Sugar Buzz® Blue Moon Bee Balm - 20-Cell Plug Tray

Sugar Buzz® Blue Moon is a mid-size bee balm with lilac-blue flowers sitting on purple bracts, a cool color that is uncommon at this shorter height. In midsummer the plant covers itself in blooms that form a solid dome of color.

At about 20 inches tall, it fits the middle of the border and fills a container without taking over the garden. It resists powdery mildew better than average, and the minty foliage can be used for tea. Hummingbirds, butterflies and bees visit all through the bloom season.

What it looks like

Rounded, shaggy flower heads 2 to 2.5 inches across are made of many narrow, tubular, two-lipped florets in soft lilac-blue, radiating outward like a crown. Each head sits on a collar of purple-tinted bracts, which deepens the color at the base. Leaves are opposite, oval to lance-shaped, dark green with toothed edges on square stems. The plant forms an upright, well-branched clump about 20 inches tall and 18 to 22 inches wide. At peak bloom the heads crowd together into an even dome of blue-violet over the dark foliage.

Growing it with lavender

Bee balm prefers richer, more evenly moist soil than lavender, so set it in a neighboring bed with better soil and regular water, where its blue-violet heads carry on the summer color and bee traffic near your lavender.

Care

Grow in full sun to part shade in average to fertile soil with regular water, especially during summer dry spells. Hardy in zones 4-8. Give it room for air to move around the stems to help keep leaves clean, deadhead faded heads for a longer show, and divide the clump every few years in spring.

At a glance

• Botanical name: Monarda
• Flower color: Lavender-blue with purple bracts
• Foliage: Dark green
• Growth habit: Upright clump
• Mature size: 20 in tall × 18–22 in wide
• USDA hardiness zones: 4–8
• Light: full sun, part sun to part shade
• Bloom start: Early-July
• Peak bloom: Mid-July
• Bloom pattern: Long Blooming
• Deer resistance: Resistant
• Pollinator value: Excellent

Sizes and shipping

One full 20-cell plug tray: 20 large, field-ready plugs of this variety (cells about 2¾ in. wide × 3¼ in. deep or deeper), ready to plant out or pot up. Potted plants and plug trays ship during our live-plant seasons, March 1–May 31 and October 1–November 30; June through September is local pickup only. Plugs, potted plants and trays do not ship to AZ, CA, HI, ID, NV, OR, UT or WA.