Plant · P-133

Scarlet Bee Balm

Monarda didyma

Scarlet bee balm is a hummingbird magnet, with tubular red flowers and aromatic leaves that make a classic Earl Grey-style tea. It needs rich, consistently moist, distinctly acid soil - it will not tolerate ordinary neutral-to-alkaline ground - and light shade takes the edge off summer heat, since dry heat brings on powdery mildew fast. It tolerates juglone, so it can be planted under black walnut where many other plants cannot. Its native range runs from the Midwest and mid-Atlantic south along the Appalachians, with a separate pocket in the Pacific Northwest.