Horsemint Blooms

In the late fall, I threw out several types of seeds from Native American Seed and crossed my fingers. Of those, I've been watching these horsemint (Monarda citriodora) plants in great anticipation, having seen them start to bloom about town (there's a particularly amazing meadow of them at the Wildflower Center) and wondering when ours would burst forth.

Well, they finally bloomed this week.

The plants are growing here and there about the yard, and are just fantastic. I love their pagoda-like floral structure, and the minty smell of their leaves. These will go to seed and spread themselves about as they will, and we will edit. I love this plant. And happened to see two white-lined sphinx moths zooming around the garden this evening stopping in for the occasional sip at one of these little purple flowers.

When I started learning about prairie native plants, monarda was one of the first plants I both learned about and got a crush on. In that case it was beebalm, Monarda fistulosa. I'm really happy to have some monarda in the garden, finally, and will hope to add beebalm to the mix as well.

So far, the horsemints are the only plants that have done well from my fall seeding. The side-oats grama sprouted right away and then quickly wilted. Several of the butterfly weeds (Asclepias tuberosa) sprouted, but they were munched early on by snails, I suspect. There are two tiny seedlings that remain, and I'm hoping they will root and make it through the summer. That is an excellent native milkweed that is very difficult to find in the nursery trade.

I also planted frostweed and haven't seen hide-nor-hair of that one. Perhaps it'll make itself known in the fall.

Growing from seed is not as easy as I'd hoped, but I think if I keep at it, the things that take will be happy with their place, and hopefully spread around a bit.