:thankyou:
Guess that explains why there are more mosquitoes near my neighbor's yard. She has lots of ivy!

Amen Kayla!

At my birthday dinner this summer, our neighbor and good friend was asking if any of us knew where to buy flowers that had not been grown using neonicitinoids, and she explained briefly why it was of concern. That was the first I'd heard of this wrinkle (late June.)

No one knew what she was talking about, but now I'm grateful to have more information, and to be able to start flowering plants from seed (I hope the persistence of the neonic isn't strong enough to go into the seeds! Have to look into that.)

This gal started much of her garden, which she hopes to have become a food forest and a sanctuary for birds and pollinators, from the reduced-price plants at Lowes. I feel for her!

And the other thing I have been discussing with my cousins this morning, on this same subject, is that while it's a real unpleasant subject, it's so important to have the information, because we can in fact create sanctuaries and healthful places, but only if we know what we are working with and what to avoid.

ABSOLUTELY!

I'm not wealthy enough to get there fast but "started much of her garden, which she hopes to have become a food forest and a sanctuary for birds and pollinators" is my hope too!

One member, sadly I forget which one, said she buys only at nurseries where she SEES bees, butterflies, etc. If they are not at the plants, there's something wrong with the plants. I had never thought to put a nursery to that test, but it certainly makes sense. START with smaller, locally owned nurseries and look for pollinators. And one step farther, I'd ASK if they are strictly organic. If yes, I'm HOME. If no, not strictly, I'll buy there carefully until I find one that answers yes!

It was @Catmint20906 who said:
...nurseries drenching their plants in pesticides before putting them out to sell. Sad Now, I prefer going to the nurseries that feature native plants and have bees and butterflies flying among their stock.

I have been planting much more the last few years for birds and butterflies. It's paid off in seeing many honeybees this year and last. This year, I saw my first Swallowtail in AGES.

Celia!

I saw but one butterfly in my yard all last summer. It isn't for lack of plants they like or because I use chemicals and such (because I don't), but for some reason I don't know. This year my gardens are just buzzing with birds, bees and butterflies, and it's so wonderful! I've had red admirals, swallowtails, monarchs, Snowberry clearwing moths and cabbage whites and lots of big furry bumblebees and birds nearly every day.
Note to all humans....insect life will persist long after homo sapiens has poisoned itself out of existence.

Thanks, @Crittergarden Couldn't agree more with you guys!

I was delighted to buy these 2 plants this weekend at a nursery where they don't pretreat:


In addition to the Great Spangled Fritillary, there were lots of skippers. It was delightful to be there browsing and watching them, plus I could see for myself which plants were really attracting the pollinators.

Very sad to imagine these same two great pollinator plants being sold already pretreated with pesticides and poisonous.

foraygardengirl said:I saw but one butterfly in my yard all last summer. It isn't for lack of plants they like or because I use chemicals and such (because I don't), but for some reason I don't know.

Same situation here... a few years back we had countless Monarchs, with several generations raised on the milkweed that I let grow in my perennial garden; then last year and this year, almost none. I've only recently seen 2 of them flying about, so maybe they are laying eggs -- I need to go out and check! And I always used to have swallowtail cats on my dill, which I grow a lot of mostly for that purpose, but in the last 2 years... none! I think it has a lot to do with the last two winter/spring weather patterns in the north here. Makes me wonder how the weather is affecting insect life in other places...

Nice butterfly on that pur coneflower there Catmint!

What's a skipper? Picture?

Here Cat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...)

Thanks, J!

Cat, the type of skipper they had the most of there nectaring on the coneflowers was the Silver Spotted Skipper. Here's a photo I have of one enjoying my Verbena 'Lollipop'.



I also wanted to add that, consistent with what I've observed in my own garden, the pollinators were *not* visiting the double bloom coneflowers, but they were all over the single bloom ones.

Catmint20906 said:
Very sad to imagine these same two great pollinator plants being sold already pretreated with pesticides and poisonous. :-(

And infuriating to see them sold that way with customers not forewarned!

I am wondering about my two dill plants. I bought them from Lowes because it was so late in the season and I really wanted some dill. I don't believe I've seen any flying insects near the flowers.

I haven't read the article yet but am forming lots of questions about the details of how this works. Do the bees and butterflies just stay off these flowers grown with this substance?

Have a red coreopsis I bought at a nursery, a large one but local, and I have no idea if they grew out the plant or bought a lot of them from a supplier, but there were swarms of little bees all over it at first, not honeybees but some smaller bee (maybe a wasp, didn'tget that close a look.)