Thursday 15 July 2010

Monarda for dry sites

Today I again visited Laholm and the famous citypark to discuss its continuing development. Later this year we are going to create a meadow for biodiversity and a planting beneath big beech trees with great spring aspects from bulbs and other early flowering perennials. Two amazing plantings for the future.

At the savanna in Laholm now the Wild Bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, recently has began to bloom. This Monarda is suitable for dry sites and tolerates water stress much better then the common garden cultivars. They belong all to the Monarda didyma-group or are hybrids between these two species. Monarda didyma prefer instead moist or even wet conditions.

The Pale Coneflower, Echinacea pallida, thrives well together with the Wild Bergamot

3 comments:

  1. Monarda fistulosa, yes it's nice, but it can also catch mildew. I have seen that at Capellagården, Öland, where they grow them. But that is also a really dry site, so it's probably more extreme than in any ordinary garden. It will be interesting to see the results in Laholm, especially after this hot and dry summer.

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  2. In a not fertilized prairie society planting the Wild Bergamot never or rarely gets mildew according to my experience.

    We discussed this mildew issue at the ISU-meeting in February in Grünberg and both Cassian Schmidt, Jan Spruyt and some other authorities had the same experience.

    In Laholm the Monarda fistulosa have no suspicion of mildew so far. I guess that the Monardas at Capellagården might have been growing in a open group or conventional border and not under denser meadow like conditions.

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  3. Yes, you were right Peter. I'll remember that.

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