A Little Flair

The first bee balm flower blooms with a little flair—a bindweed tendril decoration. The bee balm flower looks like a firework, appropriate for the beginning of July so the word “flair” is kind of a pun on “flare.” It’s a bright festive red so why wouldn’t the bindweed want to be a part of it with her graceful curve?

Bee balm is one of the common names of monarda, specifically Monarda didyma, also called bergamot, horsemint and Oswego tea after the indigenous American medicinal uses. Bumblebees and hummingbirds find it irresistible as they visit the many tube-shaped flowers. The leaves of the plant smell like a mixture of mint and oregano. This plant is perennial, dying back to the ground after the flowers have faded and left small tufts of seeds, which will fall and sprout the next year. Monarda is an enthusiastic plant and best to grow in clumps where you can keep it under control, and the long hollow square stems can be fragile but do well with a bunch of friends around to support each other. You’ll have lots of plants each spring to share with friends. A friend gave me a few plants in 2001 and today, in 2026, one of my original clumps is still producing. I’ve found it in other areas of the yard and encouraged it to grow in a clump instead of individual plants. I’ve also found a pink variety in the woods, but the plants are not native.

The bindweed blooms like a small white morning glory, which is a relative, but much more polite than the invasive bindweed that can grow several inches in one day. I’ve measured it, because it tends to disturbed soils and I do turn some of my garden beds each year as well as some parts of flower beds. It’s native to Asia and some parts of Europe and invades farm fields and can take down cornstalks. I’ve lost whole flower beds I wasn’t quick enough to clean up from a bindweed invasion. One good thing about bindweed—the groundhog who sometimes visits my hard loves the leaves!

I removed the decorative tendril after I took the photo.

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