Hello Anne, I was caught by the quaint freshness of this picture. I imagine it in midsummer, not too hot though. Fairly humid soil condition but not too wet. Am I right? I'm assuming that you took the pic and perhaps its part of your garden. I'm about to start a Bee Balm patch and was wondering how it will behave in my environmennt. Whether it should be placed in a damper site or could go well with the gayfeather that does well in drier places. Thank you for uploading your multiplant pics. From our summer in the S. Hemisphere. regards Arturo

Arturo,
The soil here is clay and rocks. I amend all plantings with compost just for luck.
Summers can be humid but mostly we have one or two one-week spells of hot humid weather.
We are further north than the southern states where its humid all the time.

BeeBalm needs full sun. The Raspberry Wine in the photo has been doing a nice job of spreading for 8 years.
When the root shoots show up where I dont want them I just cut them off.

Thank you so much Jo Anne, many years ago I spent time in NY as a graduate student in Stony Brook, on Long Island and looked at the soil.It is a brown clay with pebbles. I also visited Cornell which is upstate N.York. There most of the soil is permanently amended. Topsoil is quite thin but compost does marvelous things and can change almost anything into a miracle. With you explanation I now can picture how to go forth. Our summers are much cooler than yours, never humid, very sunny though and I'll give Monarda's a try. I find those plants of the Mint family so attractive...I still have to find out why!

I grew up in Ithaca NY there is a lot of shale there.I didnt notice soils in those days.
Most Monarda is zone 4 - 9, you should be O K.
I get a lot of white mildew on Monarda and Phlox. I just ignore it as it shows up in late summer when plants are going to sleep.

Yes the image was taken in July.
Here is another shot.

Thank you so much for posting your other pic of Monarda! They are definitely a must. I wonder why they're called bee-balm. I ordered some Monarda seeds from Outsidepride.com and they will be arriving this week so I will look forward in sowing them by mid summer, in trays, separating the seedlings in small pots so that they can go dormant during fall and set out in their final position the following spring. There is a spreading plant with flower buds in the front of your first pic, that is not tagged but would be flowering next, could you remember what they are? The whole combination is very soothing. I don't remember what cultivar of Monarda is coming, but at least it is a Monarda. So goes with my Veronica ( Speedwell), it is a deep blue Noid. All of these plants remind me of those fine days I spent in my youth in Stony Brook and fleetingly in Cornell Ithaca. Your native perennials are so many and have their wild character that perform particularly well in informal gardens. I'm just starting my "wild" gardens here. One the open dry prairie garden, the other the damp prairie garden, half shaded and finally the shady woodland garden with glenn's of sunlight. My property is under the scale for a large farm but is beyond the size of average suburban property ( 6.2 acres) so I have at this stage of my life room and time to think about beautifying my land and succeeding hopefully before parting...

That is Phlox Minnie Pearl. I had just ended bloom,I cut those back about 1/4th so they will bloom in late summer and fall.

Your acres sound fantastic. What I would give to be 40 years younger and lots of time and money.
My strength is in planning and not so much the deeper characteristics of individual plant. I just don't have that type of brain.
Here is Minnie Pearl


That is Red Husker penstemon behind the phlox which blooms in June.

Here are more pix of MinniePearl.This plant spreads nicely and I have transplanted many chunks over the years
Its just behind the hydrangea


With clematis Multiblue

Hello Jo Anne your borders are stunningly beautiful! May the Lord give you those 40 years more of health and strength to pursue what you do. I love the fragrance of tall garden Phlox. I had some in the garden many years ago but I was unable to keep them for long. I will definitely try to get some seeds of these again. I looked at your blog about art. My wife was a professional painter. Sadly she passed away after battling C. 9 years, almost 7 1/2 years ago. She was a great student of colour and she left behind studies in colour that resemble Paul Klee's cubist paintings where she placed in small squares varying colours together to search for chromatic harmony. She had a little book by Ittem that she refferenced in her classes. Then she would chose one and her next painting ( she painted mainly oil on canvas) was painted following that specific palette. We always wanted to translate that technique into the garden. Naturally, gardens so simple in some ways but much more complex than trying to fill an empty piece of canvas has much greater challenges. She's no longer here but the challenge is yet to be attended. Looking at your work I thought that perhaps you could assist me at least how to do that translation. She used that material also for teaching her students how to study colour combinations. The closest I can recall from the art world is that a garden thought of as art form is a passing installation. It is three dimensional much more than plannar. Like an installation the observer is immersed... Modern gardening allows such diversity of colour, diversity and structural /foliar texture that it may be possible to use also her initial colour scheme as elements of colour choice before actually planning the flower beds or borders....Perhaps my quest is an impossible one. I wouldn't be bothered that someone like you that really understands both ( art & gardening) will tell me so. On the other hand those studies are there to be used by someone some way and I thought that perhaps you can give me advice. Thank you Arturo

I am so sorry about your wife.I would have liked to meet her and look at her paintings.

I am honored that you want my advise as I only grope around and use my instincts as far as design and planning goes.
You are on the right track with your thinking design is like sculpture. I also felt it was like interior design but with plants.
There is a woman who wrote a book about "Color Echoes "
Pam Harper is well known.
Here is a blog about her gardens. I used a lot of pictures to give me hints as to which plants to arrange .
http://phillipoliver.blogspot....
This is her book on Color Echoes. Google her name and see if there are any You-Tube videos.
https://www.google.com/search?...