Bee Balm Care

To many in New England the plant was known as “Oswego tea,” because New York settlers had adopted the local Native American tribe's habit of brewing the leaves in water to make a beverage.Casual yet elegant, sturdy monarda has upright stalks and square...

Keep reading to learn more about what to do when there are no flowers on bee balm plants in your garden.Why won't my bee balm flower? Every three years or so, bee balm plants naturally start to bloom less because they get overcrowded.

Monarda leaves can also be dried and used in a medicinal tea to help with headaches and fevers.Indiginous to Eastern North America, Monarda, or Bee Balm, is another of my favourite perennials.They look fabulous in large patches, as seen in the photo of...

The earliest, mildew-resistant beebalm from the Morden station was ‘Marshall's Delight'(1986), previously described. Alas, all of these cultivars are susceptible to powdery mildew, the bane of beebalm.

Controlling lemon balm plants requires persistence. Don't worry; cutting the plant back won't hurt it.If the plant blooms, snip off the flowers before they have a chance to go to seed.

The leaves won't taste right if you let the plant bolt.You can grow your lemon balm indoors year round, but with a container you can also move it outdoors to enjoy it in the garden or on the patio in the warmer months.

Some gardeners even claim that lemon balm helps keep weeds in check.Finding companion plants for lemon balm is easy, because there are really no bad lemon balm companions! However, companions for lemon balm should be plants that thrive in the same growing...

You can also use lemon balm in cooking, in making essential oils and as an insect repellent. Often, people mistakenly think that lemon balm is invasive due to its roots, like its cousins, but in fact it is the seeds of the lemon balm plant that cause...

Compared to the crush-and-strain method, your comb is emptied of its sweet contents in a relatively short time. The bees smell the honey and come and clean everything up, bringing the leftover honey back into their hives.

The first study, published in January 2013 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , shows that Honey bees in California almond orchards carry out pollination more effectively in the presence of wild bee species , such as yellow-faced...

Once home, she transfers the contents to a house bee, who stores it in comb, where it is fanned and turned into honey. The honeybee may seem simple to the naked eye, but nature has expertly crafted her for aerial flight, pollination, effective communication,...

For the best results at combating allergies, purchase and use honey produced within 50 miles of your home by a local beekeeper. It's better for you than sugar. It's low pH level and high sugar content contribute to its ability to encumber microbial growth,...

Grow more pollinator-friendly plants: 12 Pollinator-Friendly Flowers You Can Eat 5 Reasons to Let White Clover Grow In Your Yard Attract Monarchs With These Medicinal Flowers 21 Plants That Feed Spring-Feverish Bees « More Dirt on Gardening » Tags bees...

The workers rapidly come and go from the hive as long as the weather is fair. By looking at the roles that each worker plays in the hive, it's obvious that the honeybee colony is a well-tuned, expertly functioning machine, with each cog playing its role...

“Native bees are especially important for small farmers because they are probably playing a more significant role on smaller farms,” says Mace Vaughan, pollination program director for The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Well, nectar, for one. One of the most incredible things about the whole dance is that there is no risk of cross-contamination of different crops beause a single forager bee out in the field will only visit one variety of plant per flight.

But there's nothing quite like that satisfying cACK! sound when you finally separate the outer lid from the top super and get into the hive. House bees do this by evaporating tiny drops of water with their wings.

On nights like this, I think of the bees and send them warmth from inside my home, but I can't help but wonder what they are actually up to in the hive. Don't remove any frames—just peek in on the cluster.

Mason bees use mud or chewed-up leaves to separate the brood cells in their nest. They specialize in pollinating members of the cucurbit family, including pumpkins , melons , squashes and gourds .

The birds have left in great numbers. This is a hard time for the bees, but it isn't the cold, it's the wind. All winter long, the bees try to stay warm and they eat their “preserves.” While we have pickled beets , frozen beans and a side of beef,...

It takes a while to get over the sting—literally—of our first bee encounter and to come around to the realization that they don't actually want to hurt us. It's used to coat crop seeds and to spray directly on plants.

Everyone in the hive has a job to do, and each does it effectively. Every single honeybee works tirelessly to gather nectar, produce honey, raise the young and ensure the colony's survival for another week, month or year.

Find more beekeeping info on HobbyFarms.com: Month-by-month Beekeeping Video: 5 Signs of a Healthy Hive How to Help a Honey-bound Hive Infographic: The Buzz on Honey Bees « More of the Prescription Gardener» Tags beekeepers , Honey bees , pollen , prescription...

The USDA took a survey, and they found that more than 80 percent of squash pollination is performed by this species of bee.” If you don't want to switch to no-till practices, allow areas with plenty of exposed soil to remain undisturbed, and don't cover...

If you're already invested in beekeeping with deep boxes, you can cut down your frames and boxes without too much trouble. This allows the bees to eat it when it's below the syrup's freezing point and prevents the bees from drowning.

Without Honey bees, one-third of the foods we eat would not exist. Plus, the different shapes and colors attract a variety of beneficial insects and the grasses provide habitat for bumblebee nests.

Are they a strong colony? Let's take a look at the three main types of queen cells and why you need to know about them. Emergency Cells Emergency queen cells are just that: the workers' attempt to make a replacement queen in a hurry.