Herbs
Lemon balm
Melissa officinalis
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Start indoorsmid March – early May
Plantingearly May – mid June
Harvestmid May – late September
Practical tip
Self-seeds vigorously — cut it back before the seed ripens or it will be all over the garden next year.
Origin & history
Lemon balm comes from the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, travelled north with the Romans and remained a fixture of monastery gardens through the Middle Ages; in warmer parts of Germany it has locally naturalised. Its genus name comes from the Greek mélissa, “honey bee” — beekeepers used to rub the inside of new hives with the herb, and the flowers really are worked hard by bees. Botanically it is a labiate like mint, but it spreads by seed rather than by runners.
Varieties
The ordinary green Melissa officinalis is open-pollinated, cheap and entirely sufficient. Alongside it there are more strongly scented selections such as “Quedlinburger Niederliegende”, plus variegated and golden-leaved forms like “Aurea” and “Variegata”, which look attractive but smell weaker and scorch at the leaf margins in full sun. Variegated forms do not come true from seed — buy those as plants or divide them in spring.
Care
A partly shaded, humus-rich spot with even moisture keeps the leaves large and soft; in dry heat they stay small and turn leathery. In spring a dose of compost is enough — plenty of nitrogen produces lush but flat-tasting foliage. The clump goes bare in the middle after a few years: every three or four years dig it up in spring, divide it and replant the strong outer pieces. It dies back completely in winter and comes up again reliably in spring.
What can go wrong
Lemon balm is tough, but in a wet summer the lower leaves get brown spots and the stand rots from the inside — then cut it back hard, remove the affected foliage and plant further apart; the regrowth comes clean again. Towards the end of summer dense clumps show powdery mildew, again a matter of space and air movement. On heavy, waterlogged ground the rootstock rots over winter: it is completely hardy, but it will not take permanently wet soil.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
The lemon scent sits almost entirely in the fresh leaf and is largely lost in drying — lemon balm is a herb for immediate use. Harvest before flowering and in the morning, cutting whole shoots and using the young leaves. It must not be cooked; chopped fresh it goes into fruit salad, quark and desserts, whole sprigs into punch, lemonade or a jug of cold water, and whatever is left over freezes well in ice cubes.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.