Who Planted These?

This  stand of red Monarda  is a very recent discovery.  We have two patches growing in planting beds but these were hidden in chest high weeds near our electric pole.  Bee balm spreads from new stems growing in contact with the ground and root runners just out of sight.  There is a lack of agreement here if seeds actually develop.  Many plants have two methods of providing for the next generation so I will need to look for seeds when these plants are cut back

When we moved here to live twenty-one years ago, there was no soil suitable for plants.  Stones of various sizes were more prevalent  than soil.  Our electric line is buried for a considerable distance from our pole to the house.  We filled the necessary trench using hand tools and it is likely that stones were not part of the fill.   Several days after the discovery of these stunning red flowers, Becky remembered moving some of our plants from our former Unadilla home to the site of our future home.  Only the Bee balm survived decades of neglect.

In John Burroughs' writings he touched on this native plant as an easier source of red for the garden than Cardinal flower.  His attempts to find Cardinal flower growing in the wild were seldom successful.  Keeping it alive in a garden is no simple task in our area.  We have been wrestling with Cardinal flower for years and have managed to keep this treasure alive while the Monarda survives here both in the garden and totally on its own.  It is easy to have huge plantings of these red flowers.  They also bloom earlier than Cardinal flower.

The major drawback to Bee balm is the powdery mildew that covers every surface on the plants after they flower.  It is ugly beyond description and we cut the plants back to the ground in a futile attempt to control this growth.  No one has cut back these long forgotten plants.  Their present appearance is beautiful.  We will check back to see if the powdery mildew  grows on these wild plants.

The other major attraction of these bright red flowers is their popularity with both humming birds and Clearwing moths.  We can only watch the humming birds from a distance while the Clearwings fly close to us and are not at all bothered by our close presence.  The other name for these creatures is Humming bird moth as their method of flying is easily mistaken for the look alike birds.

Our garden Monardas are just out of view so this picture really has no place in this post.   I suppose we could offer red Bee balm plants to anyone that can describe the location of the fifth deer in this photo.