When to plant lemon balm?
- Botanical name
- Melissa officinalis
- Family
- Lamiaceae
Lemon balm is planted from March to May. It is harvested from April to October. It is cut back from July to August.
Lemon balm is a perennial plant. The edible parts are the leaves and flowers.
Lemon balm through the year
- planting
- harvest
- cutting back
In short
Growing conditions
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
Sage and ligurian leafhopper
pest- Signs
- Over the upper side of the leaves there is a coarse pale speckling, and on the underside small animals that jump away quickly. By the end of summer the leaf can be heavily mottled, while the growth of the plant is hardly affected. The affected herbs are perfectly safe to eat.
- Prevention
- It overwinters as an egg on the plant itself and is active from May into autumn, so cleared old wood and foliage at the end of the season helps. Encourage birds, ladybirds, parasitic wasps and ground beetles.
- What to do
- No spray is needed: the pest does not affect the growth or the vigour of the plant, so the right answer is to put up with it. If the look bothers you, cut back the most mottled shoots, because the new growth comes clean.
Powdery mildew
disease- Signs
- A white, floury coating spreads over the leaves, first on the lower and older ones. The leaf under it yellows and dries up. The fruit stays small, because the plant loses leaf surface.
- Prevention
- Plant resistant varieties, leave an airy spacing and sun, and clear the debris at the end of the season. Unlike most fungi it is not helped by wet foliage, since it spreads in heat and high air humidity, in a dry summer too.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Lamiaceae).
Sources about the plant: BUND Region Hannover, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Royal Horticultural Society, University of Georgia Extension, University of New Hampshire Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 20 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: Clemson Cooperative Extension, KGZS, UF/IFAS Extension, University of Maryland Extension, Utah State University Extension.