Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Mad for Monarda
As mentioned on a previous Garden Bite show, the National Garden Bureau announced Monarda for their perennial of the year for 2021. It’s a magnet for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds and smells wonderful while producing for a good long season. It’s also prone to powdery mildew in humid areas… hello, Minnesota!
But, there are cultivars that are bred to withstand this fungal disease. ‘Bees Knees’ has shown an extreme tolerance to mildew.
It’s a shorter variety growing to just 20 inches tall and wide. The flowers are a pretty shade of red, something the hummingbirds really like!
Three other varieties that are also resistant include ‘Violet Queen‘ which grows 3 to 4 feet tall and produces deep purple flowers from mid- July to mid-August.
‘Colrain Red‘ has purplish red flowers also on 3- to 4-foot-tall plants.
And ‘Rosy Purple’ a taller variety growing 2 ½ to 3 ½ ft tall with deep purplish red flowers.
Monarda grows best in full sun to light shade with drier soils. They also like good air movement, which also helps with fungal disease. You may also need to divide them every 3 years or so… oooo, more plants!
Monarda is deer and rabbit resistant too. As I mentioned before, I was a little iffy on monarda because I’ve had monarda that had powdery mildew and it looked awful, however, it smells great and is a huge pollinator attractor.
So, with these cultivars, decent air circulation and keeping the weeds down, there are some great options. Humans also find them attractive!
And here’s the surprise I told you about in my show… a new introduction for 2021, Monarda ‘Balmy Purple’. Growing just 12 inches tall with a 24 inch width, perfect for the front of the border. It also has excellent resistance to powdery mildew!
