
Given its height (2-4 feet), bee balm makes for an excellent background plant in a flower bed. Learn more about plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Bumblebees and a few other insects are too big to get into some of the smaller tubular flowers of some bee balms, so the insects practice something called “nectar robbing.” The insects punch a tiny hole at the base of the flower to access the nectar, bypassing the flower’s pollen and “robbing” it of its nectar.īesides attracting pollinators, the seed heads will attract birds in the fall and winter. In the garden, its most frequent visitors are hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies because they have the long tongues required to reach the tubular flowers’ nectar. If you have spent some time researching Wild Bergamot, Bee Balm, or any other member of the Monarda genus on the internet, you may be feeling a bit confused. Flower colors include white, pink, red, lavender, and purple. And Wild Bergamot is not the same as Bergamot Orange, which is a citrus fruit native to Italy.Nor is it the same as Wild Lavender, which is endemic to a different continent. Bergamot is known by several other names, including bee balm. Slender, tubular flowers are produced in 2- to 3-inch-wide flower heads in June and July. Bright flowers and a minty fragrance make bergamot (Monarda) plants ideal for perennial borders.

This is, of course, how they came to be called wild bergamot. About Bee Balmīee balm is a Native American plant not only known for its attractive scarlet flowers that bloom in the summertime but also its fragrant foliage. The flowers of bee balm have a sweet citrusy scent reminiscent of a bergamot orange.

Its odor is considered similar to that of the bergamot orange, which is. A perennial favorite native to North America, bee balm ( Monarda spp.
#Orange bee balm plant how to#
This native plant is beloved by hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies! Learn how to plant and grow bee balm. Monarda didyma, the crimson beebalm, scarlet beebalm, scarlet monarda, Eau-de-Cologne plant. A perennial favorite, bee balm ( Monarda spp.), aka wild bergamot, flowers in mid- to late summer.
