How to Grow, Harvest, and Preserve Bee Balm (Monarda)

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In our attempts to save the bees, many of us are adding more flowering plants to our gardens.

Monarda is a popular perennial plant used in bee and butterfly gardens. It is commonly known as Bee Balm and its fragrant blossoms attract bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. Monarda also has a long history of medicinal uses by Native American tribes, American Eclectic physicians, the Shakers, and herbalist.

Bee balm is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae). There are over 15 species and over 50 different cultivars of bee balm that grow both wild and in gardens. Colors range from bright red to lilac to shades of pink and white.

Monarda didyma is the variety I grow in my perennial garden bed. It is also known as Scarlet Bee Balm, Oswego Tea, and Crimson Bee Balm. The plant grows in dense clusters with striking red flowers that bloom on 3-foot high stems in mid to late summer.

Monarda didyma is a perennial native to Eastern North America and Canada and grows naturally from Quebec to Georgia and west from Ontario to Minnesota and down to Missouri. It is also native to Washington and Oregon in the west. (Source: USDA)

History of Bee Balm

The genus Monarda was named for Spanish physician and botanist Nocholas Monardes, who published some of the first European books on American native plants in the late 1500s. However, the Native American tribes of Eastern North America and Canada used Monarda didyma medicinally for centuries before Nocholas Monardes studied the plant. (Source: