Bee Balm (Monarda Fistulosa)

Local Name: Bee Balm

Botanical Name: Monarda fistulosa

Family: Lamiaceae

Native Status: Dakota County Native

Landscape Archetype: Prairie and Savanna

Life Cycle: Perennial

Sun Exposure: Full sun, part sun

Soil Moisture: Dry to Mesic

Soil Type: Loam, Sand, Gravel, Silt

Height & Width Range: Height: Shoulders (36"–48") Width: 18"–36"

Bloom Color: Purple

Morphology Notes: Erect perennial forming upright clumps. Opposite leaves with soft texture but with distinctly serrated margins. Leaves emit an oregano‑minty aroma when touched or crushed. Flower heads form rounded layered clusters of narrow tubular florets that when grouped together resemble pom-poms. The color varies widely from lavender to soft purple and even white in rare cases. Look closer at those florets and complexities abound with protruding flower parts, hairs and calyx. The squared stems of this plant take on a rouge, purple or brown color that makes them pop out in a crowd. The root system is fibrous with short rhizomes enabling loose colonial to spread, and without competition, they will spread. Plants emerge early in spring with purple tinged leaves. 

Fruits and Seeds: Produces smooth nutlets inside the persistent, papery floral bracts (calyx). The nutlets mature late summer and fall. Those seeds are not edible, but the leaves are. Use fresh or dried leaves to make a tea or as an aromatic in sauces, sautés or even baked treats. Dried seed heads offer beauty throughout winter and make excellent arrangement components keeping their fragrance in near perpetuity. It is very easy to grow this plant from seed, so share with your neighbors or spread them in abandon parking lots. 

Habit and habitat: What begins as a clump with a few sprigs turns into a colony of upright clumps that spring to life every spring even through last year’s dead stems. Common in dry to mesic prairies, open savannas, sunny woodland edges, roadsides, and old fields. Strongest and most upright in full sun with lean soils. In part shade this plant stretches, flops and loses its intense color, though it will still bloom in a fair amount of shade. Without fail this plant always gets powdery mildew, this condition is pronounced in shadier and wetter sites. But in drier open canopy sites the mildew is not as noticeable when companions like prairie grasses, sunflowers, asters and goldenrods color up and distract. Bee Balm handles drought, fire, and disturbance well, maybe too well? Give this plant competition from other vigorous growers like native sunflowers, tall prairie grasses and other robust forbs to prevent unchecked spreading.   

Companions: Heavy Sedge (Carex gravida), Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis), Gray-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida), Sky‑blue Aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense), Tall Sunflower (Helianthus giganteus), Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum)

Ecological Associations: Bee Balm’s bloom time in Minnesota marks the true start of summer, when the offspring of overwintering queen bumble bees emerge to forage. This plant is made for bees but the buffet is open for a parade of pollinators including Clearwing hummingbird moths (Hemaris sp.) and Ruby‑throated Hummingbirds who hover at the blooms like tiny drones, joined by a shifting cast of butterflies, moths, skippers, syrphid flies, tachinid flies, and even predatory wasps pay a visit to the fountain to sip some nectar in-between hunts. Speaking of hunting Crab spiders (Misumenoides formosipes) and ambush bugs (Phymata spp.) hang out on the flowers waiting for prey that can’t resist the siren call of Monarda fistulosa. 

Provenance: MN

NH Propagation technique: Seed 

Special Powers: This plant is mandatory for native plant gardeners. It's beautiful, adaptable, fast growing, herbivore resistant and still serves a multitude of insects and animals including humans. The aromatic foliage adds a sensory layer to your garden. You can’t resist grabbing a leaf and crushing it for a burst of aroma power. Here at Northern Holler HQ we brew a medicinal tea with the leaves that helps to heal our head colds.