Garden bee balm: Vibrant blooms and natural tick defense
The garden bee balm is a plant that captures attention with its colourful inflorescence while effectively repelling ticks. It's no wonder that many people have it in their gardens. Additionally, it blooms almost all summer long.
In our gardens, you can often find plants like nasturtiums, marigolds, calendulas, or stocks, which add charm. This year, it’s worth enhancing that collection with garden bee balm, also known as monarda or bergamot. Gardeners love it for good reason.
Garden bee balm a hit in the garden
The garden bee balm is impressive with the variety of colours of its flowers—you can find varieties in shades of maroon, cream, pink, purple, and yellow, making it a wonderful decoration for any garden. However, its charm is not limited to its appearance.
The bee balm stands out with a unique scent that can resemble lemon, strawberry, or even lavender. This is due to the essential oils, which not only attract insects like butterflies and bees to the garden but also effectively repel ticks.
Caring for garden bee balm
Garden bee balm prefers warm and sunny locations, which allows its blooming period to extend for 90 days, from July to September. In full shade, the plant will also bloom, but its flowers will be smaller. It's also good to provide it with fertile and slightly moist soil.
Caring for bee balm mainly involves regular watering and pruning. On hot days, when temperatures are high, the plant needs more frequent watering, but it's important to avoid overwatering. The soil should be moderately moist but not waterlogged.
Trimming bee balm should occur after blooming ends, which stimulates the plant to bloom again. It can also be fortified with organic fertilizers. Interestingly, thanks to its frost resistance, it does not require winter protection.
