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: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:27AM
How is this any different than those wildflower seed packs sold in stores? This is a non story.
Bingo.
Here's what the seed packager had to say in response:
"In most locations, the seed mixture species will be non-native but not considered invasive," said John Barrett, director of sales, marketing and development with Veseys, based in York, P.E.I.
To be invasive, he said, a species has to be non-native and have the tendency to spread and threaten the environmental, economic or social health of an area.
"Some species within the mixture have the potential to become naturalized, adding to the biodiversity of the area without negatively impacting the environment," he said, adding Veseys complies with the seed purity requirements of the Canada Seeds Act.
...
"Consumers throughout the entire U.S. will find any of the varieties contained in our seed mix in the many seed racks carried by all the major chains such as Lowes, Home Deport, Walmart, etc.," explained Barrett.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-veseys-seeds-wildflower-mix-questions-gmo-invasive-species-1.4032641 [www.cbc.ca]