{"id":9792,"date":"2017-07-10T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T16:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=9792"},"modified":"2017-07-09T18:44:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T22:44:53","slug":"best-of-mt-cubas-2017-monarda-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2017\/07\/10\/best-of-mt-cubas-2017-monarda-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of MT Cuba Center 2017 Monarda Study*"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Monarda ‘Jacob Cline’<\/p><\/div>\n

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M. didyma ‘Violet Queen’<\/p><\/div>\n

Monarda, commonly known as bee balm or wild bergamot, is a popular summer flowering\u00a0perennial. Their large, brightly colored flower clusters brighten the season. Flowers attract many types of wildlife, including hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, moths, and seed-eating birds. Unfortunately, many cultivars are\u00a0susceptible to powdery mildew disease which causes defoliation and plant loss.<\/p>\n

Over the past three years, MT Cuba Center in Greenville, DE evaluated the performance of 40 selections of bee balm. Staff assessed their overall garden performance in the mid-Atlantic region. Particular attention was given to plant habit, powdery mildew resistance, leaf retention, and flower coverage. There found no perfect bee balms. However, several cultivars are worth mentioning.<\/p>\n

Monarda fistulosa<\/em> \u2018Claire Grace\u2019<\/strong> ranked high in the trial due to its sturdy, upright habit and prolific floral display. Compared to species, \u2018Claire Grace\u2019 has a sturdier habit, darker purple flowers, better resistance to powdery mildew, and more attractive, glossy green foliage.<\/p>\n

Monarda<\/em> \u2018Dark Ponticum\u2019<\/strong> stood out in the trial for its incredibly healthy-looking foliage. The dark, bluish green leaves give the plant a very lush and attractive appearance throughout the entire season. Powdery mildew can occur but does not affect foliage health of the foliage. Violet-purple flowers attract lots of bees.<\/p>\n

Monarda<\/em> \u2018Violet Queen\u2019<\/strong> is a prolific bloomer and a bee favorite. Flower color is similar, though slightly lighter than \u2018Dark Ponticum\u2019. \u2018Violet Queen\u2019 has short, silvery leaf hairs which give the leaves a dull green appearance comparable to M. fistulosa<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Monarda<\/em> \u2018AChall\u2019 (Grand Marshall\u2122)<\/strong> has gorgeous, deep red-purple flowers, a compact habit (28 inches tall), and excellent powdery mildew resistance. Growth habit is very uniform and plant spreads slowly.<\/p>\n

Monarda<\/em> \u2018Judith\u2019s Fancy Fuchsia\u2019, \u2018Colrain Red\u2019, and \u2018Raspberry Wine\u2019<\/strong> are all very similar in habit, flower color, and performance. Of the three, \u2018Judith\u2019s Fancy Fuchsia\u2019 displays better disease resistance. Plants bloom 44 – 48 inch tall with abundant large, purplish red flowers in early July. Floral production is identical among all 3 cultivars, each producing 80% flower coverage at peak bloom.<\/p>\n

Monarda<\/em> \u2018Purple Rooster\u2019<\/strong> has the darkest, truest purple flowers of any cultivar in the trial. Its upright, rigid stems create a strongly vertical aesthetic while the dull green leaves are highly mildew resistant and have a rough, sand-papery texture, not glossy as other beebalms.<\/p>\n

Monarda <\/em>\u2018On Parade\u2019 <\/strong>performs similar to the trio of purplish-red cultivars, \u2018Judith\u2019s Fancy Fuchsia\u2019, \u2018Colrain Red\u2019, and \u2018Rapsberry Wine\u2019. All grow to about 4 feet tall with fair mildew resistance. \u2018On Parade\u2019 stands out for its brilliant, orchid purple flowers.<\/p>\n

Monarda<\/em> \u2018Gardenview Scarlet\u2019<\/strong> (didyma type) is the only true red-flowering cultivar with consistent powdery mildew resistance. It has large, 4 inch wide flowers that attract lots of hummingbirds. Cultivar is similar to \u2018Jacob Cline\u2019, except it grows only 36 inches tall, almost 1 foot shorter.<\/p>\n

Runner-up popular favorites:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Prairie Gypsy\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Jacob Cline\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Purple Mildew Resistant\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Cambridge Purple\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Peter\u2019s Purple\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Pink Surprise\u2019<\/p>\n

*I encourage blog readers to read the entire Monarda Trial Report on the MT. Cuba Gardens website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monarda, commonly known as bee balm or wild bergamot, is a popular summer flowering\u00a0perennial. Their large, brightly colored flower clusters brighten the season. Flowers attract many types of wildlife, including hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, moths, and seed-eating birds. Unfortunately, many cultivars are\u00a0susceptible to powdery mildew disease which causes defoliation and plant loss. Over the past three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,657,1218,747,1319,749,1037,674,745,853,890,551,627,625,843,1136,1060,812,1059,729,777,705,706,646,113,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9792"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9799,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9792\/revisions\/9799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}