Interesting article about Neonicotinoid Insecticides by the American Bird Conservancy, including what you can do to help the pollinators:

http://abcbirds.org/behind-the...

If I buy plants from a non-native plant source, I always ask if their plants have any on them. If there is the least bit of hesitancy in the part of the employee, or the higher ups they ask, I don't buy it.

What saddens me terribly is my local, family-owned general purpose nursery uses neonics. I preordered some butterfly weed from him in the winter, saying No chemicals of any kind. He did this for me and I think I ended up with five flats of butterfly weed, but I want to support the owner. He had one good sized butterfly weed that I would have purchased, too, but asking about neonics, yes, he put some on that one. I grieve for the person who bought that thinking they were helping Monarchs.

When I asked him about this, especially since people want these plants for pollinators, why he does this? He said people want perfect plants and they will not pay for less than that. I am hoping more people are bringing this up to their local nurseries so their practices can change for the better.

Even local nurseries usually get many of their plants that are started by other companies. The nursery employees may or may not have any idea what's been put on the plants before they arrive in the nursery. I've found that it's very difficult to find out what chemicals have been applied to nursery plants. Ideally, starting plants from seed is best, but of course many people can't or won't do that. I do trust one local native plant nursery because I know the owner...their plants are safe to use. Another local native plant nursery does occasionally uses pesticides.

I grow all my Milkweed from seed scattered around my yard and just let it go ... basically wild! I only pull it up if it is in a location that is competing with a favorite plant of mine ... but I have had success transplanting those that do need to be moved.

LindaTX8 said:Even local nurseries usually get many of their plants that are started by other companies. .

Our local nursery does both depending on the plant. The big butterfly weed was started elsewhere. I think more people are becoming knowledgeable, thus causing some bigger stores to make changes. The thing is so many do not yet know or care, so the companies will also cater to them. I heard of one big box place labelling the plants that had neonics put on them, but just perusing places like that, the tags are lost, or at times put into the wrong pots.

When I first went into the local place looking for heirloom tomatoes, he was telling me he has customers asking for round-up ready tomatoes. Makes me concerned about buying "local" from farmer's markets.

"Round-up Ready? Such ignorance! Mother Nature should turn those GMOs into plants that don't produce anything, that would end those practices! I'm buying nonGMO labeled food whenever I can find it. Those companies are my heroes! Meanwhile the politicians are right now conspiring to pass laws to make it almost impossible to know if our food is safe!

My husband recently read something about Japan refusing to allow any GMO products into their country. When asked about this by some US official, their response was something to the effect of "We're waiting to see how it effects your children."

Yeah .... US is the guinea pig for GMO foods! Grrrr .....

Which means unless the kids are right away born with two heads, they'll decide it's perfectly safe and collect their bribes, it'll probably take decades to prove to the American government what many other countries already suspect is true!

Which means unless the kids are right away born with two heads, they'll decide it's perfectly safe and collect their bribes, it'll probably take decades to prove to the American government what many other countries already suspect is true! Right now, the sumacs are blooming and some butterflies have been coming to nectar. Normally, the sumac blooms would be covered with lots of buzzing bees. Haven't seen any! Where are they?

Last year, our flowers were teeming with all kinds of bees, honey, solitary, bumble. Strangely, later in the season we saw a lot of bees, but the honey bees were really sluggish as they fed on the flowers. They just did not act right.

This year, I have not seen many sluggish bees, but the numbers have dropped dramatically since last year. I may see only one or two bumbles in an area, where I had countless numbers last year.