Bumblebees, those ace pollinators in the fuzzy yellow and black suits, are very fashionable at the moment. And since they are fashionable, the plants that attract them are also extremely popular. I thought of that as I returned from vacation last week and drove by the many swathes of purple-flowered wild bee balm or Monarda fistulosa that popped up in vacant rural spaces along my route.
Many gardeners grow wild bee balm’s red-flowered relative, Monarda didyma, in their beds and borders. For some reason, that particular member of the Monarda clan took more readily to domestication and selective breeding than its “wild” relative. As the result, there are relatively few fistulosa varieties on the retail market, but lots of didymas.
The wild child monardas have much in common with the more genteel cultivated ones. All are members of the large mint or Labiatae family, which means that their stems are square in cross section and the leaves are arranged in opposing pairs. From even a short distance, the flowerheads appear a little shaggy, but a closer look reveals that they are made up of scores of individual two-lipped flower tubes clustered tightly together. The plants are easy to spot, rising two to four feet and growing in clumps of almost equal width.
Wild monarda is also known as wild bergamot, sweet leaf and Indian perfume. The bergamot nickname is a reference to the bergamot orange, a tropical citrus fruit that is the source of the oil of bergamot used to flavor Earl Gray tea. The species has sometimes been called “Oswego tea”, because Native Americans living in the area near Oswego, NY brewed the young leaves into a beverage. Oswego is quite cold in the winter—just the kind of place where a hot, fragrant, minty-citrusy drink would be most welcome on chilly nights. After the Boston Tea Party, some colonists may have substituted “Oswego tea” for the English tea they were accustomed to, at least until coffee became more popular.
Tough and hardy, wild bee balm is found all over North America, but probably goes unnoticed for most of the growing season. Its moment of glory comes in mid to late summer when the pale to medium purple petals open to accommodate feasting bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. Many of the Monarda didyma varieties suffer from a susceptibility to powdery mildew, which is unsightly and can defoliate plants. The fistulosa species is much less susceptible to that particular ailment, but shares deer resistant qualities with the other monardas. Anything that looks good, attracts butterflies and repels deer is a winner in my book.
The wonderful Missouri Botanical Garden website mentions that wild bee balm “is simply a less colorful selection than the similar-in-appearance Monarda didyma and its many cultivars.” While it is true that the didymas are available with petals in many shades of red and dark red-purple, at this time of year, the fistulosa’s lighter purple flowers look wonderful with the black-eyed Susan blooms of Rudbeckia, the varied colors of the coneflower clan and even the early goldenrods. ‘Claire Grace’, one of the relatively few cultivated varieties of wild bee balm, is actually quite showy, with petals that are more pink-purple than those of the species.
Monarda was named in honor of a sixteenth century Spanish botanist, Dr. Nicolas Monardes of Seville Spain. Though he never visited the New World, Monardes had a passion for its plants and commissioned more intrepid souls to bring samples back to Seville. His book on the subject bore an enticing title: Joyful News – Botany of the New World.
“Fistulosa”, the species name, comes from the Latin word meaning “tubular” and refers to the flower configuration.
Wild bee balm grows like crazy when left to its own devices in a sunny spot. In or out of the garden, it is tolerant of drought, clay soil and proximity to black walnut trees. Scrupulous deadheading of spent blooms will sometimes result in a second flush of flowers, though it may not be as exuberant as the first. Both flowers and leaves feature the characteristic pervasive fragrance.
One of the fragrance components of monarda is thymol, which is also present in the culinary herb, thyme. Thymol is a natural biocide and has long been used in mouthwash and medicines. Native American healers and the settlers who learned from them used monarda leaves in poultices to treat burns. Inhaling the vapor from leaves steeped in boiling water eased respiratory problems as well. “Oswego tea” also soothed tetchy stomachs and gallbladders.
You may not feel the need to use wild bee balm in tea, but the cut flowers last well in arrangements and also dry nicely. The plants fit perfectly in herb, native plant and pollinator gardens, not to mention large containers and mixed borders of annuals, perennials and shrubs.
If you want a little something wild in your domestic planting scheme, you can obtain the ‘Claire Grace’ variety from Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Rd. Madison, OH 44057; (800) 852-5243; www.bluestoneperennials.com. Free print catalog.