My secret to growing MORE Bee Balm (and other perrenials)
Did you know that May 20th is World Bee Day?
Today’s post is dedicated to bees.
I am sharing a quick tip on how to propagate one of the pollinator’s favorite treats, bee balm aka woody bergamot aka horsemint.
Bee’s are so essential to our food supply.
Here they are hard at work pollinating the fairytale pumpkins in my garden.
Not one of them was angry with them for saying hello and thanking them for their hard work.
I understand that some people are afraid of bees, but they don’t want to sting you!
They will only sting if threatened.
BEE calm and let them get their work done and they will leave you bee.
(yeah, I went there…)
I mean look at how cute this little tiny bee is!
Bee balm is an easy to grow perennial that is beloved by bees and other pollinators like butterflies and even humming birds.
I grow the lavender color bee balm in my cottage garden, but bee balm can be found in shades of purple, pinks and even red.
With the right growing conditions, it can grow up to 4 feet tall!
If you love to attract bees and other pollinators to your garden, make sure to check out my favorite plants for the pollinator garden.
Today is for the bees, and I have a little secret to share.
Honestly it works with all kinds of plants, not just bee balm.
Are you ready?
It’s SO easy.
If you have a new plant and want to encourage it to spread – or once it starts to pop up in the spring – remove the lower leaves, make a trench with your finger and bury the bottom part of the stem like this:
Plants are pretty amazing.
Not that they have brains per se.
A super easy way to explain it is like this…
When parts of the plant want to grow, the cells ask ” do I see sunlight?”
If no, grow roots.
Grow tall and reach for the sun!
If yes, grow leaves or blooms.
So the areas of the plant that you removed the leaves from, will grow roots and force offshoot plants to grow.
How amazing is that?
And so easy!
The best part?
It didn’t cost a thing!
This tip causes the plants to spread like crazy.
Oh, the possibilities are endless!
You will see SO many more plants and flowers in your garden.
Along with the bees and their pollinator friends, stopping by humming busily while they work.
How does your garden grow?
Do you have any easy gardening tips to share?
I would love to hear about it in the comments.
Don’t forget to PIN the post to save this easy garden tip for later
Bees are so important! I wish I had a green thumb, but I lack one … badly!
Beebalm is a plant it an leave it plant, there are ton of plants that don’t care what kind of thumb you have 🙂
This is an interesting read. I don’t know if we have bee balm here in NZ. I’ll have to investigate.
Carol, you can use this tip for so many other plants.
Let me know if you try it on other plant and how it works for you 🙂
Juliet
Thank you for sharing! I have been finally getting bees here, it has been so cold. I got bee balm for the first time and am so excited!
Melba, what color bee balm did you end up getting?