The Curious™ Red Monkey Flower, otherwise known as the Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 or Bee Balm ‘Coral Reef’, Bergamot ‘Coral Reef’, is a rather well known perennial plant by gardening enthusiasts around the world.
Best known for its average maintenance and fast growth, this perennial will likely liven up your house (or garden) with its green colored leaves. But, only if you learn how to take proper care of it for it to thrive.
Fortunately, this is exactly what we’ll cover in this Curious™ Red Monkey Flower Care Guide. So let’s dive in.
The fundamental caring guidelines for every Curious™ Red Monkey Flower can be summed up into the following:
- Water: The Curious™ Red Monkey Flower grows best with watering each week. Increase the frequency of watering when it gets hot.
- Light: Keep your Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 in an environment where it can receive partial to full sun on a daily basis.
- Soil: Make sure to keep the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower in soil with moist but well-draining properties, so ideally, one that is made of clay, loam, chalk, and sand.
And that’s practically it! If you keep these three factors in check, your Curious™ Red Monkey Flower will likely have all it needs for it to survive and even thrive.
Scientific / Botanical Aspects
In botanical terms, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower belongs to the Lamiaceae family, the genus Monarda and the species Didyma, hence its scientific (or botanical) name Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 (MIM-yoo-luss aw-ran-ti-AYE-kus).
As with other Monarda’s, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower is a semi-evergreen plant, which means it will shed its leaves but only for a short period of time.
Growing Region
The Curious™ Red Monkey Flower is a plant native to the Eastern North America.
Knowing your plant’s native region is very useful, as it can give you tips on which environment is best for your Curious™ Red Monkey Flower. If you keep it in mind, you can try to replicate these conditions at home, and you’ll likely end with a healthier plant.
With this in mind, the Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 will be most used to the heat zones in the 1 – 9 region, as the plant hardiness level falls between 4a, 4b, 5b, 5a, 6b, 6a, 7b, 7a, 8a, 8b, 9b, 9a and the ideal climate zone is between 1, 1A, 1B, 2, 2A, 2B, 3, 3A, 3B, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, A2, A3.
Growth and Size
Growth
In terms of size and growth, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower is a relatively fast grower, which makes things tricky for any plant enthusiast.
Size
But, how big does the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower actually get? What should you expect in terms of size? Let’s dive right in…
The Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 can grow up to 3′ – 4′ (90cm – 120cm) in 3′ – 4′ (90cm – 120cm) and 2′ – 3′ (60cm – 90cm) in 2′ – 3′ (60cm – 90cm).
These dimensions make the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower a relatively medium perennial compared to others, so it’s best to keep this fact in mind since it will affect where you want to keep yours at home.
Also, expect it to grow in a wonderful rounded shape, which is something worthwhile to remember when making your garden landscape plans.
This is why experts recommend keeping an area of approximately 40″ (100cm) free so the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower can spread to its best extent.
Water
In terms of watering, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower is a fairly simple plant to take care of.
This is mostly because it has a straightforward watering schedule and somewhat regular watering needs.
Specifically, most experts agree that the Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 grows best with watering each week. Increase the frequency of watering when it gets hot.
Which is why it is considered a plant with relatively average needs in terms of water.
Watering
As a rule of thumb, you should remember to keep your Curious™ Red Monkey Flower in soil with moist but well-draining characteristics, as these will guarantee the right conditions for your plant to grow and thrive.
When you consider this, this is why you should aim to choose soil that has good drainage, moist, and occasionally wet properties to keep the right moisture levels at all times.
But, if you want a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to watering your Curious™ Red Monkey Flower then you should consider the famous ‘finger’ test. To perform this test, you just need to put your finger in your plant’s soil and determine if it’s moist or not. If it is, then don’t water; if it isn’t, then please do. In any case, this test will allow you to know if your Curious™ Red Monkey Flower needs or does not need water, every time.
Soil Mix
As mentioned earlier, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower prefers to have soil with good drainage, moist, and occasionally wet properties at all times, reason why you need to make the soil mix out of clay, loam, chalk, and sand.
This is why most experts agree that the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower requires soil with clay, and high organic matter, which will give you the right conditions it needs.
In addition to this, expert gardeners recommend having preferably alkaline, acid or neutral soil.
Light and Exposure
In terms of light & exposure, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower requires partial to full sun in order for it to thrive under the right conditions.
Most experts agree that this perennial will do well as long as you keep it in partial to full sun, and it will be able to grow properly.
Specifically, we recommend that you place your Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 in full and direct sun (more than 6 hours of direct sunlight per day).
Season
Being a semi-evergreen plant, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower will shed its leaves but only for a short period of time.
But, you can expect it to have its ‘prime-time’ during the summer (mid, late).
Flowers
You can expect your Curious™ Red Monkey Flower to flower around the spring and in the summer months from April to June (spring), and from July to September (summer).
In particular, this perennial is well known for its repeat flowering and showy flowers around the plant enthusiast community.
The Curious™ Red Monkey Flower produces some beautiful red, or red/burgundy flowers around this time of year.
Foliage
The leaves from the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower have a beautiful green color during most of the year.
In particular, they have a simple arrangement with a opposite organization in its leaves.
You can expect the leaves from your Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 to be around (3-6 inches) in size.
Attracts, Tolerance and Resistance
The Curious™ Red Monkey Flower is well known for being able to attract butterflies, birds and hummingbirds, so keep that in mind when choosing your plant, as you’ll likely end up finding one or another in your garden.
Additionally, it has a special tolerance for clay soil, and animals like rabbit and deer, so don’t worry if any of these come along, your Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 will be fine.
Garden
How should you then organize your garden to include your new Curious™ Red Monkey Flower? Here are some recommendations by expert gardeners.
Most Mimulus Aurantiacus ‘Minredda’ Plant Patent #22,672 owners agree that this perennial will look great in most mediterranean, contemporary and rustic gardens of all types.
Other owners consider that they complement well most gardens of informal and cottage, and in prairie and meadow styles.
In particular, the Curious™ Red Monkey Flower’s best location within your garden is in beds and borders, others use it for landscaping in a edging, border, rock garden, container, firescaping/fire wise, or a wildlife garden.
Conclusion
So that’s it! These are the main plant care requirements that you need to keep in mind in order to have a healthy Curious™ Red Monkey Flower in your garden or home.
