Echinacea and Bee Balm

Two well-known perennials are blooming this week. Both are big butterfly favourites and grow as wildflowers elsewhere in the world.

Pictured: A purple Mondarda didyma (Bergamot, Bee Balm). This plant does spread by rhizomes, popping up several new plants around the base, but it is not yet the worst of the garden thugs. If you have this plant, you need to either regularly hack up the growth around the base or give the new plants away to friends.

Pictured: Pink Echinacea, some melon-colored short lilies, and a background of pink Malva Moschata (Mallow).

My Echinacea is the old fashioned type whichI grew from seed. Of course, now they have the hybrids with orange and yellow flowers, double-flowered and double-decker flowers, and ones that can operate heavy machinery...