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Bee populations are in decline, and Cheerios wants to help. So far, so good. But they are sending free packets of wildflower seeds to people all over the country—and some of the flowers included are invasive species that, in some areas, you should probably not plant.
Forget-me-not (listed above but, the seed packager told me on 3/21/2017, not included in the seed mix) is banned as a noxious weed in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example. The California poppy is nice in California, but listed as an "invasive exotic pest plant" in southeastern states. And many of the flowers on this list are not native to anywhere in the US, so they are not necessarily good matches for our local bees.
http://lifehacker.com/don-t-plant-those-bee-friendly-wildflowers-cheerios-i-1793370883
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 28 2017, @02:42AM (1 child)
I'm reminded of an anecdote told on some agricultural forum.
The man watches as neighbors and customers carefully prepare the ground, ridding themselves of weeds, then very carefully plant the seed mix prepared for their area within the region. Plants sprout, and in the mix, are seeds for the very same "weeds" that they so carefully pulled out of the ground.
But, yeah, if you're going to plant wildflowers, use a reputable dealer, and be sure that those "wild flowers" are native to your region. The plants that most people call "flowers" aren't native at all. Roses, for instance. There are native wild roses in my area. I'm not even real sure that they are the same plants as most people's idea of roses. These come out of the ground, and spread out, very much like a vine. They'll climb anything, and will reach 20 feet up, if they find support. They aren't especially pretty, IMO, but the wife likes them. We have them in three places in the yard. They don't need special watering, they don't need fertilizer, all they need is for me to stay away from them with the lawn mower until they are well established.
Most "well tended" flower gardens are full of invasive species. Bulbs from Holland, for instance. As far as I know, none of those popular bulb flowers are native to America.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Jiro on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:05AM
An invasive species is a species that not only isn't native, but causes trouble because it spreads. Bulbs from Holland are not invasive species just because they aren't native to the region.