Totally agree, Ann--and there are tons of pesticide-making companies very happy to keep all these attitudes going.
'Weeds' are bad, bugs are bad--let's go buy some more chemicals!
I was at a major Maryland nursery this past spring and asked about Viola walterii 'Silver Gem'. I was told that they didn't carry plants like that because 'most people consider them weeds'. Then I realized that there was not a single insect anywhere to be seen among acres of plants, and remembered the stories I've heard about some nurseries drenching their plants in pesticides before putting them out to sell.
Now, I prefer going to the nurseries that feature native plants and have bees and butterflies flying among their stock. :-)
So, it is a lot of interconnected things--consumer beliefs, media that keeps those beliefs alive, companies that sell "-cide" products and services for the yard, and so on.
I do see occasional lights in the darkness, though--more and more nurseries deciding to stop the pesticide drenchings, more of them featuring natives, more awareness about the importance of bees and butterflies to our planet. Just have to keep working at it, as daunting as it seems!
