is doing well... too well! As mentioned before, it's mint-like behavior is sending out runners all over the bed. Today I removed some of them to re-pot.
They formed a solid mat of baby bee balm! This was after tearing out probably 2/3 more than shown.
They easily separated in to individual plants. These are the ones I kept, probably 1/4 of what I removed.
When they get larger I'll keep a few, and pot the rest individually and give them away on Craigslist! I've done that before with peppermint, chocolate mint and orange mint. I've been on the receiving end of CL too, with lemon balm, oregano, iris rhizomes, a Goldendoodle...
This particular bee balm is "Panorama Red Shades." Bee balm is in the same family as mint (Mentha) and balms (Melissa), and act the same invasive way!
Just today I winter sowed some lemon "mint" seeds, which are actually lemon bee balm. It can be confusing without the "real" names to know what kind of mint you have. Lemon mint can be bee balm or lemon balm, and of course, bee balm isn't Melissa (it's Monarda), but lemon balm is! If you look "lemon mint" up online you will get both Melissa and Monarda. To make it more confusing, sometimes we read about "bergamot mint," which can be either Mentha or Monarda! Real lemon mint (Mentha x piperita 'Citrata') can be found under that name, or at my favorite herb site (mountainvalleygrowers.com), just Mentha piperita, with orange bergamot mint being the 'Citrata" one! Lemon mint is one on my list for my next herb order.
They formed a solid mat of baby bee balm! This was after tearing out probably 2/3 more than shown.
They easily separated in to individual plants. These are the ones I kept, probably 1/4 of what I removed.
When they get larger I'll keep a few, and pot the rest individually and give them away on Craigslist! I've done that before with peppermint, chocolate mint and orange mint. I've been on the receiving end of CL too, with lemon balm, oregano, iris rhizomes, a Goldendoodle...
This particular bee balm is "Panorama Red Shades." Bee balm is in the same family as mint (Mentha) and balms (Melissa), and act the same invasive way!
Just today I winter sowed some lemon "mint" seeds, which are actually lemon bee balm. It can be confusing without the "real" names to know what kind of mint you have. Lemon mint can be bee balm or lemon balm, and of course, bee balm isn't Melissa (it's Monarda), but lemon balm is! If you look "lemon mint" up online you will get both Melissa and Monarda. To make it more confusing, sometimes we read about "bergamot mint," which can be either Mentha or Monarda! Real lemon mint (Mentha x piperita 'Citrata') can be found under that name, or at my favorite herb site (mountainvalleygrowers.com), just Mentha piperita, with orange bergamot mint being the 'Citrata" one! Lemon mint is one on my list for my next herb order.
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