How to Save Bee Balm Seeds (Monarda)
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- Опубликовано: 11 июл 2024
- Learn how and when to harvest Bee Balm Seeds. This will cover the species Monarda didyma, and Monarda fistulosa. I will show you the complete process of collecting and saving seeds, along with the results.
Also, since it is difficult to save seeds from Monarda didyma, I will do a bit of research as to why and show you what I have found.
UPDATE - to See the full Plant Profile on Red Bee Balm, click on the link below;
• Bee Balm - Monarda Did...
For detailed articles on saving seed for both species, and an in-depth discussion as to why it is hard to save Bee Balm seed, please see the links below;
Process for saving Bee Balm seed
growitbuildit.com/how-to-harv...
Process for saving Wild Bergamot seed
growitbuildit.com/harvest-see...
Research and pictures on why it is harder to harvest meaningful quantities of Red Bee Balm seed;
growitbuildit.com/difficulty-...
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Inspired by your video I went out and tried collecting some Monarda didyma seeds from my singular plant. At first I got similar results as you did (just a couple of seeds), but then I took a single flower and really massaged it between my fingers over a plate, and after a very thorough massage and a totally destroyed seed head I have about 100 good-looking seeds from the one single seed head. If you still got your seed heads, this method might be worth a try.
Cool! I've actually done that before, but not obtained much seed (same results). But, based on your comment I went and collected 10 more seed heads. My yield was about the same as before, 8 seeds and a bunch of the small black unformed seeds. That was by massaging/destroying the head, and ripping each tube off and making sure it was 'soft' with no remaining hard spots. I've uploaded an image here: growitbuildit.com/bee-balm-seed-and-destroyed-seed-heads/
I do have one other variety of bee balm that was sold to me as Monarda didyma seed. Although the heads are smaller and the color is more of a magenta. (The package showed large red blooms). I'll try those this afternoon and reply back.
Ok - I got the 'magenta' bee balm, which was sold as Monarda didyma. The seed heads were a bit smaller than my Red Bee Balm. The seed came tumbling out of the heads without too much effort. growitbuildit.com/magenta-bee-balm-seed-collection/ But I have never obtained those results from Red Bee Balm.
I can't argue with your results, and I must say kudos to you. I've grown this plant, purchased from different sources since 2014, and always gotten the same results - very little seed. I have destroyed seed heads in years gone by, hoping to get some additional seed. But it just never resulted in anything of substance.
@@growitbuildit From your first photo it does look like you have more of the unformed seeds than I did. I suppose it can mean something is stopping the seeds from ever getting ready. I got my plant just weeks ago, so I have no experience yet if mine will yield the same results continuously. Good luck with future harvest!
Great video. This is what RUclips is about!
Thank you!
Dressmakers Tulle might work to make seed-head covering bags, the bags might at least keep the birds off even with the larger mesh.
It could be worth a shot. Honestly, I believe that digging up 'volunteers' in the Spring is the best way to propagate them. I have no trouble spreading these all around my property (and beyond!).
Thank you for this thorough description for how to harvest these seeds and why there is a difference between #s harvested. As a fellow nerd, I loved the breakdown of seed size, etc!
You are very welcome Jodi. This is one of the harder plants to save seed from! But it was very interesting to dig into the details.
Thank you so much for this video! It's a big help and I loved seeing your process of investigation!
Thank you! I figured people would like to see *How* I got to my conclusions on this little investigation. I'm glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for the detailed video on the 2 plants. Very informative.
Thank you! This turned into a mini-research project.
Your video is so very thorough and observant. Awesome. Thank you thank you thank you.
Thank you Abi!
Wow this was very helpful and detailed. Makes sense, thank you!
Thank you - I am very happy you found it helpful. I got frustrated as to why I was getting so few seeds, so I dove into the problem.
I loved your nerdy discussion of seed vs tube size using your caliper and diagrams. I'm a science nerd myself and amateur seed saver as well. 😊
Hahaha - I was very curious about this one Brenda. Every source I've ever seen....the seeds are almost not there. Compared with other species of Monarda - it is soooo different.
Great video and thanks for being a plant/seed nerd!✌🏽
Thank you! And yes, I go a little overboard sometimes.
This video is great!
Thank you - this one really took me down a rabbit hole!
Very instructive, so thanks for the detail and your investigative techniques on the corolla tube clearances between the two species. Good advice on collecting the M. didyma seed heads early.
Thank you - it was puzzling me why I wasn't getting much seed....so I went a bit overboard trying to figure out why
i just wanted to learn about how to collect the seeds and got a whole math lesson. and loved it all!
You are very welcome Susan!
Super interesting !
Thank you 💕
You are welcome Jin! It was an interesting little project.
My work has this all over the place! Totally harvesting some
These are awesome flowers. I've never met a member of the Monarda genus I didn't like
Appreciated the info, thank you.
You are very welcome sir. I'm glad you found the video helpful!
Great video- Thanks!
We just started growing red bee balm, but we're actually growing it for the pollinators and the birds. Despite this not being where we were trying to go, it was fascinating never the less! Thanks!
Thank you Laura - it was an interesting little project!
Thanks for sharing! Love your videos
You are very welcome Arhonda!
WOW Thank You for this video!! My friend gave me some Bee Balm plants a few years ago; and I have a friend who wants some seeds.
You are very welcome Debby! Good luck. I hope you are able to get a decent number of seeds. If nothing else, you can always propagate them via rhizomes.
Thank you. I thought I was going crazy by getting so few seeds from my red Bee Balm. I don't think birds are eating them, but it is windy here and maybe they are being knocked out. Thanks for the whole analysis of the seeds and dimensions that helped a lot.
You're welcome Victoria. It was an interesting problem to investigate. It's a phenomenon i had noticed repeatedly for years. I finally decided to try to understand it better. Thank you for the kind words!
You solved the same mystery I was having!!! I thought it was because I had a sterile cultivar, but after doing your method, I did collect some seeds, but very few. Thank you so much for making this!!! :)
You are welcome! It was driving me crazy too! I'm happy you were able to save some seeds from your plants. Question - did you find a lot of the small hard black pieces? What I referred to as un-formed seeds?
@@growitbuildit I also thought maybe my plants were a sterile cultivar or maybe they were doing too poorly to produce seed. Thank you for the video!
Thank you for this. Was wondering why they were all empty when I tried shaking them out. I waited until the following Spring! Gotta get to them earlier! Cheers!
You are welcome - Monarda didyma is a difficult seed to save!
Told ya I was gonna watch this! The best takeaway isn’t just how to save the seed, but that I wasn’t completely nuts for not being to do this!
I always had trouble too. It was cool to find some reasons why.
Update: I ended up pulling a single runner up and dividing it into 5 pieces about 3” long with root, potted them up and planted them outdoors about a month later. I now have a small (about 3 foot) but deeply satisfying stand of Monarda growing and hopefully that’ll be much larger next year.
I’m still going to try to collect the seed, but I’m not going to hold my breath! Thanks for your input!
Good info, thx for sharing
Thank you Jen! Glad I could help you out
Thanks for being geeky! Great, detailed video!👍
You are very welcome - It was a fun puzzle to try to solve
@@growitbuildit Just now harvesting bee balm. The butterflies LOVE it!
Thank you very much!
You're very welcome!
So interesting on the red bee balm, I had two red bee balm plants last year in my meadow & was lucky to have about 8 plants this year. Pure luck, I did nothing.
They will spread far and wide Joanne. You may see a thickening of your colony next Spring.
12:30 No words can describe this beauty.
This was helpful. I don't have a coffee can. So I used an empty cool whip container. 😂 It still worked and the seeds separated. I only put 4 scarlet Bee Balm seed balls in there. And got a few seeds from them. It's good considering it's my first time collecting seeds from anything.
Thank you for your video.
You are welcome, and congrats on getting some seed. It can be challenging/frustrating depending on the Monarda species.
THANK YOU
You're welcome William!
Great video, thanks for looking into this!
You are welcome Max. Glad you found it helpful!
@@growitbuildit I actually just scrolled through your videos and website and it looks like you're going be helping me quite a bit! I'm in Maryland, and a week away from moving to a sunny acre on which I'm hoping to grow tons of natives. You have a beautiful, inspiring microprairie!
Thank you! If you are looking for info and don't find a video, check out website. We've got more articles than vids. And I'm always way behind writing stuff up and making videos, so there will be plenty more coming.
@@growitbuildit Fantastic, looking forward to learning more from you guys - keep up the good work!
Thanks man
You're welcome Chris
Thank you, that really has helped me a lot, I am thinking that the magenta bee balm would be like the red for getting the seeds, can't wait to see your propagation video
You're welcome. I also have some magenta bee balm that I grew from seed. It was supposed to be the nice dark read 'Oswego Tea'. I guess you have to be careful what you purchase.
Let me know how the seeds turn out on the magenta. As I've not attempted to save seed from that one.
Have to wait a bit, there are still a few petals on them and the bees are still feeding on them so in a week or 2 I will definitely let you know
@@debsquires7237 well?
Nice video. I've got red and wild bee balm. The wild bee balm is easy to grow. Red is a hummingbird magnet and not as prolific. Now maybe I know the reason . Thanks.
You are welcome!
Super interesting! Do these seeds require cold stratification?
These require nothing at all! They need sunlight to germinate, and to stay moist. We have detailed instruction for Bee Balm here with loads of info - growitbuildit.com/bee-balm-monarda-didyma/
That was interesting. I have some in my wild flower garden, but I would love to spread it around. I used to have the magenta variety at my old house. Is that the same as the red bee balm?
Hi - I am not sure if it would be the same. There are so many varieties, cultivars, and crossing on the Monarda species.......It would be difficult to say. If it is Monarda didyma, then it should be sending out rhizomes, in which case you can easily divide in Spring. Just look for new sprouts, and go at it. I show how to do that in this video here - ruclips.net/video/Z7zPYc_yvEo/видео.html
i put sandwich baggie on poppies to capture seeds once i see the plant is in that process, was able to gather lots of seeds, will try the same with my bee balm. if you use cheaper paper plates you can fold in half to put the seeds in. thanks
The sandwich bag might do the trick. I've just found that speed is the key.
@@growitbuildit agree, timing is still the key.
Could you do one about penstemon hirsutus?
Yes - that one should be much easier!
Hi - the video is coming out this morning.
I live in East Tennessee. I have a pretty wild garden for beneficials. This year I found a plant growing which I didn’t recognize. It was around 4 feet tall and several large groups of it were scattered around my yard. I decided not to pull it out and let it bloom. It is wild Bergamot! I have no idea how it got there but it is a native in this area so I guess some of the many birds who visit my garden decided it was’t complete and dropped some seed! I have Jacob Cline planted and it seems to be moving around too. My garden is blessed with little friends who appreciate it.
I have lots of milkweed but only saw one Monarch in the spring. Do you think this awful weather is causing that?
Hi Nancy - that's some nice luck getting some Bergamot! It is probably one of the best all around plants for pollinators.
In regards to Monarchs, I've only seen one thus far. But I generally see them later in the season. Strange Spring weather delayed blooming for several species, so my whole yard is just starting to go crazy right now.
I did hear some bad news about Monarchs though. The national forest in Mexico that is the winter home has been getting logged (illegal). So they are losing habitat beyond milkweed.
@@growitbuildit 😭😭😭😭
Thanks for the video. Mine got knocked down in the wind, all I could think of was putting it (the bits that snapped) in a vase outside for the bees to keep as long as possible. Is it too early for seed to have developed?
Hi - it is probably too early if it was still actively blooming. But - it never hurts to try. You will just have to wait and see.
👍👍👍👍
Thank you!
I just clipped the first blooms from my red bee balm.
I'm thinking I clipped them too early. I have them drying out in the sun. Was that a waste of time and should I have left the flowers on until they were more dried out and the next bloom was bigger?
Normally if you take the seed heads before they have dried you will lower the viability of the seeds and get a lower germination rate. If the seeds look like the ones in this video once the head is dried, then you might be ok. With the red Bee Balm, the seeds are so hard to get you may come out ahead if you get a decent number of seeds.
Thank you.
I am here to find out how to save seeds of M. didyma. I've grown Jacob Cline, Panorama Red Shades, and I think Gardener's Delight (or something like that.) I assume when you say birds eating the seeds, you are not talking about hummingbirds. i have NEVER seen any birds land on it. I also had Panorama mixed shades and had a really nice purple/magenta color, but lost the plant. I have never saved any seeds, not because I didn't want to, but because I wasn't successful. My timing must be off. I found some Jacob Cline seed heads in a organza bag and will shake them up and try breaking them apart and see if I have any luck, thanks.
Hi - I was referring to other birds like finches. I don't think hummingbirds eat seed at all, just nectar. Good luck getting some seed - it isn't easy with the Monarda didyma!
@@growitbuildit You're right, it isn't easy--I didn't find any. But the Jacob Cline is a perennial here in WNY plus I bought some other plants advertised as just "red bee balm" bare roots and they showed up as underground runners with some green leaves in multiple places along the rhizomes so I divided them up into (8) 3-inch pots under lights. I have to see what they do in the next month to determine if I buried the correct parts. I specialize in heirloom tomatoes but in the last 5 years got the hummingbird "bug" and haven't grown any tomatoes due to weeds I couldn't control so seedlings never got planted. I had some 2-yr old Cardinal Flower that some got almost 6ft tall and I had 1 Ruby-throat spending lots of time going back & forth from Jacob Cline to L.cardinalis to S.coccinea, so I'm concentrating on those 3. I also have Major Wheeler, Dropmore Scarlet and orange honeysuckle climbing a triangular (3-sided) 10ft tall concrete reinforcing wire cage.
Cardinal flower is a reliable attractor of hummingbirds. I've also had luck with Cardinal Climber, Royal Catchfly, and Blue Lobelia.
Hi, how many bee balm flowers do you need to show! I live in a hot area, is the flower can withstand high temperatures?!
Hi Alya - it is hardy to zone 9, which is like the Gulf Coast of the USA. Just look up what hardiness zone you are in and compare.
@@growitbuildit Our weather is like Los Angeles, how can I look for its cultivation in this state! Do you have information about that
@@growitbuildit According to what I have read now, I found this information (Bee balm grows well in hardiness zones 3-9, and is best planted in full sun, though it will tolerate shade in hotter areas, and can benefit from afternoon shade in very warm climates, which will protect plants from heat and lengthen the flowering season) but I don't know how long (how many days it takes for this plant to appear) that's what I need I plant directly in the fall in the garden, not indoor transplanting!
Los Angeles zones range from 7 to 11. You will have to Google Los Angeles hardiness zone and look at the map for where you live
Is your other method to just divide the plants in the spring? I did it this spring and all the plants thrived
Pretty much, I just cut up the runners with sprouts. I think I've spawned about 30 plants with that method. Gotta love the mint family!
Growit Buildit speaking of mint, do you have any ideas for limiting the spread? Is it jus constant pruning?
Also, do you separate perennials in the spring or fall??
Constant pruning works with most mints, as the runners are smaller diameter and shallow. Alternatively, you can dig up the plant, then put a pot in the ground with the bottom cut out. Then just put your plant in there. It works as long as the rhizomes are shallow. I wrote about that here: growitbuildit.com/how-to-stop-plants-from-spreading-guide-pictures/
And regarding dividing perennials, you can do it anytime the plant is dormant. Personally, I'm a big fan of early Spring as soon as it emerges. That way you know exactly where you put it. Also, the heat load the plant must endure is quite low.
When and how do we plant the seeds pls? Thank u
Hi - check this video right here ==> ruclips.net/video/Z7zPYc_yvEo/видео.html
I've seen very TALL and shorter red bee balm. Is this a difference in species or soil conditions.???
Hi Charles - it is difficult to say. Soil fertility/moisture/light will definitely be a factor in height and showiness. But there are a number of different species of Monarda, and most do look a bit different. Although some can be different due to height alone. Plus, it hybridizes readily with other members of the genus.
@@growitbuildit a very peculiar plant, and like a child...it's always got my attention. Thank you.
I'm trying to germinate white hyssop but nothing . Any tips ?
Regular Anise Hyssop needs sunlight to germinate, so surface sown, and 30 days cold stratificaiton. That is in the Agastache genus. I'm not sure if White Hyssop is the same genus or not though.
You mentioned you thought the smaller specks were unpollinated seeds. I'm not a botanist but know tomatoes are self-pollinated, but does monarda need pollination from insects, bees & hummingbirds? Peppers can pollinate by shaking them... if monarda could, then they can be bagged using organza bags, which can keep pollinators out to prevent cross-pollination--don't need to worry about x-pollination but could they produce viable seed if bagged? If not, they'd need to be bagged as soon as the flowering occurs but before they dry up.... or cut them off...
Monarda is mainly pollinated by hummingbirds. This was documented by Whitten in 1981. It is in the references at the end of my article. You should be able to unlock the article via SciHub - growitbuildit.com/monarda-didyma-aka-bee-balm-total-guide/#pests
@@growitbuildit Thanks. I'll try moving up the harvest time to when the red just starts to fall out to see if that helps.
@@growitbuildit By the way, I bought some of that Bee Balm seeds in bulk, I can picture the site but the name's drawing a blank, I thought it had "pride" in the name but could be wrong, but I had to wait til the following year to find out they were pink, NOT red as advertised. I just ordered/overpaid thru Walmart for 25 seeds of just "red bee balm" for $6.9x and will sow most, but it may be a year to know. Have you noticed any difference in the color of the closed bud before opening or even some leaves or joints having a darker color like overspray or smoke soot? It's hard to describe, but what I'm getting at is reds may be able to pick out from pinks by having darker foliage or areas on the plant are darker than on other colors??
My reds are a darker green foliage too, I believe. I was frustrated when I got the magenta bee balm.
What is the medicinal value of red bee balm?
I've never used it myself, but the Native Americans used it for a wide variety of purposes. Poultice of leaves to treat colds, tea, and other uses. I talk about it at the end of this article here - growitbuildit.com/monarda-didyma-aka-bee-balm-total-guide/
Heres a dumb question.
Wjy do you have to sift them just to get the separated seeds? Why cant you just "crumble" and sow the whole head?
Hi - you can do that. Just make sure you don't accidently 'weed' them next Spring.
I use organza drawstring bags to cover seed heads while they dry on the plant. I think you are harvesting too soon - you mentioned trying to collect the seed before the birds get it. The bags would keep birds away and maybe let all those immature seeds develop more. I am just now growing monarda from a seed pack I purchsed online and so I don't have any personal experience with seed collecting on monarda - but my technique works very well with many other flowers.
I've found that the seeds are too small for the mesh bags. But the seed heads are brown when I collect them. When it comes to Monarda didyma, I've just never seen much in the way of seed.
Is wild bergamot native to North America? New England?
Hi. Yes, native to New England and most of North America. See here - growitbuildit.com/monarda-fistulosa-wild-bergamot/#what
So the red bee balm seeds are beige and shaped like sesame seeds ?
Yes, correct.
@@growitbuildit no wonder mine didn't germinate, there were no seeds there. Just the black bits, lol !
I got maybe about 20 seeds outta 10 heads...so yes..hard to get seeds..
Stupid question - why get rid of the flower head? Can't you just dead head the plant, let it dry and then toss the heads into the garden/prairie?
Hi Kirsten, you can do that once the seed head starts to turn brown and die. But if you dead head just after blooming the seeds are probably not fully formed
@@growitbuildit Thank you for the info!
I'm not understanding why the straining process. I get it that you are separating seeds from other material, but....so what? IOW, why do I care that I'm throwing the entire handful of what comes from the seed head?
Separating the chaff is just a personal preference. It isn't required at all, as you said. I like to start seed in pots, and having less chaff makes it easier to know how many I'm sowing per container - that's all.