Monarda Is A Beautifully Blooming Perennial

Monarda - healer and garden decoration

Monarda is known to flower growers as a beautifully blooming perennial, fragrance experts will say that it is an essential oil plant, and now it is on its way to our gardens as a new vegetable spice plant that also has valuable medicinal properties.

In the wild, the monarda grows in North America and Mexico. Long before Columbus discovered America, the Indians used it for food and for medicinal purposes. In the 16th century, it was brought to Spain. But the fate of this plant turned out to be somehow strange. It either attracted attention to itself, then literally for centuries went into obscurity, then they remembered about it again, but usually in order to forget again.

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The first description of the monarda appeared only almost 100 years after it came to Europe. The doctor Nicholas Monardes told about it in the books “Joyful News from the New World” and “Medical History of Western India” published in the middle of the 16th century. But it was called differently in these books. Two more centuries passed, and the great taxonomist Karl Linnaeus drew attention to this plant, included it in his classification and named it "Monarda" in honor of N. Monardes.

But somehow they did not pay attention to her again. After 100 years, in connection with the possibility of obtaining from it a synthetic substance - thymol, they remembered about it, but again the matter did not go further. By the way, there is so much thymol in some types of monarda, for example lemon, that it gives the greens an unpleasant taste and causes a burning sensation.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the monarda was reopened, as it were. In Spain, England, France, it began to be used as a spicy flavoring plant under the names bergamot, bee or scent balsam, Oswego tea, American lemon balm, Indian feather, mountain balsam, wild bergamot, lemon mint and others. In 1988, one of the American firms included Monarda in its catalog of spicy and vegetable flavoring vegetable crops and offered its seeds for sale. Three years later, the Dutch included the monarda in the corresponding catalog.

The monard came to Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, but was used only as an ornamental plant. Already in Soviet times, researchers, botanical gardens became interested in monarda, mainly for the introduction as a medicinal and essential oil plant. A comprehensive study of monarda, and above all as a vegetable plant for introduction into the culture of central Russia, began only at the end of the past century at the Institute of Selection and Seed Growing of Vegetable Crops near Moscow (VNIISSOK). Here V. M. Dryagin began to collect and study various species of the genus Monarda. In his gathering, he united the whole world, even got to the reservation of the Indians in Durango and inquired about their use of this plant. His works opened the way for the monarda to settle in our garden.

Monarda is a perennial herb, the ground part of which dies in autumn and grows back in spring. Plant height 60–100 cm. Outwardly it resembles a compact shrub. Blooms in July-August. Duration of flowering up to 50 days. Very decorative. Depending on the type and variety, the color of its inflorescences can be very different - red, pink, white, purple.

Monarda is used for salads, as a seasoning for meat dishes, added for flavoring in cabbage soup, soups, borscht, okroshka. It is suitable as a tea substitute or aromatic additive to it. Monarda is also used for the production of various tinctures and tonic drinks.

Young shoots are used for food, which in large numbers (100-150 pieces per bush) grow from numerous fibrous roots. Therefore, the monarda turns out to be a fairly productive plant.

The special value of monarda as a vegetable crop is that it grows very early, as soon as the snow melts, and the greens remain until the beginning of November, even with frosts at -5 … -7 ° С, which means that its greens can be used in the most difficult off-season for us. In addition, no more than 30% of the awakening shoots will bloom in it, which means that about half of the shoots can be used for salads without violating the decorative qualities.

Monarda is a medicinal plant with antimicrobial effect. The Indians used its juice to heal wounds. Essential oil of monarda, the greatest amount of which accumulates during the period of mass flowering, helps in the treatment of burns, eczema, and helps in the treatment of salmonellosis and other microbes.

Florists in their plots grow mainly the type of monarda double. The most common variety is Mahogeny with red flowers. This variety is the most suitable for use in food, and its leaves are especially good as an additive to tea. Apparently, many of you have bought Earl Gray Indian tea, there is just the addition of Mahogeni leaves.

Here are how many unusual advantages the ornamental plant monarda, seemingly already known to flower growers, has.

And now I admit that it was not easy for me to write about the monard. The pioneer who researched the monarda in the Moscow region for food purposes as a new vegetable plant, Viktor Mikhailovich Dryagin, for me just Vitya, I knew as a little boy. Then he somehow imperceptibly grew up, became a scientist.

He ought to work and work, to rejoice, as he was especially able to do, life, but a serious illness ordered otherwise. Viti was gone. But he managed to collect a valuable collection of monarda, write a monograph about it and instill faith in the value of this plant for Russia. His work has not been interrupted. In 1997, the first variety of this plant (fistus monarda), Viktyulia, was entered in the State Register. The name of the variety contains two names of its creators - Victor and Julia.

Revered by the American Indians, Monarda is a culture of many virtues, prepared to enter our family gardens.

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Monarda prefers flat, well-lit areas, but puts up with a little shading. A plant in one place can be grown up to 10 years.

Monarda reproduces well by seeds both through seedlings and by sowing directly into open ground. It is easy to grow its seedlings indoors, by sowing seeds in boxes, cuvettes, boxes with light soil. In 10-12 days after the emergence of seedlings, they must be cut into boxes with the ground at a distance of 3x3 cm.

Do not sow seeds earlier than mid-early March, as at home, with a lack of light, the seedlings stretch out strongly and do not tolerate transplanting well into the ground. Plant seedlings as early as possible - in early to mid-April. Plants tolerate light frosts - (-3 … -5 ° C).

To sow seeds in the ground, prepare a place for them in the garden in the fall. Sow in late March - early April. Before sowing, clear the designated area of snow, loosen the soil and add sand to it. Mix the seeds themselves with sand or some other filler. Cover the sowing site with snow. Seedlings appear in late April - early May. After two to three weeks, plant the seedlings in a permanent place.

In the first month of life, the seedlings require especially careful care, but then they quickly grow and easily displace the willow, woodlice, thistle and other weeds around them. Monarda blooms in the second year after planting.

Monarda can also be propagated by "small pieces" from 2-3-year-old bushes with good buds on the rhizome, with 3-4 offspring. They are planted even earlier than seedlings and seedlings - in late March – early April. If these deadlines are met, flowering can be expected in the year of planting. Harvest the raw materials for the preparation of spices 10-15 days after the beginning of full flowering.

In order not to disturb the decorative effect of the bush, cut off the shoots selectively and not lower than 20-25 cm from the soil surface. The cut shoots must be dried in a ventilated area, protected from direct sunlight, then chop and put in a jar with a ground cork. As needed, dried products are ground in a mortar or coffee mill.

Dried monarda retains its pleasant aroma for up to 2-3 years.

Read the next part. Recipes from monarda →