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The owners of my favorite perennial nursery selected and named their own monarda (bee balm) cultivar in 2009. I’ve been growing ‘Purple Rooster’ for a couple of summers now and I’m very impressed.
The upright and sturdy plants grow 36 inches tall. My plant grows on an exposed hill that gets a lot of wind and I’ve still never had to stake it.
‘Purple Rooster’ multiples happily, but so far my plant is still in a nice clump and hasn’t died out in the middle—an annoying trait of so many bee balms. The flowers are royal purple and appear on disease-free foliage.
My plant churned out flowers for almost 3 months this summer, and the bees couldn’t get enough of them.