Lemon Balm

We started a lemon balm plant from seed. It is my personal favorite herb as far as smell.

I have read that it has a tendency to clump and it mainly spreads through seed. If you remove the flowers before they go to seed, it is supposed to be easy to manage. I also read that even though it is in the mint family, it is not considered invasive.

What is your experience with it in reference to how it spreads? The area I am considering planting in sees my footsteps at least 2x a day as it is on the way to the chickens and rabbits. I feel I can keep a close eye on it because of that if the feedback I get is that it is in fact, manageable. If not , I will repot into a 10 or 15 gallon pot.

Edited to also ask about the sun exposure. I read it likes afternoon shade. Is this your experience?

Hi Josh!

It will probably vary depending on climate and your individual plant(s). I love lemon balm too, it's ones of my favourite herbs. Lemon balm syrup -- yum!

I have two main patches on my Bulgarian garden. One gets morning sun and afternoon sun but midday shade, the other gets similar, but is in the shade a little longer.  The clumps are spreading, not super fast, but definitely getting bigger ever year, plus I see self-seeded plants popping up, too.  It's tolerating intense blistering sun and drought and staying green when much else in that garden is brown and crispy. It does look a bit worse for wear by late summer. I only get a week a month at this garden, so things are dry and neglected. I started with one patch that was there when I bought the house, and I transplanted some to another location. The small transplanted lemon balm is now a clump getting towards 2 foot wide, but this is its third summer, so its growing steadily but not taking over. I'd be very happy if lemon balm takes over as it crowds out less desirable weeds! Best way to control it if it's spreading  too big is to harvest it. It doesn't make runners like mint does.

Meanwhile in my UK forest garden my lemon balm is no longer getting enough light. It grows well early in spring before the trees are fully leafed out then slows right down. No risk of it spreading.  In this climate it would prefer full sun, I suspect.

Jane Mulberry wrote:Hi Josh!

It will probably vary depending on climate and your individual plant(s). I love lemon balm too, it's ones of my favourite herbs. Lemon balm syrup -- yum!

I have two main patches on my Bulgarian garden. One gets morning sun and afternoon sun but midday shade, the other gets similar, but is in the shade a little longer.  The clumps are spreading, not super fast, but definitely getting bigger ever year, plus I see self-seeded plants popping up, too.  It's tolerating intense blistering sun and drought and staying green when much else in that garden is brown and crispy. It does look a bit worse for wear by late summer. I only get a week a month at this garden, so things are dry and neglected. I started with one patch that was there when I bought the house, and I transplanted some to another location. The small transplanted lemon balm is now a clump getting towards 2 foot wide, but this is its third summer, so its growing steadily but not taking over. I'd be very happy if lemon balm takes over as it crowds out less desirable weeds! Best way to control it if it's spreading  too big is to harvest it. It doesn't make runners like mint does.

Meanwhile in my UK forest garden my lemon balm is no longer getting enough light. It grows well early in spring before the trees are fully leafed out then slows right down. No risk of it spreading.  In this climate it would prefer full sun, I suspect.

Great first hand info. Thank you for sharing your experience with it!

Our southern exposure here is not what they mean when they say that a plant needs "full sun". Many don't do well in the full sun here. Good to know about it doing okay in the sun and drought conditions.

I would say it's invasive in my ecosystem, but not nearly as obnoxious as other invasive species, so I generally leave it alone unless it's in the path of the mower - it tolerates mowing quite well!

It is great putting a few dried leaves in with my green tea - I do that often.

I love lemon balm and have had trouble establishing it...not at all invasive here.

as Josh says full sun in the south is not good for many plants.
I finally have a thriving lemon balm in a tub in a semi shaded spot.
Between the blasting sun and bermuda grass it doesn't stand a chance out in the yard.

Judith Browning wrote:
I finally have a thriving lemon balm in a tub in a semi shaded spot.

Thank you. I think our climates are probably similar from the time I have spent working and visiting friends in the area you are in.

The southern exposure here even burns up the scary comfrey seedlings that start in it without any shade.

Is the tub to keep the balm contained or to protect it from other things choking it out?

 Is the tub to keep the balm contained or to protect it from other things choking it out?  

Josh, The container is to protect the lemon balm from being crowded out by others and to test out the spot
I would love it if it spread like crazy and I'll let this go to seed soon in case I can propagate more.

So far, I've been able to get plants from a friend who has a very shady yard...it pops up different places there but the clumps themselves don't really get much larger   It's not at all like some mints and even mints like shadier places here.

This is the first lemon balm plant that has thrived and survived after years of trying....I'm a slow learner sometimes.

The first land we had had sun from 9-2 on the garden...that was it!
Ever since then, I thought we needed more sun but now I'm seeing the limits.

Too much sun can be a big issue for so many supposed sun loving plants in hot sunny regions. I can't grow comfrey, even under trees it fries. I made a shade cloth shelter for a seedling hazelnut that gets morning shade/ afternoon sun and it's still shrivelling, while the ones that get morning and noon sun but afternoon shade are doing fine without extra protection.

I'm discovering that gardening advice based on UK full or East Coast USA full sun doesn't always work for real full sun!

Judith Browning wrote:This is the first plant that has thrived and survived after years of trying....I'm a slow learner sometimes.

As an aside for when you can't get your plants local, the company below is tailored to southern US dwellers. Even if I can get something locally, I check their website to get more info on it.

Like you mention, getting things from your community and seeing where they are planted on that persons property seems to be a great way to know how things will perform.

https://permies.com/wiki/76419/Southern-Exposure-Seed-Exchange-Virginia

Jane Mulberry wrote:Too much sun can be a big issue for so many supposed sun loving plants in hot sunny regions. I can't grow comfrey, even under trees it fries. I made a shade cloth shelter for a seedling hazelnut that gets morning shade/ afternoon sun and it's still shrivelling, while the ones that get morning and noon sun but afternoon shade are doing fine without extra protection.

I'm discovering that gardening advice based on UK full or East Coast USA full sun doesn't always work for real full sun!

Jane, for sure, huge learning curve for us here.

On the comfrey, I have observed that the scary comfrey underperforms the bocking 14 in areas of full sun. Once the bocking 14 gets some roots a little ways into the ground it does great in full sun. I have already chopped and dropped the bocking 14 3 times to the one time for the scary comfrey.

Josh Hoffman wrote:
I have read that it has a tendency to clump and it mainly spreads through seed. If you remove the flowers before they go to seed,

Is this your experience?

I wish my lemon balm had gone to seed and took over the garden.  Alas, it did not and now it died when I had a gout attack and I no longer have any except what I was able to tincture way back then.

Don't hold your breath, but the plant we have is doing well in full sun on southern exposure. The seed was from Baker Creek Seeds.

If it continues doing well, I will update this post. If it does well through the year, I will send you some seeds, when it goes to seed, if you'd like.

Here is an updated picture of the one plant started from seed. I moved it into a mineral tub because I thought I might need to move it to part shade.

It seems to be doing great in full sun/southern exposure here in central MS. I got the seeds from Baker Creek.

Did you find your Lemon Balm slow to start? I'm three weeks in and my seedlings are still tiny.

James Stott wrote:Did you find your Lemon Balm slow to start? I'm three weeks in and my seedlings are still tiny.

Yes, not as slow as Oregano but pretty slow. But like Oregano, once it gets going, it really takes off!