Wild Bergamot
$4.00
(Monarda fistulosa)
A native perennial wildflower, and one of our favourite culinary herbs. Excellent as a cooking herb; use it wherever you would use oregano. It also makes good tea which tastes like a mixture of peppermint and Earl Grey (which is flavoured with the similarly named but completely unrelated citrus fruit, bergamot orange – Citrus bergamia). For tea or cooking, harvest the leaves in early summer. Use it fresh or dry it; we hang up great bunches in our kitchen in June and it dries easily to give us a year’s supply. It is also a fine ornamental, with pretty little pink flowers. This is the less showy cousin of the popular ornamental bee balm (Monarda didyma). 3000 seeds/packet.
In stock
Seeds will not germinate until they are convinced they have survived winter. So sow it in the fall, or start indoors early: in mid-February or early March, sprinkle seeds on a paper towel, roll it up, moisten it, and put it in a closed plastic bag in the fridge. after a month pull it out and check if seeds are sprouting; if they aren’t put them back for a few more weeks. Then gently remove from paper and sprinkle over soil in containers or outdoors, covering very lightly and keeping moist. These will grow; space them 18-36″ apart. If you want to divide them after a few years, you can easily dig up a clump in early spring, split it and replant the pieces to form new plants. Very vigorous once it gets established.