RHS Growing Guides
How to grow lemon balm
Our detailed growing guide will help you with each step in successfully growing Lemon balm.
Getting Started
Pick the young shoot tips of lemon balm, for the best flavour and scent
Lemon balm's white summer flowers are small but rich in nectar, so are a magnet for bees. In fact lemon balm’s botanical name, Melissa, derives from the Greek for honeybee.
Month by Month
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Choosing
Attractive yellow-leaved varieties, such as ‘All Gold’, brighten up a shady spot
Before sowing or planting lemon balm, just bear in mind that it’s a vigorous plant with a tendency to spread, and can take time to remove completely if you no longer want it. Grow lemon balm in a container if you don't want it to spread. Lemon balm also self-seeds unless you remove the faded flower stems promptly. If named varieties self-seed, the resulting plants may not have the same characteristics as the parent plant.
A wide range of herbs, including lemon balm, are grown in all the RHS gardens, so do visit them for inspiration and growing tips.
What and where to buy
The standard type of lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, is widely available from most gardening retailers, either as seeds or as small plants. To track down specific varieties, try specialist herb nurseries or larger plant suppliers – some varieties are only available as plants, not seeds.
Before you buy, it’s worth asking your gardening friends if they already have lemon balm. If so, it’s very easy to divide established plants to make new ones. See Propagating below.
Recommended Varieties
Golden-yellow leaves with a strong lemon fragrance and flavour. Grow in light shade.
Sowing
Lemon balm is easy to grow from seed in spring, either indoors or direct outside, in the ground or in a pot. Only sow a few seeds, as one or two plants is probably enough for most uses. Once established, lemon balm usually self-seeds freely, so you’ll probably find plenty of seedlings popping up around your garden in future years.
Sowing indoors
Sowing outdoors
Planting
Grow lemon balm in a container if you don't want it to spread
Plant Care
Lemon balm needs little maintenance apart from cutting back after flowering, especially if you don’t want it to self-seed, and dividing every few years so clumps don’t get too large and unruly. Plants in containers will need watering to keep the compost evenly moist, but established plants in the ground shouldn't need watering.
Cutting back
Lemon balm can look rather straggly after flowering and the leaves might start to look a bit tatty. To encourage a fresh flush of tasty new leaves, cut the whole plant down to just above the base. Do this straight after flowering, before seeds form, if you don’t want more plants popping up in your garden.
As lemon balm is a herbaceous perennial, it naturally dies down over winter, so cut back the faded stems by early spring, before new growth appears.
Propagating
If allowed to flower and set seed, lemon balm will happily self-seed in gardens
You can also take softwood cuttings from lemon balm, this is best done from mid-spring to early summer. Stems also root readily in a jar of water and can then be potted up.
Lemon balm also self-seeds readily unless cut back after flowering, so you’ll find new plants naturally appearing around your garden.
Harvesting
Lemon balm can be harvested regularly in spring and summer, as it regrows quickly
Lemon balm naturally dies back in autumn once temperatures drop, but harvesting can resume in spring when new growth appears.You can dry the leaves to make tea over winter, although the flavour is much milder than with fresh leaves.
Problems
Lemon balm is generally robust, healthy and easy to grow, with few problems. In fact, it can be a little too vigorous, often forming a large clump in just a few years. It will also self-seed readily if you leave the spent flowers to produce seeds.
Although fully hardy, lemon balm will suffer in cold, soggy conditions over winter, which can cause the roots to rot, so make sure the soil or compost doesn’t get waterlogged. Plants in containers are best moved into a sheltered spot over winter, out of excessive rain. Lemon balm leaves may sometimes be affected by leafhoppers and powdery mildew – cutting back affected stems will stimulate new, fresh shoots. See Common problems below for more information.
Get involved
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