Monarda punctata
Growing Information
• Plant Type: Perennial
• Sunlight: Full sun to part shade
• Soils: Dry to moist soils, does well in poor soils
• Bloom Time: Summer blossoms – July, August, September; interesting flower!
• Size: 2-3 feet in height
Also called Dotted Mint or Dotted Horsemint, this plant is amazingly drought tolerant. Pollinators love this plant. Aromatic foliage, in bud, it forms saffron-colored rosettes in whorls along the top half of the stem. When the whorls release, watercolor-painted petals with little freckles are exposed and later mature to a soft pinkish-dawn color. These painted petals hold at the end of the flower spike for weeks upon weeks as they peek out through what appears to be leaf bracts.
Garden Companions
Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa); Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa); Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Nature Benefits
• Nectar source for diverse number of pollinators
• Host for the Raspberry pyrausta butterfly caterpillar
Native Habitat
Occurs naturally fields, clearings, and roadsides.
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