bee balm woes

I have several bee balm plants that started the season quite vigorously (I bought them in pots from the plant nursery). I've avoided fertilizing them at all (chemcial or organic), since I know that can produce lots of leaves, but no flowers. They began showing their buds pretty prominently a few weeks ago, but as the buds are beginning to open, I'm not getting much of a show. The flowers seem a bit anemic (barely opening, not producing much color) and the color (I planted Marshall's Delight and Blue Stocking) is very, very pale, hardly noticeable. I am having a little trouble with powdery mildew, but I know from reading these boards that that's because I let them get too dried out. Could letting them get dried out and/or the powdery midlew be effecting the flowering?

Plants that are drought "tolerant" are not necessarily drought "happy" & in the growing seasons they'll do best with moderate watering in well-draining soil.

In many zones it won't really be time for beebalms to be in full bloom until July, so you may be seeing the first tentative blooms of the season, &amp in another week or two you'll see more of what you were expecting.

Powdery mildew is usually not a problem until late in the season, so you may have planted them too close & too thick since powdery mildew is worst where beebalms are crowded. The mildew can be prevented with occasional sprays of dilute milk (1:5 ratio) before the mildew develops.

-paghat the ratgirl