I had decided to tear the bee balm out of my garden because I wanted blooms ALL summer…not just the month of July. Then I had an ah-ha moment. You’ve had those, I’m sure. Well, mine was this: when the bee balm comes up in June, cut half of it back as the first buds appear but before they bloom. Let the rest continue to grow and blossom. When these blossoms are spent, the half that was cut will be back up and ready to bloom.
And, guess what? It worked. It worked nicely in the front garden and the back garden is out-doing itself. When the second batch started to bloom at the beginning of August, I cut back the spent plants. Now here we are almost the middle of September and, in my back garden, not only are the August blooms still blooming, but the first batch has come back and I will have a third bloom! How great is that.
The hummingbirds are loving it!
If you are an experienced gardener, you might well say, “Duh! Of course, everyone knows that.” But I’m not an experienced gardener, so I’m feeling pretty proud of myself!
As you can see in this photo, I have all three phases of blooms…spent, still going strong, and ready to burst forth with another batch. This third bloom is thanks to climate change.
