By: T Henson

T Henson
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 20:06:04 +0000

Thank you for pointing out that the real problem is the lack of flowers for pollinators in urban environments. The Cheerios bee packet was a general purpose mix of adaptable flowers that provide nectar and pollen to bees and other pollinators. It was intended for home gardens and not sustainable landscapes like wildland areas, roadsides, pollinator strips in croplands, etc. Many people, including experts in various fields, criticized the mix for being inappropriate for these plantings, but that wasn’t its purpose.

The original blog was full of inaccurate information. The forget-me-not was NOT Myosotis scorpioides – it’s not even available in the seed trade. The California Poppy is not invasive throughout the southeastern U.S. The blogger was critical of the non-native plants in the mix, but she recommended that people should check out University extension websites for pollinator plant recommendations. I looked at a few dozen, and most listed BOTH native plants and non-native garden flowers that are good for pollinators.

There’s a growing body of research that suggests that mixing native and non-native plants in designed landscapes and home gardens can benefit pollinators. These are just a few:
Stewart, Scott (2016) “Pollinators benefit from mixing native and non-native plants”. Ecological Horticulture, Mar 29.
Garbuzov, Mihail and Francis Ratnieks (2014) “Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower-visiting insects.” Functional Ecology 28, 364-374.
Salisbury, Andrew et al. (2015) “Enhancing gardens as habitats for flower-visiting aerial insects (pollinators): should we plant native or exotic species?” Journal of Applied Ecology 52, 1156-1164.
Frankie, Gordon W. et al (2014) “California Bees & Blooms: a guide for gardeners and naturalists”