Monarda 'Jacob Cline'

'Jacob Cline' is the beebalm to beat for sheer red, a native perennial that throws big, deep-crimson flowerheads on tall stems through the heart of summer. The whorled, tubular blooms sit atop four to five feet of square, mint-family stems, and they pull in hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies with a persistence few perennials match; in one major trial 'Jacob Cline' was the single best beebalm for hummingbirds.

The selection carries a Woodlanders friendship in the name. 'Jacob Cline' was found and grown on by Gene Cline, a respected Georgia plantsman and a long-time friend of the nursery, who named the plant for his son Jacob. Beyond the good looks, the clone built a reputation for standing up to powdery mildew better than most red beebalms, the disfiguring curse of the tribe, though even the best beebalm appreciates room and moving air. The species behind the cultivar, Monarda didyma, is native across eastern North America.

The names run deep. Monarda honors Nicolas Monardes, the sixteenth-century Sevillian physician who chronicled the plants of the New World; didyma means paired, for the twinned stamens. The old common name Oswego tea remembers the Oswego people of New York, who brewed the aromatic leaves into a tea and taught the practice to colonists, who took it up in earnest during the boycott of British tea. The leaves carry the scent of bergamot, the orange that flavors Earl Grey, and the flowers and foliage are edible, a citrus-mint note for a summer drink or a garnish.

Give 'Jacob Cline' rich, moist soil and full sun to a little afternoon shade, with enough elbow room for air to move through the clump and keep mildew at bay. The plant spreads by shallow runners into a generous patch, aromatic enough that deer and rabbits pass the clump by, and dies back to the ground each winter to return in spring. Set the tall red spikes at the back of a border, in a pollinator or native planting, or anywhere the hummingbirds can be watched working the summer flowers.