Protect Your Pollinator Garden: Talk to your Local Nursery - Go Organic
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To protect pollinators, talk to your nursery

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03 Mar To protect pollinators, talk to your nursery

Posted at 19:22h in Gardening, Pollinators, Primary Post, profile, Uncategorized by
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Buying Bee-Safe Plants for Your Garden

Spring is coming and that means Xerces staff email inboxes will soon be peppered with requests for guidance on buying nursery plants. Many will contain questions like this: “I am excited about creating my first pollinator garden! I’ve heard that some plants can contain pesticides toxic to bees. How do I find plants that won’t harm the bees and butterflies I’m working to attract?”

It’s an important consideration because pesticides can linger in plants, putting foraging pollinators and other insects at risk.

Creating a welcoming home for local pollinators in your backyard or city park is reason enough to choose plants free from harmful pesticide residues. But how do you figure out if the plant you want is free of pesticides that can harm pollinators? How do you learn if the nurseries you patronize for your pollinator garden actively prevent pest problems instead of relying on pesticides as a routine fix?

Three ways to secure plants safe for bees are:

1. Ask for USDA certified organic plants and seeds,

2. Avoid plants grown with neonicotinoids and similar insecticides, and

3. Shop at nurseries that practice pollinator-friendly pest management.

Another way to be sure your plants are bee-safe is to grow your own.

Learn more by consulting our newly published guide, Buying Bee-Safe Plants, and its companion guide, Offering Bee-Safe Plants: A Guide for Nurseries, which explains pollinator-friendly production practices. Then, put it into action. This spring, we ask our supporters and followers to encourage nurseries across the country to incorporate pollinator-friendly pest management into their business. We invite you to join us on March 13 and/or April 22 for two nationwide days of action. Across the country, using tips from Xerces, pollinator supporters will fan out to talk to their nurseries, pressing for pollinator-friendly plant production. Learn more here.

Further reading:

Learn more on the Bee-Safe Nursery Plants web page

Read our fact sheet about Buying Bee-Safe Plants

Download a copy of Offering Bee-Safe Plants: A Guide for Nurseries to share with your local plant sellers