This is the famous American wildflower with the bright red crown-shaped flowers, a description of the large scarlet blooms everyone and every hummingbird loves. Native from the far north all the way south to Georgia, it was first discovered by world famous plant explorer John Bartram during the colonial era. Since its a member of the mint family with fragrant foliage, Bee Balm was always a medicinal plant of the native Americans, and today adds wonderful color to perennial gardens and wildflower meadows. Its a strong-growing perennial that likes moisture, and will grow in sun or partial shade.
Jacob Kline is not a man-made hybrid, but a natural selection of wild bee balm, now famous for its mildew-resistance. Like well-known Phlox David this Bee Balm is the mildew-resistant champ in a sea of mildew-prone plants. If you've new to bee balm, you'll quickly learn that most of them are mildew prone, just like most garden Phlox. All that means is that you have to spray them with fungicide beginning in June. But with Jacob Kline, if you plan for good air circulation around your Bee Balm, you may have no mildew at all. Just a big clump of bright red-blooming flowers.
As with all Bee Balms, the bloom begins in mid-summer, and if you cut off spent flowers for about three weeks, you'll extend the blooming into fall.
