2/25/2024 0 Comments Pink bee balm plant![]() ![]() If you’re using newspaper, at least eight layers will be needed. To ensure they won’t push their way between the pieces of your chosen material, overlap pieces by at least 10 inches. This may not be an ideal solution for gardens packed with other plants that the bee balm is already tangled up in, but smothering can still be used as part of your strategy to control it or eliminate it from an area of your garden.įor larger specimens over a few inches tall, it’s best to first pull or cut back the stems before smothering so they won’t have as much energy to push through your barrier. Your smothering barrier should extend four feet out from the base if there’s space, or up to the next closest plant in the garden. Practice Regular SmotheringĪnother simple way to prevent bee balm from spreading continually is to smother the new shoots with cardboard, newspaper, or brown packing paper, covered with four to six inches of mulch such as wood chips, seedless straw, or leaves. It may need water as often as once per day during hot periods, depending on the size of the plant and its container. Since bee balm likes moist soil, you’ll have to keep a close eye on it to ensure the soil doesn’t dry out. Plants in containers will also require more water than those growing in the garden. If you live in an area with cold winters, note that growing in containers aboveground year-round lowers their cold hardiness by at least one full growing zone. Grow in ContainersĪnother way of isolating bee balm is to grow it in containers, either dug into the ground or kept aboveground. Some ideas for how to isolate these aggressive plant beds are to place them within an area that is consistently mowed such as your lawn, in a raised bed between your house and driveway, or in the space within a circular driveway. I like to create beds completely separate from my main gardens and grow bee balm only with other types of aggressively spreading plants, such as other species in the mint family. Synthetic Rhizome BarriersĪnything shorter may get choked out by them, and plants with particularly shallow roots such as roses may also suffer from having to compete with them for nutrients and moisture, even if they’re taller. I’ve personally used comfrey and alder trees, which have both worked just fine for me. The plant you select has to be wide enough that the bee balm can’t find its way under it, and dense enough that it can’t easily pop up through it and access enough light to grow. Of course, you’ll want to be careful not to block the line of sight to your bee balm by planting things taller than your selected variety immediately in front of them.Īlso, whatever you do, don’t use other types of plants that spread aggressively for this purpose! For example, avoid using any type of mint, Japanese knotweed, or autumn olive. Good examples include any dense shrub or hedge that is at least four feet wide at the time the bee balm is planted, clumps of sun tolerant hostas, seedless comfrey (non-sterile varieties are themselves invasive), or a double row of peonies or rhubarb. The idea is to grow non-spreading, clumping, or large plants all around the bee balm.Ĭhoose plants with extensive root systems that will spread to have enough sheer size and bulk to prevent the Monarda rhizomes from growing underneath or up through them. This is my chosen method to control the spread of bee balm. There are two methods of doing this: by using other plants as natural, living barriers, or by employing synthetic barriers. This is a pretty straightforward strategy: prevent the spread of the rhizomes by physically blocking their underground travel. Let’s look at ways to contain the plant first – my personal preference, since these methods require little or no work once set up. In loose, sufficiently moist soils, these rhizomes will spread aggressively, sending up new shoots immediately surrounding the parents, and continually expanding as space and conditions allow. These plants spread via runners, underground rhizomes that are a type of modified subterranean stem. If the opportunity arises, they will most definitely spread quickly throughout your garden under ideal conditions – unless they are removed or contained. menthifolium are native to almost the entire continental US, for example, one can’t call these particular species invasive in most places here, but you can certainly call them aggressive or opportunistic. Whether or not it’s invasive, then, depends on where you’re growing it and what species you’re growing. The term “invasive” has a specific meaning that is often misused.Īs defined by the USDA, an invasive plant is one “That is both non-native and able to establish on many sites, grow quickly, and spread to the point of disrupting plant communities or ecosystems.” However, it is not technically deemed invasive everywhere.
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