Spotted beebalm is a ensure pollinator attracter . Add it to your garden or property and youwillsee pollinators — butterflies , bumblebees , Apis mellifera , hummingbird moths , hummingbirds and others . While it ’s a biyearly or unawares - hold out perennial , it promptly self - seed and naturalizes when the conditions match its needs .
The colors of this aromatic plant are strange — lilac-colored and white leaf - like bracts form whirl around the base and under the light jaundiced tubular flowers , which are peppered with dark spot . Sometimes the flowers are white-hot or green . Leaves have a minty scent and , like other beebalms , can be dry out , beat out and steeped for afternoon tea .
This fussy species is not as commonly produce in gardens as arewild Citrus bergamia ( M. fistulosa),scarlet beebalm ( M. didyma)and various cultivars , but spy beebalm offer the benefit of being more drought - patient of . Allowed to naturalize in a garden area , it make belt of “ buzzing ” blooms for about six week in tardy summertime .
Monarda punctata with white and lavender leaves
Spotted beebalm provides special value to aboriginal bees , bumblebee and honeybees , and it attracts predatory and parasitoid insect that prey on pest insects . Although not a host plant for the endangered Karner Amytal butterfly , it is a prefer nectar source for that species . It is , however , a host industrial plant for the gray marvel moth and the snout moth .
In addition to attracting pollinators , it provides fantabulous cut flowers , tolerate black walnut ( Juglans nigra ) , and is deer- and rabbit - tolerant . Added as a ground cover or a patch fence in a vegetable garden , spotted bee balm will attract pollinator for other plant .
UsingMonarda punctatain the Garden
Good companions for this plant include those that expand in prairie preferences and high - quality sandy habitat , and those that bloom or tip before , during and after it . The foliage unite well with other prairie plants . example includeRudbeckia hirta , Penstemon digitalis , Erigeron spp . ,Asclepias tuberosaandSymphyotrichum spp .
Spotted Melissa officinalis has somewhat strange ethnic preferences : arenaceous soil , Lord’s Day to part shade , well - draining plots . The species is indigenous to sandy prairie , savanna , sand dunes and sandlike fields . Plants often occur in disturbed or of late regenerate habitats ; for case , it ’s a great alternative for reclaiming land from trespassing plant likegarlic leaf mustard ( Alliaria petiolata)or cringe bellflower ( Campanula rapunculoides ) .
While it ’s considered a short - subsist perennial or a biennial , Monarda punctata , like others , can be dependably propagated by germ sow straight in the soil or in pots and transplanted to the garden . It can also be propagate by press cutting of new leaf .
patched beebalm will be equally at home in an open meadow , a naturalised area surround a schematic garden or a small planting in a side garden . If you ’re look for ways to pull and gain pollinators , this plant is a competition .
This article byBeth Stetenfieldfirst appear in the May / June 2020 edition of theNorthern Gardener . She is a garden blogger and writer , and a master natural scientist volunteer and instructor .
