Flowers monarch. Please do not mix it with bergamot!

Monarda is a perennial plant whose native land is North America. In the wild, it is distributed in the territory from Mexico to Canada and is represented by 17 species. After the discovery of Columbus, America was brought to Spain and gradually spread across Europe. The monarch received his name from the name of Nicholas Monardes, a Spanish botanist who studied this plant in the 16th century and discovered its medicinal properties. He detailed the merits of the plant in his work "Joyful News from the New World."

In the people the monarch flowers have many names: lemon mint, wild bergamot, American melissa, and that's not all. Such a variety of names is explained by the presence in the plant of various essential oils components, the smell of which resembles one or another already known plant.

At present, two types of plants are widespread: the monarch is double and the monarch is tubular (dudchataya). They are characterized by a high content in their inflorescences and leaves of essential oils, which makes the plant a valuable medicinal raw material with antiseptic, antimicrobial and antiparasitic actions. It is used to treat chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma, radiation sickness. Juice from the leaves helps to heal wounds, fractures, soothes irritation, rheumatic pain, helps with insect bites. Monarch flowers and leaves are used as an antiseptic in the production and aromatization of carbonated beverages.

The young greenery of the plant stimulates appetite and improves digestion and can be used for food in the form of salads and marinades or as a spicy plant in meat dishes and canning. As a perfume in the preparation of drinks, tea, you can use inflorescences. For this, inflorescences are collected after the first week of flowering. Shoots, leaves and flowers can be used for food both fresh and dry. In folk medicine, the monad's property is known to prevent the formation of black mold. Its leaves and twigs are used for canning vegetables. Apple jam, cooked with the addition of leaves, will never become moldy.

The monad bergamot (bergamot grass) received its name for the presence in the leaves and flowers of an essential oil that smells similar to natural bergamot oil, which is widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. According to experts, tea, cooked with the addition of leaves and flowers of the monarch is not inferior to the famous "Earl Gray."

The flowers of the monarch are located at the top of the erect, up to 1 meter high, tetrahedral stem. Rhizomes grow in all directions and plants form powerful curtains. The duration of flowering of the monarch bushes to 50 days, almost from the end of June to August. Inflorescences can be of a very different color. The seeds are very small. In the spring they can be immediately planted in the open ground. The germination temperature is about 20 degrees. For the first time, the shoots grow slowly and must be watched so that the weeds do not interfere with them. The young plants will blossom next year.

You can also breed the monarch by dividing rhizomes in the autumn time. Varietal specimens should be propagated only vegetatively, because in this case the exterior properties of plants are completely preserved. Split monastic bushes should be at the age of 3-4 years, because, being older and expanding in breadth, the rhizomes in the center die off. And this greatly reduces the decorativeness of the bush. The resulting lines should have a minimum of 2-3 kidneys. They are planted at a distance of 60-70 centimeters from each other in the previously prepared pits, which are introduced per 1 square meter: humus (2-3 kg), complex fertilizers (50-60 g) and with acidity of the soil lime (up to 40 g). Monard is undemanding to the soil, although he prefers lime lungs. To the extent of hygrophilous.

This unpretentious herb with simple but charming flowers is very fond of our gardeners for their valuable qualities and variety of colors.