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Bee Balm, A Beautiful and Useful Plant for your Garden
by Monica Resinger
Description: Tips for growing, preserving, and cooking with bee balm.
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Description and Growing Information
Bee Balm is a very pretty herb with a wonderful fruity, minty aroma. The
gorgeous tubular flowers, held like a crown at the top of the 3-4 foot stems in
mid and late summer come in a lot of colors including red, pink and purple. On
top of all these qualities, it is a hardy perennial herb that will grow in all
zones. Bee Balm requires full sun or light shade and fertile, light and moist
soil. It is best propagated by division or cuttings rather than seed because
the seed isn’t always true to the parent plant.
In the Garden
Bee Balm is so pretty it should be included in your flower beds. It will
attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden. I know it’s hard to
welcome bees into the garden, but remember that we need them to pollinate our
plants. Good partners for Bee Balm are Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea),
Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), and Lavender (Lavandula).
Uses for Bee Balm
Tea. This is a wonderful tea herb. To make a cup of tea, simply place
tablespoon of fresh or one teaspoon of dried Bee Balm leaves and/or flowers in a tea
strainer or tea spoon and pour one cup of boiling water over it. Allow it to
steep for ten minutes and bring the tea out. Sweeten if you wish and enjoy.
Cut Flowers. The flowers make excellent cut flowers. Be sure to cut the stems
at an angle so they can take up water.
Culinary. Chop the leaves and flowers and add to fruit salads for extra
flavor. Garnish any type of salad with the leaves and flowers.
Preserving Bee Balm
The leaves and flowers of Bee Balm can be dried and used for potpourri or
tea. To dry, bundle 8-10 stems with a rubber band at the cut end and hang upside
down until crisp to the touch. Crush and store in airtight containers out of
direct sunlight.
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