Native plants insects need!
Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides used to prevent insect damage on plants. These insecticides are a threat to pollinators and other beneficial insects when they are used to grow plants sold in nurseries. Since one of the major benefits of gardening with native plants is feeding insects who sustain the food chain, we want to avoid those plants. But how?
Increasingly, nurseries are able to hold themselves out as neonicotiniod free. Typically, these nurseries are either growing their own plants or working with a small network of growers they know and trust. If a retail nursery is not growing its own plants from seed, ensuring plants are neonicotiniod free can be a complex and labor intensive effort as often times seedlings are grown by one nursery, shipped to a grower or two who nurture the plants to reach retail size when they are then shipped to the nursery where you shop -- lots of stops along the way.
A couple of weeks ago, the weekly post listed our native plant nurseries here in the central Chesapeake watershed. There were some good questions about which nurseries are neonicotinoid free. The list that follows are the native plant nurseries I am aware of who believe they are neonicotinoid free. This is not to say plants in other nurseries or garden centers have been treated with neonicotiniods. It may be those businesses do not have the capacity to undertake the significant effort to ascertain this or other factors at play. It's always worth asking. Some nurseries may be able to tell you which plants they are certain are not treated.
Also, some plant brands are specifically labeled as "neonic free." American Beauty Native Plants are always sold in the light green pots, are available at many of the garden centers in our area and are grown without neonicotinoids. Here is the list.
Nurseries
Baltimore City
Ellicott City, Maryland (Howard County)
Pylesville, Maryland (Harford County)
(Queen Anne's County, MD)
Hamilton, VA
Bethesda, MD (Montgomery County)
Order & Pick-up Nurseries
Ridgely, MD (Caroline County)
Washington D.C. and Friendship, MD (Anne Arundel County)
Hollywood, MD (St. Mary's County)
Upper Marlboro MD (Prince Georges County)
Springfield, VA
St. Michaels, MD (Talbot County)
Alexandria, Virginia
On-Line Mail Order Nurseries
Chevy Chase, MD
Washington D.C.
Cobbs Creek, VA
Richmond, VA
My major concern is I inadvertently leave a nursery off of the list. If you are a nursery selling neonicotinoid free native plants and are not listed here, please leave a comment below and I will follow up with a post! Thank you in advance for your patience.
It's spring! Happy Gardening.
