The blossoms of bee balm are oddly shaped and at the same time beautiful. Bee balm blooms in bright red in sunny locations in the middle of July.
We checked an area that is known to have had bee balm growing there in the past and this year we were lucky to see some Monarda didyma plants blooming.
One year we came by this way and the very next day after we spotted
this patch of bee balm, all the flowers disappeared. I had re-visited the following day to try to get some good photos, but there were no red flowers present at all. I’ve wondered if the land owner collected the posies for a bouquet or whether there had been a midnight gardener who happened by!
Cohorts of Bee Balm at this location in south central Pennsylvania were black raspberries that were ripening to black and the weedy crown-vetch in bloom. Photos taken 10 July 2014.