And the winner is: Lemon Beebalm for 2025 Pollinator Plant of the year

Votes are in and Lemon Beebalm, Monarda citriodora, wins the title of 2025 Pollinator Plant of the Year.

Raucous, fluffy flower heads perched atop whorls of decorative bracts aptly describe Beebalm, also known as bergamot or horsemint. Its tubular flowers call to mind a lion’s mane or stack of ruffles and prove irresistible to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

The luscious lavender bloomer qualifies as a plant with purpose and is featured as one of 25 such plants in my upcoming book, Plants with Purpose: Twenty-five Ecosystem Multitaskers because of its myriad uses and benefits. You can eat it, pollinators love it, it’s easy to grow and you can also make tea from its lemon-scented leaves. Lots to love about Lemon Beebalm.

Fluffy purple blooms make Lemon Beebalm a winner. –PHoto by John A. Marcus via Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

With 336 votes cast as of midnight, February 10, the fluffy purple bloomer bested its challenger Blue Curls, Phacelia congesta, another appealing Texas native. Beebalm won by a healthy margin, scoring 58% of the vote with a final tally of Beeblam 194 votes, Blue Curls 142.

Brandon Kirby of San Antonio’s Rainbow Gardens applauded the election results, labeling Beebalm a great choice that should be planted more often.

Sorry, Blue Curls. You lost. For now. –Photo courtesy Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

“I especially love it’s lemon scented foliage which makes a pleasant tea,” he added. Kirby has noticed that Beebalm has grown in popularity over the last few years and mentioned that Rainbow Gardens will have transplants available until summer and seeds year round.

Pollinatives, a San Antonio area nursery that specializes in native plants, will also have Beebalm available when the seasonal nursery opens this Thursday. Owner Donald Gerber said they’ll also stock “some hyper local Bexar county eco types in production for later.”

Not everyone was pleased about Beebalm’s trouncing of its competitor.

“I demand a recount!”  insisted Drake White, owner/founder of the Nectar Bar, San Antonio’s first native plant nursery.  While she claimed that “there’s no way Bluecurls didn’t win the vote,” White had no evidence of poll tampering. Despite her disappointment, she said the Nectar Bar will feature both plants this spring.

Thanks to all who voted.

Let your neighbors or HOA know why your pollinator garden looks the way it does–get  a pollinator habitat sign that announces your intentionality.

Check out my books!

TOP PHOTO: Lemon Beebalm, Norman G. Flaigg via Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

Related articles:

• Blue Curls or Beebalm? Please vote for the 2025 Pollinator Plant of the Year
• Past “Unofficial” Pollinator Plants of the Year
• Lawn-and-order gardening ethos gives way to the lawnless
• San Antonio architect converts downtown parking lot into a native “prairie cloud”
• Wherehousebarn pollinator garden beckons butterflies and tenants to downtown San Antonio
• In the butterfly garden: use solarization to convert ugly grass into a vibrant butterfly garden
• Adding pollinator habitat to resilience gardens can boost yields and relieve stress
• Mostly native urban pollinator garden outperforms lawn every time
• Flower “bed” works overtime as bachelor pad for solitary bees
• Doug Tallamy proposes crowdsourcing a homegrown national park: Who’s in?

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