7 Reasons to Plant RED BEE BALM This Spring

Red bee balm, Monarda didyma is the name of this awesome blazing red flowered plant. A native plant to North America, its fiery blooms stand out and really make your garden look professional and showy. As a native plant, this monarda species feeds bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, so you can watch for them every day right from your own yard. Nature doesn’t have to be someplace you go on vacation. It can be in your backyard every single day, bringing nature home to your family and nurturing the ecosystem.

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this flower is the king of the Garden today we’re talking about red B balm and I’ve got seven reasons you should plant it in your sunny garden and with some luck you’ll attract one of the coolest pollinators in the world we can’t make a video about bbal without doing a taste test people are telling me it’s edible and you can make a tea out of it that’s great but I wonder if you can use it to make a mojito I love this let’s get it we all want our Gardens to have gorgeous flowers that are showy and make the garden look Pro but not every every flower is supposed to be a centerpiece when you group eye catching colors together it’s really a head turner you’re going to be so proud of your garden meet Monarda Dima red bee balm this flower is absolutely King of the garden but if I had to start over again I would start by designing around this flower because we need to give the king some room each flower alone is beautiful but what makes it truly stunning in the garden is the sheer volume of flowers in this enormous cluster this will definitely get people talking because let’s face it if you look at some of the landscaping around you it can seem like everyone has the same 10 shrubs and hostas but if you’re the kind of person that wants something a little more interesting Menard’s flower literally looks like a gorgeous Red Crown we’re talking bold not basic you guys know I love my native plants so here it is all Monarda species are created right here in North America here’s a map of its native range but what if I don’t live in the green part right here don’t worry worry there’s different Monarda species all over this map but they all have very similar qualities and share that very special pollinator if you want to find out which manard is native to your state do a search for manard native to my location you’ll be able to find a manard species that will thrive in your soil with your weather and bloom during the times that your local pollinators need it most both gardeners and pollinators want to enjoy the flowers for as long as possible especially if we have a short growing season and long Winters it seems like each of Menard’s flowers blooms for weeks but if you look closely you can see small flowers start blooming at the center when they’re done more flowers grow further and further and further from the center in a ring each flower only lasts for a few days but because of its staggered Bloom time that means there’s always a fresh ring of flowers for pollinators during the whole month or two of blooming these raggedy looking flowerheads look like they’ve seen better days but to pollinator each of those little flowers are still perfectly good and full of nectar that means this plant is going to stay in flower for longer and be very popular with pollinators now there’s two things about this flower that give it away as having a very specific pollinator this pollinator has to one be able to see red color and two they need to be able to get to the bottom of those long tubular flowers to get the nectar red color and tubular flowers means this is the perfect refreshing snack for the ruby throated hummingbird this hummingbird is the main pollinator for this plant see if you can notice something interesting about the way this hummingbird is diving into the flower this flower head is actually a cluster of about 15 flowers on the same flower head or inflorescence this makes it easier for the pollinators to use because every tiny flower is full of nectar most insects have a hard time with this flower but the tube shape is perfect for hummingbirds and we can’t forget our special pollinator the hummingbird moth Yep this girl looks like a hummingbird but she’s an insect with a long tongue that can dip down into the flower just like the hummingbird it’s such a special day when you get a visit from a hummingbird moth I never get tired of seeing them the larger bumblebees also have ways to get to the nectar it’s a little more work for them but they still love it I know some things about plants but I don’t know a lot about bees at all just know that these are crafty guys that know how to get in there so be people if you can help me out with identification in the comments that’d be awesome luckily at my house the pollinators are on this plant all day you’d think I’d have a lot more quality videos of them but I don’t hummingbirds move fast and they’re hard to take pictures of so I’ll have to disguise myself this summer like this bird Enthusiast here to get a better video for you let me know if you want me to make that video there’s one more important thing about this plant that doesn’t get talked about enough but is absolutely crucial to some of our caterpillar and moth friends caterpillars can only eat the leaves of certain plants and menarda didima is a host plant to three different moth species who would otherwise go extinct if it weren’t for these leaves that’s why it just feels so rewarding to host these plants in our backyard so please do not ever spray these plants with pesticides instead we should celebrate when we see holes in the leaves the plant Will Survive and if you think about it holes in the leaves means that your garden is part of the ecosystem and that’s what we really want this next one is going to be very important especially to our friends in the Northeast I’ll tell you there’s nothing worse than buying plants for wildlife and then having those plants immediately eaten To The Ground by said Wildlife I know it feeds them but it’s only one meal and that’s not really going to work for us okay son don’t fill up on hostas let’s go straight to the lettuce bed this time you know it’s true because of its strong smell and taste B balm actually has really good resistance to rabbits and deer disclaimer when I say deer and rabbit resistant I mean yes I know they’ll eat anything sometimes but this is definitely not their favorite so it’s safe to say this is one of the better plants to plant if you have a lot of rabbits and deer no promises another good way to deal with deer is to have a lot of extra plants that’s where I have some great news B balm is actually crazy easy to propagate a lot of us have done propagation indoors with our house plants but even though you can use this water glass method don’t bother I’ll show you a better way it’s the easiest thing in the world let’s [Music] go it’s literally so easy if your clump is fully grown it’s going to start sending out these [Music] Runners there we go so here’s the stem and here’s some Roots down here and then this is the runner this is the Riso look there’s already a roote on there that’s pretty large I mean this is going to grow so fast because it’s already got everything that it needs to be successful so you don’t actually have to wait several weeks for it to make the roots it’s got the roots right here so you just take this Runner and let’s find some more for it okay I’m going to put this in my raised bed so you don’t have to dig a deep hole and then stick this in the hole like that you want to lay it across the top there we go I’ll put it in right here just kind of stick it in there and then you lay the ryome across very shallow and you just kind of fill it in here we go and you even have a little leaf right here in a few weeks you’ll have fresh leaves growing and if you do this early enough in the season you might even get flowers that same summer you already know what I’m going to say the best way to deal with having these extra Runners is to give them away to friends and neighbors just imagine your whole neighborhood becoming a hummingbird Hots spot every house having a be balm patch these guys have fast metabolisms and they have to eat all the time if all your neighbors have extra plants think about how happy the hummingbird population would be when I’m near this plant in the garden the first thing that I noticed is not really the flower but the fragrance of the leaves this red be balm is one of the most fragrant manardo species the scent just triggers that Garden memory in the spring it’s a lot like mint or oregano but you don’t even have to crush the leaves to smell it I’ve never dried my own tea leaves so I hope this works I’m not buying a food dehydrator for this video so I’m doing the microwave method to dry the leaves I heard it has medicinal value for a lot of different things but I’m not a doctor so let’s just make the tea if you try this at home never ever walk away from the food you’re making in the microwave these leaves could definitely catch on fire if you’re not careful okay now that they’re dry let’s steep them for 5 minutes in hot water H looks green smells pretty nice that smells like the compost smelled it earlier I was like oh no it smells like yard work definitely has a smell maybe I didn’t dry them enough and that’s why it smells like the compost you know it tastes better than it smells like a fresh yard taste is a this is gross oh we’re 0 for one I mean it smells bad it doesn’t taste good very genx reacts and um you know I don’t want to like it’s worse it’s worse honey borrow your spoon oh why does the honey make it worse it’s very different here’s my proposal Mojitos this is so cute you cut the limes into little Tri cheers that’s pretty good tastes real close to a real Momo actually I really like it this might be our new drink yeah it’s good if you’re going to make this I think you need more cuz the flavor is really s thanks sweetheart this is great let me know in the comments if you want me to do a mojito for every plant in the mint family probably get millions of views you can help this video get millions of views by watching this video next