Jim Carlock wrote:

"kate" posted:

Tennessee chiming in. My lemon balm is 3 years old.
Hasn't bloomed yet and looks pretty straggly in the
summer. I usually harvest in the spring and dry it for
year round use. I've read that it spreads, but mine has
yet to do that.


Yes, mine started to spread but it ended up stuck to
about a 9" diameter circle (though right now it looks
alot smaller). When I bought it last year it was in a
small cup-sized plastic pot.

Mine's probably 2 feet across in the Spring, when it looks it's best.
(Sorry, math class was too long ago for diameters.)

I use fresh leaves for tea, haven't tried the drying out
thing. When I want some tea I go outside and cut some
fresh leaves off. How do you dry your leaves? Maybe
I'll try drying them if the plant comes back.

On top of the refrigerator in a seedling tray.

Reading the other replies, my guess is that even though we get hard
freezes here, we don't get enough of them for lemon balm to flower. Now
spearmint on the other hand.....at least it goes well with lemon balm in
tea.

Kate