We have several clusters of brilliant crimson monarda plants in our garden beds, and in addition to their weeks long show of blossom heads throughout July they are a magnet for ruby-throated hummingbirds in our area. Every evening they challenge each other for possession of this obviously desirable nectar source, with chases zooming around and up into the surrounding trees. How they don’t skewer themselves into a branch is amazing.

I’ve been noticing a lot of sneaky behavior this year. There’s one obviously dominant male who stakes his claim sitting up on the nearby clothesline or an adjacent tomato cage. Should a challenger try to sneak onto his turf and try to snitch some nectar from the monarda, the chase is on, with the top dogfighter chasing off the interloper. They’ve not been gone for a second when in from the opposite side come diving in what I assume are some submissives, darting in from the opposite side to grab a quick snack before the top hummer comes back to chase them off. It’s an aerial combat that goes on all evening until well into dusk – fascinating and entertaining!

The monarda are easy to grow, one of those “plant and forget” species, although they do keep expanding so can crowd out other plants if you’re not careful.

The only downside that I can see? Despite being so showy, they make a lousy subject matter for scanner photography. While they keep producing florets for several weeks, there are inevitably a few dead ones on any head that detract from any scan image captured. Those could perhaps be plucked and so dealt with, but the more significant shortcoming is that the small individual florets are too delicate. Laying the big base head onto the scanner surface flattens the individual blossoms and makes an unflattering result.

Oh well, I guess I’ll have to enjoy them “in situ” and the amazing flight show put on every day by the hummingbirds!