Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is the first. It grows 2 to 4 feet tall, with an open flower head which is a cluster of small tubular flowers.

The flowers are an understated lavender or lilac, sometimes with a touch of pink. The flower heads have a spicy, pungent odor that persists even in the dried seed heads.

Photo courtesy Michigan State University Extension-- high-res image unavailable. Wild Bergamot, also known as bee balm.

Wild bergamot grows naturally in meadows, sunny dry woods and on roadside banks. You can plant it in open places that don't get a lot of tending. It doesn't need much water, but it does tend to get a powdery mildew on the leaves when it's drought-stressed.

In late spring and early summer, the bergamot in my garden provides nectar for a silverspot skipper, hunter's butterflies and a buzzing assortment of bees.

Of all the showy monarda cultivars and hybrids on the market today, I still like wild bergamot the best, perhaps for sentimental reasons. It's a flower of my childhood, and I first knew it as bee balm.

Another good wild mint similar to the monardas but with four or five flower heads stacked along the stem is Blephilia ciliata.

White horse mint or mountain mint (Pycnanthemum incanum) is a good companion plant to wild bergamot. It's about the same height as monarda, with similar form.

The horse mint has a unique appearance. The upper leaves near the flowers are ash gray. They look like they've been sprinkled with white dust. At a distance, the whitish leaves themselves look almost like flowers. The leaves have a pungent, minty smell, too, when crushed.

The individual horse mint flowers don't look like much. But don't be deceived. It's a wonderful insect plant. The clusters of tiny white or creamy flowers are attractive to an array of brightly colored flies, bees and wasps. Butterflies like it, too, especially the tiger swallowtail.

Both the bergamot and the horse mint make tough roadside plants. They're best adapted to the mountains and piedmont but will grow farther south if transplanted.

The third wild flower in this trio is passionflower (Passiflora incarnata). It's a viny plant with tendrils and a large, exotic, almost weird flower about three inches across.

It climbs up over other vegetation. The leaves always look rich, dark green and well-watered in even the driest weather.

The soft, hollow passionflower fruit about the size of a lemon is called the maypop. It will pop if you squeeze it in your hand. The pulp surrounding the seeds inside is edible and has a sour taste somewhat like a lemon.

The passionflower or maypop is the main food plant of the gulf fritillary caterpillar. This fritillary is a beautiful, medium-sized butterfly, orange with silver spots on the underside of the hind wings. The variegated fritillary also feeds on passionflower.

Passionflower can thrive even in a tilled garden if you don't till too deep. Each year it grows up from its deep underground stems. We let it grow among the potatoes and melons, and it climbs the bean fence.

All three of these interesting native wild flowers are resistant to deer browsing, a big advantage these days. To transplant them, wait until fall when the upper parts have died. Flag the spot. Then dig up the roots.