My Jacab Cline Beebalm just bloomed here are some pics. I have not seen a hummingbird feeding from them yet.
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Very nice Sean, Is that a honeysuckle vine on the shed?

Pam
Matawan,NJ 6B

Lovely pics Sean!
We have 'Raspberry Wine' Monarda which is on the verge of blooming any day now. It's a shame that by the time we have our 1st Fall migrating hummingbird (last year it was our Rufous on July 28th), the Monarda has completely gone through it's bloom cycle. It's a beautiful plant though and does bring other pollinators

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Very nice-looking monarda and honeysuckle. My jacob cline and gardenview scarlet are opening their blooms now and should look like yours by next weekend.

Dan
Zone 5
East-central Iowa

Looks great my jacob cline and purple rooster are a week or to away if you deadhead them will they give you more blooms? Nice little honey hole you have by the shead. Erik S.E. Wisconsin

My beebalm is close to blooming but it is the shorter variety called grand marshall. Should be blooming this coming week.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

My monarda is probably about 3 weeks away from blooming...everything here is late this year.

SL, I wonder if you had a patch of monarda (or part of a patch, even) and kept cutting it back everytime it started to show buds, whether you might get a late bloom out of it? Some years, I cut about 1/3 of my patch back once, so that I get blooms over a longer period.

The last year or so, monarda hasn't been a big attractor here...guess there are too many salvias they like better.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

seen a female ruby throat on it today. She went to each beebalm flower and then took off and perched in my huge blue spruce. I was surprised she didn't touch the hot lips salvias and black and blue salvias that were right next to it.

My 'Raspberry Wine' was moved last year as it was declining & it started blooming the last couple of days. I haven't seen much Hummer use on Monarda in the past but the Hummingbird Moths & Butterflies sure love it so it will stay in my yard. 'Jacob Kline' is short & behind but it's too shaded & also needs to be moved. Here's a pix of 'Raspberry Wine':



Joni
Elwood, IL
Zone 5

Beautiful pictures of one of my favorite plants!

My first buds are just starting to open today.

Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

I know Beebalm is susceptible to powdery mildew and I have fought that on my Phlox. I'm seeing black areas around the top leaves of the beebalm, it doesn't look like powdery mildew, maybe some black type? Any suggestions?

Actually I just went out (in between the torrential downpours) and it's more a rusty look, starting at then edges going inwards. The inner and lower leaves don't seem to be affected (yet). Almost look like a bug but nothing wrong on the under sides of the leaves.?????????

I just hope mine can look anywhere near the pics in this thread, very, very nice!!

Penny, I'm glad to hear you have something blooming. Monarda doesn't seem to have any trouble with cold weather. Back in April and May, when the honeysuckle was doing nothing in the cold weather, my monarda grew quite fast. This is definitely one of my favorite plants.

Dan
Zone 5
East-central Iowa

Pete
Here is a safe spray for powdery mildew on plants

Mix 1 teaspoon baking soda with 1 quart water, and add a teaspoon of liquid dish detergent (such as Dawn) as a wetting agent. Test a couple of leaves to see if they are sensitive to baking soda--sometimes too much spray can cause burning of the leaves. I have used just the baking soda and water and that works just as well.

The Baking soda changes the surface pH of the leaf, making it unsuitable for the growth of powdery mildew.

Make sure to water the plants well prior to applying the treatemtn and water the plants at the base of the plants rather than watering from the top. Monarda also needs good air circulation so you could remove some stems to get better air circulation.


Dan
I do have a few things blooming right now.
My coral honeysuckle is dust I don't think there are three blooms that haven't been hit by aphids but all 9 (11 if I count the P. digitalis and P. tenuis) of my Penstemons are blooming in addition to the Gold Flame honeysuckle which wasn't hit by aphids this year, one Salvia c. Fire Fox, both Silene virginica, 10 of the 12 Coral Bells, one of the Agastache Tutti Frutti, One Lady in Red, both Salvia greggii Mesa Scarlet, 3 of the 4 Black and Blues and Wendy's Wish. Not as much as I usually have by this time but at least there are a few things blooming. On of my Furman's Red cuttings has buds along with the lone Coral Nymph surviver that just got planted Monday.




Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Thank you Penny. Great tip I'd never heard before.

I've been treating the Beebalm like Phlox, keeping them thinned out and watering at the surface.

I don't think I will need any wetting agent here today, rain, downpour, rain, well you know as do others in the Midwest and Northeast this year.

Pete,
The baking soda and water treatment also works just as well on phlox. I am surprised my phlox hasn't been affected this year as the two clumps have gotten so big that they are now one big clump. At one time there was about 3 ft. between the two clumps.

Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Pete,
The Jacob Cline beebalm variety is resistant to powdery mildew, thats why I got it. You can see in the pic that the beebalm is situated next to my shed and arborvitae bushes. This area has little air circulation and yet it never once got powdery mildew. Its the best variety in my opinion.

Thanks.

What I have is Monarda didyma "Fireball", does anyone know anything about this type?

I planted Phlox David 10 years ago, was supposed to be mildew resistant. I've had more problems with that variety than the others that I have. Go figure.

Sean and all
Even though Jacob's Cline is a bit more resisitant to Powdery Mildew if the conditions are right, it will become victim. There are several of us here whose Jacob's Cline has been affected by powdery mildew at one time or another usually once the patch has been growing and spreading for a couple of years but some have had it on first year plants.

Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

the photos remind me of the old song - Camptown Racetrack sing this song - beebalm, beebalm.

I had mildew on my jacob cline last year, its first in my garden, but this year it and the gardenview scarlet look great.

Dan
Zone 5
East-central Iowa

Pete,
I grew 'Fireball' & it never came back for some reason. I've never had a problem with Monarda coming back. I have a very nice patch of 'Coral Reef' but no blooms on that yet. I also have Phlox 'David' & it does get it.

Funny with all this rain that none of my Phlox has had it yet. I need to do some preventative treatment. After all the rain, we had temps in the 90's. Didn't want to stress them.

Joni
Elwood, IL
Zone 5

I have used some baking soda recipes for mildew and it works ok but there are some recipes online that are too strong and will turn your leaves black. I forget the exact recipe I used earlier this year that is ok I need to refresh my memory on that.

also heres a couple of shots of my beebalm grand marshall





also a shot of my goldflame trying to make a comeback after all the aphids and then my spraying with neem and then finally giving it a haircut.





Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

Nice, Steve!!! I found 1 lone piece of an old 'Petite Purple' & thought it had died out. Going to dig it up this week & move it & see if I can revive it. Grew very low, like a groundcover.

Didn't see any aphids on any honeysuckles but 'Candy Cane'. Did some tip pruning Sun. 'Dropmore Scarlet' has had more use this year than I've ever seen before.

Joni
Elwood, IL
Zone 5

This is the absolute best my Bee Balm has looked in a few years. The past three years some sort of moth larvae has nearly destroyed all the blooms early on and I had to cut a lot of them off. This year they have been larvae free and up until now they are also beetle free and powdery mildew free.

Patch #1 started out as one lone cutting several years ago



Patch #2 was started last year with two small divisions from the main patch



Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

My red monardas are being worked over by hummers every day.

Gardenview Scarlet & Marshall's Delight




Jacob Cline



Dan
Zone 5
East-central Iowa

My 'Coral Reef' just came into full bloom the last week. It's not in the best place for viewing to see if being used but my neighbor sure has a nice shot of it. The Black Chokeberry is too big in front of it...





Joni
Elwood, IL
Zone 5