Learning to love Monarda fistulosa
- jessica36732
- 22 hours ago
- 5 min read
by Kate Wilson
You’re considering what to add to your pollinator bed and remember seeing a photo of Monarda fistulosa, or bee-balm. Turns out this striking beauty is hardy, easy to grow and perhaps best of all, native to Alberta’s aspen parkland.
Though the Monarda genus is endemic to North America, bee-balm is also known as wild bergamot due to its fragrance resembling the bergamot orange of Bergamo, Italy. It was given its Latin name by Carl Linné in honour of Nicholas Bautista Monardes, a 16th century Spanish physician and botanist who was interested in the genus’ medicinal properties.
In this article, I am using the name ‘wild bergamot’ to distinguish Monarda fistulosa from other Monarda species. There are 16 to 20 in total, depending on the source.
A perennial member of the large Lamiaceae (mint) family, wild bergamot prefers drier conditions than its generally taller, more aggressive cousins. While sources vary in defining its distribution, wild bergamot’s adaptability and hardiness are unmistakable, with a range as far south as Mexico northward to the Northwest Territories.
Its overall preference is moderately dry conditions in open sunny places or light shade. You can find wild bergamot in dry upland woods and prairies, at the edge of wet meadows or abandoned fields and in forest clearings up to 1,500 m in elevation. It does well in a wide range of soils from sandy clay to shallow mountain loam, as long as the soil is moderately rich and has good drainage.
Identifying Monarda fistulosa
Wild bergamot flowers vary from deep pink to lavender or, rarely, white. The fragrant grey-green foliage and stems are either hairless or with soft, fine hairs. The strongly square stems and opposite leaves are typical of the mint family.
Each bloom at the tip of a stem branch consists of a densely packed head of 20-50 individual flowers and is surrounded at the base by green bracts. The green calyx of each flower is tubular, and the pink corolla is two-lipped, like many flowers in the mint family. The narrow, hairy, upper lip encloses the style and two stamens, and projects upwards; the lower lip is spreading, broad and three-lobed.
The fruit in each flower consists of four tiny nutlets at the bottom of the tube.
The flowers’ opening and then dying from the centre outward, results in an empty looking centre surrounded by a pinkish fringe, giving the head an almost daisy-like appearance from a distance.
In your garden
With its dramatic clumping form and height up to 90 cm, wild bergamot makes an excellent background accent or mass of colour in the centre of a perennial garden. Mix it with other vigorous perennials like gaillardia, giant hyssop, yarrow, and asters. To increase bloom time, cut back some of the stems in late spring.
Once established, wild bergamot does not need a lot of watering but will benefit from extra watering in dry summers. Good drainage is important as this species doesn’t do well in areas that don’t drain after a rain or are consistently wet.
Powdery mildew is a well-documented risk – so keep individual plants well-spaced in order to promote good air circulation, and water at the roots rather than from overhead. Gardeners also recommend picking off affected leaves as soon as symptoms appear and raking up fallen leaves to minimize the risk of powdery mildew the following season.
Others suggest cutting back stems to the ground in late summer to avoid powdery mildew and to promote new healthy growth. But for overwintering birds, leave them alone and instead prune in early spring.
Wild bergamot can get aggressive, but that makes it a good choice for meadows and wild gardens or at the edge of a wet meadow or pond – as long as there’s good drainage. It’s also deer- and rabbit resistant, as the strong scent is not favoured by foragers.
Winter is another season to enjoy wild bergamot. The dry stalks and distinct ball-shaped heads provide textural contrast in your winter gardenscape.
Propagating wild bergamot
Wild bergamot spreads by rhizomes and has prolific flowers so seeds, cuttings and rootlets are all available. While the seeds don’t need stratification, germination is improved with overwintering. But they do need light to germinate, so press them lightly into the soil surface.
Wild bergamot cuttings are a simple alternative. Simply dig up a clump and divide it into sections, or take single stalks with rootlets and start new individual plants. Dividing plants every few years has the extra benefit of improving air circulation and plant health.
Pollinators and wildlife
One of our wildflowers especially favoured by pollinators, wild bergamot attracts specialist bees, bumble bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, hawk moths and wasps that in turn control garden pests. Birds such as goldfinch and sparrows forage for its seeds in fall and winter.
According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, wild bergamot specialists include sand wasps and a sweat bee, Dufourea monardae, and is known to be a valuable monarch butterfly nectar plant.
In your home and medicine cabinet
Monarda fistulosa is one of my favourite wildflower teas. The leaves are enticing as an iced tea on a warm summer evening or hot during a winter afternoon. Recipes for wild bergamot abound, from a citrusy seasoning in soups or salads to adding the flowers as a splash of colour in salads.
Or crush the leaves into a vegetable-based oil to release its spicy essential oils. Being rich in thymol and carvacrol – which are responsible for wild bergamot’s antimicrobial properties – some authors caution using its essential oils in certain circumstances, such as during pregnancy.
Within the Monarda genus, wild bergamot in particular is known for its medicinal properties. Its uses by Indigenous people and European settlers included treating colds, fevers and pneumonia, and for stomach or kidney ailments, among others.
Modern science has started to take an interest. Over the past eight years, studies have shown Monarda fistulosa essential oil to contain an array of organic compounds that have antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immunomodulatory properties.
Commercially, potential uses include naturally sourced thymol – the main active ingredient in mouthwash – and as an antimicrobial agent in labs. Its antifungal properties have been studied as recently as 2021 for controlling kiwifruit canker disease and treating yeast-based skin infections. One population in Colorado has been found to contain linalool, which has commercial applications related to its pleasant floral and spicy scent.
Appreciating Monarda fistulosa
Wild bergamot has many cultivars and several sub-species, and it will hybridize. To preserve the native variety, it’s best to check with greenhouses or buy from the Edmonton Native Plant Society, or other reputable local native plants suppliers. If you do have cultivars, keep them separate from your native specimens.
Wild bergamot is celebrated by both garden organizations and native plant enthusiasts. A blogger with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center perhaps says it best: “First, it wows your eyeballs with ragged pompom clusters of lavender, pink or white flowers. Then it coaxes your nose with its citrusy, slightly spicy, elegant scent. And its blooms perch atop open-branched stems that can get as tall as 5 feet, making for an all-around intoxicating plant.”
