I am looking for red blooming Bee Balm such as "Jacob Cline" or "Cambridge Scarlet". I have a pink flowering cultivar which is now blooming, but was hoping for some red blooms.
Does anyone have seeds for trade or SASBE? Thanks!
Monarda didyma (Bee Balm)
I might have a whole plant to trade you!
xxx, Carrie
Carrie - I sent you a d-mail. :-)
I adore this plant and have 4 of them now. If you can tell me how to get the seeds I'll gladly do so. Mine are gorgeous red and I have one that is a purple color but stated it was a pink or fushia when I bought it.
Angel - I have the pink ones that are currently blooming. I don't know the answer to that yet. I shall be finding out soon as mine are becoming spent blooms and I plan to collect the seeds from mine too! When the flower heads turn brown along with the stems, collect the flower heads and let them dry out completely. By then I should know how to get the seeds. Or .... I'll take some dried flower heads and figure out how to remove the seeds myself. Just make sure you wait until the flower head and stem is brown and dead-looking before removing it from the plant. Otherwise the seeds may not have had time to develop.
Oh, do any of you have a picture? I would love some pale pinks. DH keeps buying raspberry ones at HD and planting them in unapproved places!
Becky, there are instructions around here somewhere, I know there are.
xx, Carrie
I would love to trade some red seeds with anyone who has the pink, raspberry, or purple color :)
I will have other seeds this fall if anyone is interested in something else other than the bee balm.
My Bee balm hasn't bloomed yet as I in Maine and we are the last to get blooms on EVERYTHING *lol*
Kim
I have 3 gallon containers of the red that have never bloomed.What am I doing wrong?I'd love to save seeds if only I could get them to bloom. Don
I was just telling hubby this this morning:
Last year I purchased on the side of the road (donation for a fallen fireman) my red bee balm. It was in a tiny 4 inch pot. I didn't have one and wanted to donate for the fireman so I brought it home.
Not thinking, I put it in the front of my flower bed.
The thing has tripled in size and now stands to my waist!
I garden in acidic sand and have it in full sun.
So maybe Don, yours needs more sun or faster draining soil? Maybe they are an acidic plant? I don't know for sure why yours isn't blooming but mine is HUGE and these are the sad conditions it grows in.
I have also noticed that it is the favorite food for baby grasshoppers :(
Kim
Kim, I bet your right-I'm going to plant one in the grond and see what happens..Maybe I'll try some pickle juice and used coffee grounds. Don
Don - Mine are in the ground too and are 3-4' tall. In full sun which I fertilize with Osmocote. (Maybe you could try Bloom Booster fertilizer? That works for me with plants that won't bloom on their own,) I have noticed them really droopy in the afternoon because it is so hot here. I water them daily.
Here's a photo of mine. They are a medium pink color. I want red, too, and when these put out seeds I would be willing to trade some of my seeds for the red blooming plant seeds!
Hi Becky :)
I would LOVE to trade you some red seeds for your pink ones this fall :)
My red is just budding up.
I will be sure to post pictures when it blooms :)
Kim
Carrie, Angel, Kim, Don - I'll take whatever I can get .... from whomever I can get it from! I really want red blooming Bee Balm. And I'll take purple blooming BB seeds, too! I really love this plant and any colors beside the pink I already have, I'd really like to get! I would love to do a seed trade with any and all! Please d-mail if you haven't already and want to do a trade either now or in the Fall. That way I can keep track of who I owe what to. I have a separate d-mail folder for trades - now and future! :-) That's my only way to keep track of trades. Thanks y'all for trying to help me out here with some Red (& possibly Purple) blooming Bee Balm seeds! I genuinely appreciate it!
~Becky~
Well, you are not going to believe this ..... my plants are blooming again. In this photo you can see the older drying flowers along with the new blooms! I cut off the flowers as they dried for seed collecting and low and behold new blooms showing up! I didn't know they would bloom back-to-back like that!
Okay I've had my Bee Balm blooming for months and still have not seen a spent bloom. They dont seem to really dry out like other flowers do. Should I be waiting until they are black or dark brown to cut the flower head off ??
Also do these plants like a specific soil? I have 3 plants and only 1 is really doing well. One stays a sort of lime green color on the leaves and the other one is just now starting to grown and flower. I recently dumped some "Super Thrive" on it so maybe thats the ticket??
Angela
OK, I have bright red bee balm blooming BUT it is right next to magenta monarda. Will that mess up the seeds?
xxx, Carrie
Carrie, I would imagine that if you have any "cross" seeds that they will be VERY beautiful! You would be lucky in my opinion. I'm sure most will bloom true but imagine the surprises you could get. I marked all my "strange" bloomers this year and can't wait to sow them next year :)
Angela - Wow! You are very lucky if yours have not died up. Mine actually turned brown and hardened. I snipped the flower heads off and stuck in a paperbag to make sure they got a chance to completely dry out. (The flowerhead and stem to the flower were brown and brittle before I cut them.) And yes! I do fertilize mine, too! They apparently produce a lot of nectar for bees, so they probably need the fertilizer.
Carrie - Whatever you get, I would love to have some seeds. Anything but the pink that I already have. And Kim is correct .... if they cross pollinate, I am sure they will produce something lovely! :-)
Going out with scissors and baggies Wed. am.!
xxx. C
Hi Becky, here is a pic of the red bee balm I have, some of them ended up with dbl blooms on them, really pretty. I was suppose to have pink ones too, but all were red :( Dori gave me some of the purple ones (plants) when I was up there last month. I would love some seeds from your pink ones :o) I will be getting my gh soon, and I have started collecting some seeds to start in it lol Going to send you a dmail.
Don, when I planted these last year they didn't bloom at all, not one little bud, but this year my oh my did they bloom. they also spread every where, I had to pull a great many of them out, was really taking over everything. gave most to the neighbors around here and my dd and a friend of hers. So I imagine they will be multiplied come next spring to.
I have a few Prairie Night Monarda seeds if anyone is interested. I will soon have Cambridge Scarlet and Coral reef as well. Let me know if anyone wants a few of the purple ones for trade! Thank you :o),
Robbi Hoy-aka distantkin
Hello Robbi,
I would LOVE to try to winter sow some seeds from Prairie Night and Coral Reef should you have any to trade.
I only have the red as far as Monarda goes but maybe I have something else you would like to try.
I will be collecting seeds from my Platycodon (Balloon Plant) collection and will have lots of those to share if you'd like.
I have blue, double blue, pink (these are taller) and then I have dwarf white and dwarf blue. I have pictures should you like to see them just D-Mail me :)
Dwarf blue Platycodon would interest me. I'm waiting for the seed head to dry on my red monarda!
There's a beebalm called Coral Reef?? I love things called "coral reef" or coral anything! With what can I tempt you...? I have LOTS of seeds for this and that that I didn't use up wintersowing.
xxx, Carrie
At this very second, my coral reef is not seeding...My prairie night has finished with very scant seeds left and I am about to check on my Cambridge Scarlet. Let me go double check the status on my Monarda...one sec...................................OK-here is the status. Coral reef-no seeds anytime soon. Prairie night-done flowering for now and scant amount of seeds left, Marshall's delight about to seed out in the next few days, and Fireball-one bud left-not sure on the seed status.
How do you know when it's "seeding"?
Carrie, The flower heads turn brown and the seeds are down in the little holes you see in it :o) How I collected mine was by cutting the flower head off, turned it upside down over a paper plate and run my finger over it.
Connie
So not the scissors and baggie Becky described above?
C again
I will have some Marshalls Delight Mondara (pink) seeds this fall if anyone is interested. I would trade for a red.
Carrie I didn't even read Becky's post *sorry* I was just stating how I did it lol - going to back read, thanks.
Connie