I was at Lowe's today and saw a beautiful Penstemon; 'Ruby Candle'. It had the yellow Lowe's plant tag and on the back of it, it stated something like (don't remember the exact words) .... check for pesticide warning. I didn't see anywhere on the tag for any pesticide warning and I don't have a smart phone, so I couldn't take a pic of what it said.

I didn't get it, but it has been on my mind and I'd love to get it tomorrow if they still have Penstemon 'Ruby Candle' plants. It is hardy to zone 4. It wasn't in the database, so I submitted it as a new plant tonight.

Before I saw the Penstemon, I saw some Coral Bells that didn't have Lowe's plant tags and got 2 of them.

Can y'all help please?

What they are real bad about, I would say they have 6 or 7 Heuchera at the store near me and almost everyone is tagged wrong.

I picked up two of the Ginger Ale Heucheras. They looked to be the correct named variety.

To try to answer your original question Home Depot has removed neonicotinoids from 80% of their plants so far and supposed to get rid of them by 2018. Lowe's is supposed to be done with them by 2019.
Ginger Ale is a real nice one I hope they do well for you.

Lowe's to Stop Selling Bee-Killing Plants link dated Apr 13, 2015....

http://news.discovery.com/anim...

(cross posted)

Bob,

Do you think the Penstemon plant will be ok? Or any of their plants?

The article did not give a percentage of how much they have phased out so far. So no way to know if they are on there.

I think Heuchera 'Ginger Ale' was in a Monrovia pot, btw.

Per this article, Monrovia still uses neonicotinoids, although it appears this is from 2015 and they may have changed their policy since then. I just don't buy plants from big box stores, period. I don't trust that they use good practices, and their employees are generally clueless when asked. I stick with local nurseries and ask about their buying/maintenance policies beforehand.

http://northcoastgardening.com...

All depends on the store,some get their plants from local nurseries and some get them shipped from all over the country. Some have good plant people and some do not.