If you love colorful flowers to attract pollinators like bees and hummingbirds, consider bee balm for your garden. The colorful blooms of bee balm add a splash of purple, violet, red, and pink color to the garden apart from attracting pollinators. The aromatic petals and the nectar-rich center of bee balm attract bees and hummingbirds to the garden to create a lively ambiance with their chirpiness. As a gardener (seasoned or novice), it's vital to understand what to plant and what not to plant with bee balm. In this article, we primarily focus on "what not to plant with bee balm," along with other vital information.
Growing Requirements and Other Information About Bee Balm
Let's understand the conducive growing conditions and other essential growing conditions.
| Scientific Name | Monarda | ||||||||
| USDA hardiness zone | 3 to 9 | ||||||||
| Sunlight requirement | Partial to full sun | ||||||||
| Soil | Moist soil rich in nutrients | ||||||||
| Blooming period | Mid to late summer | ||||||||
| Bloom colors | Red, pink, white, purple and violet | ||||||||
| Height and spread | 2 to 4 feet x 2 to 4 feet |
How to Grow Bee Balm?
Bee balm is a hardy perennial that can be easily transplanted from divisions, which you can get from your friend or family member or from the local nursery. The best time to plant them is spring to early fall under full or partial sunlight. It thrives well in moist, acidic, and well-drained soil. Also, keep a distance of 2- ft. between each bee balm plant for robust growth, as bee balm spreads rapidly and needs ground space to expand.
| Notes | Mulch the plants with bark mulch, keep plants hydrated to avoid wilting during the mid-summer, and add a layer of compost around the roots of bee balm plants for better growth. |
Plants You Should Avoid Planting With Bee Balm
Bee balm is an excellent companion plant. However, there are many plants that are aggressive and compete with bee balm for nutrients or grow tall and block the sunlight. Hence, make a list of the plants you should never grow with bee balm. Here is the list.
Aggressive Plants
Bee balm itself is an aggressive spreader, so avoid planting invasive plants such as Barberry, Bungleweed, Burning bush, Chinese wisteria, English Ivy, Kudzu, Lantana, Oriental bittersweets, Privit and Sweet autumn clematis.
Heavy Feeding Plants
Heavy-feeding plants require a high amount of nutrients, especially nitrogen, so it's advisable to avoid growing such plants around bee balm. Some of the heavy feeders are corn, cucumbers, pepper, melons, squash, sunflowers, tomatoes, and zucchini.
Plants That Block Sunlight
Bee balm grows in partial to full sunlight but thrives in full sunlight, so avoid planting plants such as Buckthorn, Clematis, Flowering dogwood, Pyracantha, Southern live oak, Weeping podocarpus, and White spruce. These plants grow and block the sunlight.
Plants That Develop Powdery Mildew
Plants such as Crab apple trees, Cucumbers, Delphinium, Garden Phlox, Lilacs, roses, squash, and Zinnias are prone to developing powdery mildew. Avoid growing such plants around the bee balm because such plants can cause stress and weaken the bee balm plant.
Heavy Feeding Vegetables
There are heavy-feeding vegetables such as beets, broccoli, corn, tomatoes, cabbage, and carrots, which weaken the bee balm by diverting nutrients from the bee balm.
Herbs Spreader
Bee balm is also from the mint family, which spreads aggressively, so it's better to grow other mint plants away from bee balm to ensure they all don't compete for water, sunlight, and space. Some of the plants from the mint family are Apple mint, chocolate mint, orange mint, peppermint, spearmint, and wild mint.
Allelopathic Plant Species
Allelopathic plant species such as sunflowers and goldenrods are the ones that release harmful chemicals into the soil, affecting the growth of surrounding plants. Therefore, it's advisable not to plant bee balm with such plants, else bee balm plants may die.
Vigorous Growing Yarrow
Under the right growing conditions, Yarrow grows aggressively and spreads its roots faster. Yarrow is tolerant to heat and drought, so it can grow under any condition. Undoubtedly, bee balm can grow taller than the Yarrow, but Yarrow's spread can suffocate bee balm.
Lettuce
Never plant lettuce and bee balm together because lettuce also loves sunlight, so when you grow both in one place, they compete for sunlight. Also, lettuce attracts slugs and snails who might eat the newly grown parts of bee balm during spring, resulting in damage to the plant in the later part of the season.
Conclusion
Bee balm is a plant with vibrant blooms that grow beautifully under the right conditions. Though it's known as a companion plant for many other plants, at the same time, there are plants that you should avoid growing with bee balm, as bee balm is a spreader that requires nutrients and sunlight for robust growth. When it is grown with other spreaders, it doesn't get the required nutrients.
