PlantFiles: Lemon Balm
Melissa officinalis

I LOVE Lemon Balm! Mine thrived in town where it got watered regularly and had good soil. But here where it is rocky with mostly clay for dirt, it is very slow to grow.

Mine is a transplanted 3rd year plant and has barely grown since I planted it. I truly hope it does better this next spring. I'd hate to lose it. It came from my Mom's stock, which is gone now as she passed away a few years ago.

I love it's lemon scent!

One of my favorites! It may not be THAT pretty but it has some wonderful qualities. I drink tea made from it to releave insomnia and mild anxiety, works very well for me! I have heard that in order to control it better, plant it in a pot and sink the pot into the ground. Another good thing ( for me at least ) is that it can survive extreme amounts of cutting. I had to cut EVERY bit of the plant down to the roots because it got a realy bad mealy bug infestation that I couldn't get rid of. But now it is sprouting up again. I would recomened it to every one, just don't plant directly into the ground or you will never get rid of it.

Lemon Balm was already growing in the backyard when I bought this house a little over 2 years ago.

It is very hardy and requires no care (beyond trimming dead bits after it dies down for the Winter). Its invasiveness hasn't been an issue for me, there is a Catnip wall (the 2 plants share a patch and have gotten along fine so far) on one side and a weed/grass pit on the other. Sometimes little plants crop up in the grass, but are easily pulled up with the weeds.

I'm particularly happy to be growing Lemon Balm because I have hyperthyroidism. It makes a nice tea, and the smaller leaves add an interesting flavour to salads.

This plant is in a the mint family and grows with all the vigor and gusto you'd expect from a mint. The foliage makes an interesting foil against other plants but it needs to be planted either in shade or around hardy shrubs that won't be overwhelmed by its growth habits. Planting it in a container that is not completely buried will also help control it.

Without mercy or compunction I routinely rip out huge chunks for the compost heap with no ill effects to the mother plant.

I find this plant self seeding, not spreading , so although considered invasive, it is easy to pull or transplant unwanted plants. The fragrance of the leaves makes up for having to handle or pull the errant little guys.

I'm enjoying the tea from the plant, winter is approaching so I'll try to dry the leaves - I have'nt tried cooking with the leaves yet but I'm guessing it would be nice in salads and with fish. Mine is in a pot with Lemon grass -- the combination of the two is very pretty - both have become very large in the pot and hubby says it reminds him of the Viet Nam days, I will definetly have both of them back next spring/summer.

This is my first time growing this herb, and I must say its an easy one to grow. They sat on a windowsill as seed and seedlings, and then I moved them under a grow light for an extra boost. Now they sit on a shelf in my kitchen, and are about 7 inches tall. Nice herb! I water when they dry out, but not overly, and they seem ok with that.

I am very surprised to see so many neutrals and negatives on this plant! It is one of the fastest growing and satisfying herbs I have thus grown in my garden. This is their first year, so I have not witnessed its durability in winter, but it seems to be a hardy herb. The blooms are like that of sweet basil: small, delicate, and white, in a tube-like form. They form pleasant rings around the stems of the balm plant; right now they are beginning to bloom and it is only early June. Of course, here in southern California, we have a Mediterranean climate with only wet and dry seasons (and this is the dry season.)

I find it hard to discern its smell outside, but when I picked the leaves for tea, I thought it was a true lemon I was smelling - the likeness was startling! I am not at all partial to tea, but I think, if my judgement of tea can be valued at all, the fresh balm made a decent-tasting tea.

I am also surprised to read that other gardeners have witnessed it growing best in full sun - the only one of mine that is relatively big and is blooming is in partial shade. Here, though, in the desert, plants probably do need a little relief from the blazing sun.

I water mine four times a day now with a watering can, but I find them to be relatively drought tolerant. The one in partial shade that is biggest is a little invasive toward the neighboring Italian parsely, but I blame myself for planting them too close. Next year, I will uproot one of the two (the parsely or the balm) but I am happy to know that the lemon balm has grown so well. And I would absolutely recommend it to any gardener who likes to see the fruits of their labours!

A former roommate planted this about 33 years or so ago. It has slowly been spreading out from the original planting in a rather shady area. While I'm usually a big fan of lemon-scented and lemon-flavored herbs (LOVE lemon basil), like Breezymeadows, I find that this one reminds me of furniture polish. I haven't tried making tea with it because of that, but now that I see that it is reported to have sedative properties, I may have to try it to combat insomnia.

Very invasive in my area; however it is said to have medicinal uses. Fresh or dried leaf tea was used as a folk remedy for fevers, painful menstruation, headaches, colds and insomnia. Used as a mild sedative. The leaves were poulticed for treating sores, tumors and insect bites.

I love the smell of Lemon Balm, and the tea reminds me of lemon drops. To keep it from self-seeding too freely, I cut it back when it blooms and feed it to my rabbits. My information says it is hardy in zones 3-10. Stratification aids germination of seeds; it is slow to germinate.

I am growing this for the first time this year, but in a pot! I grew it just for the fragrant leaves- I just love to rub and sniff them. Plant seems healthy and disease and pest free. Really easy to care for.

Negative for me at least! :) I just pulled one out of my mom's new house... It wasn't too bad yet, but my reason for pulling it was that it was WAY overgrown for the spot it was in, and I didn't think it'd look so nice if it were pruned back... the center was kinda lame and the outskirts of the plant were lush. Time will tell how hard it's going to be to completely eradicate it, it may spring back up from the roots I left behind.

I love mine, it has stayed where I planted it, not invasive, 3rd year for me! I put it in my tea, I love the aroma.

An easy to grow perennial herb that is a prodigious self-sower. Although not terribly particular as to growing conditions, ideally prefers sun/light shade & soil rich in organic matter. The flowers are small & nondescript, & the plant can get scraggly if not kept pinched/trimmed to maintain bushiness.

While I've used it as an ingredient in tea breads & herbal teas, & as a garnish for fish dishes & lemonade, I find the lemon scent more in line with lemon furniture polish than true lemon. In fact, I call it the "Lemon Pledge" plant - lol! It does, however, make a nice perennial addition to the herb garden, either as part of a lemon-scented herb collection or as a member of a shady bed.

In order to keep this plant from becoming an invasive pest, all you need do is remove all the flowers before they fade & set seed.

A must in every garden... can be invasive like most mints.... one of the prettiest for foliage of the large leaved mints.... large sometimes lime green crinkly leaves held tightly on stems (doesn't usually get too leggy).... grows well in average and moist soil.... also grows well in part shade..... Beautiful lemony foliage.... good in teas etc. useful as a medicinal herb (sedative) insignificant white flowers.... (but bees/butterflies love them)....

I have spent two days digging this plant out of our new yard and am still not done. It has obviously been here a while as the main clumps are very hard to dig out. It is cleary invasive here, having choked out other plants. (I find the little plastic nursery sticks among the clumps that indicated what it choked out!)

When I first stared to clean it up, I said to my husband, "This better be a really pretty plant for how much work it is!" I took some down to the nursery and they clued me in on what it was and how invasive it is in our area. So I have been pulling it out, knowing it will take me several years to completely eradicate it.

On a positive note - just think of all the space I am creating for new stuff!

Lemon Balm makes a great addition to salad. I add fresh leaves of lemon balm, oregano, orange mint and garlic chives to leaf lettuces and dress with olive oil and lemon juice or basalmic vinegar, yummmmm.

While I contain other mints in pots, I've found I don't really need to contain this one in my garden, I think because it's so dry where it grows that it doesn't spread very easily. It does spread, but not very quickly and it is easy to weed; it's not aggressive for me. Try this out in a contained environment first until you know its growth habit in your climate!

It is trivial to care for and makes pretty pale green clumps. The flowers are not terribly exciting. The smell is lovely and I like to use the fresh leaves in fruit salads or in tomato and cucumber salads; they combine especially well with tomato.

The fresh leaves are not very strong in teas without using a fair amount, bruised, in which case they are quite good especially if a bit of honey is added. I have not tried drying them.

I have been trying to grow this plant for years, and not succeeding very well. Perhaps it doesn't like our long, hot and wet Southern summers. My cousin in South Georgia gave me a nice clump from her sandy yard, where it seemed quite contained and dignified in a small salad garden, but it didn't seem to like the red clay soil of North Georgia where I was living at the time, and it died out the first winter.

This spring I tried again with a seed packet, and I got exactly six plants. Four of them are slowly growing in clay pots, with good potting soil, and are holding their own against the heavy summer rains--they get beaten down, but straighten up within a few hours.

I thought lemon balm made a nice, big, medium green clump in my cousin's garden, and I want the same effect. Also I like the mild tea at night--herbal lore attributes it as a sedative and antidepressant, and drinking the tea with increasing longivity.

Definitely needs to be grown in a pot to contain spreading. I have mine in a pot buried in the ground. It's not very ornamental, so I'd recommend it only if you want to use it as an herb. Actually, I was disappointed with the flavor its leaves added to my tea.

Even though it makes a great culinary herb, Lemon Balm is such an invasive plant I give it a thumbs down. It self-sows everywhere in my Zone 6 garden, sun, shade, wet, dry, everywhere. It even choked out my bed of horseradish!

Mosquitos spend a lot of daytime hours on the plant which I find curious, since another redeeming feature about this plant is that its crushed leaves work very well as a repellent. But just passing by a clump brings them all from the plant over to people.

Lemon Balm is a marginal perennial in my Southcentral Alaska garden. It grows well over the summer, but may not return in the spring. I find it interesting that it begins its life as a dark-green leafed seedling with a close growth habit, hugging the ground. As it matures, it begins to spread more and look more mint-like.

We have quite a few clumps of Melissa growing in our garden. One well established clump, right on the edge of the garden and very exposed, died during this very cold winter. Although the temperatures near the house were minus 20 Celsius for some weeks, I guess that the temperatures on the exposed perimeter were nearer minus 30. This should give a rough guide to the hardiness. By the way, nearer the house the Melissa carried on spreading out as if nothing had happened! Tenacious little devil.

Lemon balm is a wonderful herb grown for its strong lemon flavor and aroma. Plants grow up to two feet tall with white inconspicuous flowers. The leaves can be used in teas, salads, and cooking. Its leaves will loose flavor after drying so it’s best to use fresh.

Plants grow quickly and it spreads to form large clumps, which some gardeners consider to be aggressive. Deadheading after flowering is recommended because seedlings can be a nuisance to control. It grows best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade.