Monarda behavior seems to be location and soil type-dependent.

I had a nice patch of purple Monarda that didn't spread significantly and was mostly wiped out after a -9F winter low.

Salvia "Black and Blue" and other supposedly "tender" Salvias have repeatedly sailed through winters here in central Kentucky (once zone 6b, now designated 7a). 'Amistad' was knocked out last winter but has tolerated subzero readings and returned previously. I take cuttings of potentially susceptible Salvias as insurance.

One thing that helped me as I was learning about monarda is that it is in the mint family. So it’s spread and habit is the same. I heard Margaret Roach say the best maintenance is to actually go in and ‘disturb’ - pull up chunks of those fibrous roots for a good culling. Made good sense to me because I learned to do the same with my mint in pots - remove 75% of it and discard.

Have you tried pineapple sage? A beautiful plant, that will grow from a small seedling to a huge clump at the end of the season. The only problem is that in my zone the flowers are very late forming (usually October). When I first planted them I had no idea they even flowered, and then to top it off got the shock of my morning when this buzzy thing made a nosedive for them on my porch!

Oh wow, LaLennoxa, I did not know they were part of the mint family! That explains a lot...lol. I have carefully avoided putting mint in the ground, so maybe I've made a mistake to put Monarda in my front bed. It's really a display bed by the street with a lot of different perennials, shrubs and grasses and a few veggies. It would seem that Monarda might be more suited to a large open area with other wildflowers where it can travel to it's heart's content and compete with other plants with the same tendencies that would keep them in bounds.

Right now mine are planted in a large patch of Penstemon with Lilies that come up through them. The Penstemon reseed a lot and I've left them to do that. But I hope to get it all under better control this year. I've had them there together for awhile without a huge problem. As a matter of fact, I thought everything else was outcompeting the Monarda, until I opened up a small vegetable bed next to them with open soil, last Fall. I was planning to use for veggies this spring. I should take a photo of how they crept into that bed.

I wonder if anyone has ever had trouble removing them from their garden?

I keep forgetting about pineapple sage. It also is very fragrant, right? I think I have the same problem wtih late blooming, but I should try it and see if I can get a decent bloom period in the fall. I forgot that hummers like them.

In general, spring is much better than fall or even mid to late summer for planting mums.

Even the hybrids touted as hardy need ample time to develop strong root systems before hard frost.

Our local nurseries, like many others carry only a limited selection of fall-flowering perennials.

A bonus to spring ordering is the opportunity to pinch back the tips in May/June and root them.

I have the same problem. All the Mums I have bought from local nurseries are not hardy and die out the first year. A lot of those I bought at Bluestone Perennials have come back faithfully. They do have a good selection but I'd be interested to find another source that has a new collection for me to choose from, if anyone finds one.

Mine are still in, I haven't uncovered them yet to see if they are leafing out - I suspect that they are, and need to be watered and outside. I decided to wait until tonight's storms have all passed. Mine are on dollys so I can easily roll them back into the garage if we get near-freezing temps again (as we surely will)>

Once figs have started leafing out, they're susceptible to frost damage. You don't want to leave them under cover for too long once they've started growing, since lack of light will result in pale droopy growth. Many fig growers do the "fig shuffle", moving plants in and out of protected spots to take advantage of early spring warmth while dodging frosts.

Potted trees that are still dormant can easily handle temps down into the low 20s and even colder.

The foliage looks very different from any of the "Wish" series Salvias.

Flower color is similar to that of Salvia "Rockin' Fuchsia"* but it doesn't have the dark calyces of that hybrid.

*this one is a surprisingly hardy plant, marketed as an annual but which has survived subzero temps in my garden.

prairiemoon2, it’s autumn here. Definitely no snow on the ground here - ever!