Why Your Garden Needs Organic Plants

Much of what we do at Bees N Blooms is aimed at providing habitat for pollinators of all sorts—bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and more. An important part of our approach is that the plants we produce in our nursery are certified organic. But what happens if pollinator-attractive plants are NOT grown organically? The news is not good.

Research Shows Many Pollinator-Attractive Plants are Toxic to Pollinators

Wearing my other hat as a scientist at Pesticide Research Institute, our research team worked with Friends of the Earth to sample pollinator-attractive plants from the “big-box” stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s and test them for the class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids. These pesticides are highly toxic to insects, long-lived in the environment, and water-soluble enough to be taken up systemically into the plant tissue, poisoning the pollen and nectar that our pollinators depend on.

Our research showed that 51% of the pollinator-attractive plants tested in 2014 contained neonicotinoids. We published these results in a report called Gardeners Beware.  Friends of the Earth (FOE) had some serious conversations with Home Depot and Lowe’s, urging them to eliminate these pesticides from their products. Incentivized by bee “die-ins” in front of their stores, these companies worked with the nurseries that provide plants for them, requiring them to at least label the plants that had been treated with neonicotinoids so customers would know that the plants had been treated. The stores also began removing pesticide products with these chemicals from their shelves.

By 2016 when we tested again, the occurrence of neonicotinoids had dropped by more than half, to only 23% of plants tested containing neonicotinoids. Gardeners Beware 2016 summarizes these results.

We breathed a sigh of relief—the work had made a difference . . . so we thought. But when the California pesticide use data became available a few years later, it became clear that many of the nurseries had just shifted to a different insecticide—cyantraniliprole. Still highly toxic to pollinators, still systemic and able to poison bees and butterflies through the nectar and pollen, and even longer-lived in the environment than neonicotinoids. NOT AN IMPROVEMENT!

Organic Nurseries Are Rare

It was clear to me that planting certified organic nursery plants would be the only way to ensure that my pollinator garden would be a source of abundant, non-toxic forage  for the pollinators. But where are the organic nurseries? It turns out that there are very few.

There are several reasons for this. One is that a shift to organic pest management requires time, care, and planning. Pesticides are insurance, require little planning, and are relatively cheap for the nursery. But they come at a significant cost to the pollinators, nursery workers, and the environment. A second reason is that in order to restrict the movement of invasive pests, the California Department of Food and Agriculture REQUIRES nurseries to treat any host plants with a pesticide that will kill the pest before shipping it to a different region of the state or to another state. The range of host plants can be large, depending on the invasive pest, which makes it more time-efficient for nurseries to just treat every plant in their nursery. And that’s bad for pollinators!

Bees N Blooms Provides Certified Organic Plants to the Local Area

Bees N Blooms is certified Organic under the US Department of Agriculture National Organic Program by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). We are inspected annually to maintain that certification. In our nursery, we grow most of our plants from seed and sell them locally. We are not required to treat our plants because we don’t ship, so they are clean and safe for pollinators.

We do buy some non-organic perennial plug plants from another vendor and grow them up for resale. We have a list of pesticides this nursery uses, and there are no pesticides on that list that are long-lived, water soluble, and toxic to bees. Under our care, these plants are handled under organic growing conditions, and by the time they are old enough to bloom, we feel confident that these plants are safe for pollinators. However, organic rules require that they cannot be labeled as organic until they have been managed under organic conditions for one full year. Our plant labels make this distinction clear.

This year, we have a great selection of certified organic pollinator-attractive perennials. Our selection includes:

• Black-eyed Susan: Rudbeckia, with varieties ‘Indian Summer’ (black centers) and ‘Prairie Sun’ (green centers)
• Purple coneflower
• Several varieties of Agastasche (hyssop), including Bolero, Apricot Sprite, Astello Indigo, Apache Sunset, and Anise Hyssop
• Bee Balm, Panorama mix
• Yarrow, including Cloth of Gold and Cerise Queen
• Several varieties of Gaillardia, including Arizona Sun, Mesa Peach, and Mesa Bright Bicolor
• Monkeyflower (white and orange/red)
• Butterfly bush
• Passionflower vine
• American Beautyberry
• Several varieties of lavender (not all certified organic), including Grosso, Folgate, Betty’s Blue, Hidcote Blue, Gros Bleu, Royal Purple, Munstead*, Provence*, and Hidcote Giant* (* these varieties not quite ready for sale here in early May, but will be available by mid- to late June)
• Coyote Mint (Monardella)
• Several varieties of catmint, including Greek, Blue Carpet, Select Blue, and Nevita White

Come on out to the farm stand and get some truly pollinator-friendly plants. The bees and butterflies will thank you!

See you on the farm!