Monarda punctata delights with beautiful and unique flowers. From a distance, the greenish-white or pink colored bracts create the more obvious display, but look closer and find the smaller creamy-yellow flowers spotted with purple, hence the common name spotted bee balm. The bracts hold their color longer beyond the actual bloom time, resulting in color over an extended season. Spotted bee balm is rarely bothered by deer and is great for gardens with sandy soils. It makes a bold statement when grown as a large planting, but is perhaps better used in a more natural community where there is room for self-seeding, as individual plants can be short-lived. Appreciates the same well-draining conditions as little bluestem, gray goldenrod, butterfly weed, and stiff-leaved aster. Spotted bee balm is less bothered by powdery mildew than the other Monardas.
LOCAL ECOTYPE
**Monarda punctata seeds do not have dormancy—they will germinate quickly from a spring sowing. These local ecotype seeds come from the Hudson Valley Seed Company’s farm in Accord, NY where they are grown under certified organic field production. Seed packets contain 250 seeds.
Monarda punctata delights with beautiful and unique flowers. From a distance, the greenish-white or pink colored bracts create the more obvious display, but look closer and find the smaller creamy-yellow flowers spotted with purple, hence the common name spotted bee balm. The bracts hold their color longer beyond the actual bloom time, resulting in color over an extended season. Spotted bee balm is rarely bothered by deer and is great for gardens with sandy soils. It makes a bold statement when grown as a large planting, but is perhaps better used in a more natural community where there is room for self-seeding, as individual plants can be short-lived. Appreciates the same well-draining conditions as little bluestem, gray goldenrod, butterfly weed, and stiff-leaved aster. Spotted bee balm is less bothered by powdery mildew than the other Monardas.
LOCAL ECOTYPE
**Monarda punctata seeds do not have dormancy—they will germinate quickly from a spring sowing. These local ecotype seeds come from the Hudson Valley Seed Company’s farm in Accord, NY where they are grown under certified organic field production. Seed packets contain 250 seeds.
Height: 2-3’
Bloom Time: early to late summer
Light: full sun
Soil: average, medium-dry, dry
Establishment: easy, spreads by self-seeding
Deer Resistance: very high
Pollinator Support: very high
Other: host plant for raspberry pyrausta butterfly
Native Range: local ecotype
Seed Propagated: NY
