Having moved to a new house with a sunny southern exposure, I’ve been on the hunt for plants that will survive full sun.
It’s quite different from the mostly shady acre property where we lived in Minnesota. I’m almost giddy with all the selections I now have.
In Minnesota, we were able to plant bee balm because we had some sun in a corner of our property. Did we attract hummingbirds, bees or butterflies?
We mainly attracted large butterflies and hummingbirds. It was rare when we saw a bee on our mostly shaded lot.
After planting this one bee balm plant, I was surprised that it did so well in its first year.
After being in the ground for about a month, the flowers started withering so I headed online to see if I should “deadhead” them. Deadheading is when you remove the withered flowers so that new buds can grow ~ I usually just use my hands and twist the dead ones off.
Online, this is what I found:
“If you want a bushier plant, pinch off the stem tips as new growth appears in the early spring. In late fall, cut the bee balm down to just a few inches tall. In cold areas, it may die completely to the ground during the winter, but will reappear in the spring.” This was from the “gardening knowhow” website.
Isn’t this one of the prettiest pink bee balms? Next year I’m hoping to plant several of these.
Do you have any bee balm photos you’d like to share?
