Full shade would probably be a bit too much for it. I have it under the edge of a crabapple tree where it gets partial shade with sun for the early parts of the day. It loves that. It seems to limp along at best in full sun.

Take over your yard? Goodness, no. Our conditions are surely different and may add for variance but I have never had it escape its garden boundaries - unlike its neighbors in my gardens. I wouldn't worry about containing it.

I would suggest that you may want to try a single plant or two to see if it can tolerate the full shade before sinking too much cash in bee balm plants for that location. Or rethink your plant choice. There are lists of shade loving plants that google can direct you to.

FataMorgana

Ohh...Morgana: While you're hear, i'd value your opinion on this, Bee Balm question. =) Mine has taken off in the past 2 weeks or so with the nice weather. It looks to have about 7-10 completely separate stalks/plants. Do these join in the root system to be one plant or can I separate them? I would love to be able to do so! =) Please LMK. I have a picture if you need to see one.

Thanks - Steve

I linked in a great article on dividing perennials - which is what you are really talking about. Most prefer fall as the time to divide plants.

But that said, bee balm tends to grow long and lanky. You need that clump or cluster for the plants to look right in your garden and to support one another. I would leave the clump as is for now. If it grows bigger, I might take a small cluster from it to locate elsewhere to grow bigger. But I wouldn't diminish the size of the original cluster overly much because bee balm really looks best in a good sized clump.

And yes, they are connected under the soil and do grow and spread that way. But their spread is quite controlled and slow compared to mints.

FataMorgana

Here is a link that might be useful: Fine Gardening - Dividing Perennials

That is so good to read! I've ordered some Jacob Cline bee balm, but was thinking it might be too invasive. It's good to know it doesn't spread as fast as the spearmint :)

Ok, thanks morgana! =)