Many months ago I was very interested in planting native wildflowers to create a pollinator garden. I ended up following through with the idea and planting some bulk seed I bought at a general garden store that supposedly consisted of “natives and non-invasives” for my broader region (pacific northwest). They started blooming about a month ago and many are still flowering now and the bees are all over it.
Now that I’m a bit more experienced, I’ve started contemplating whether it was wise to plant them at all.
On one hand, I was not familiar with most of the plants or their growing/spreading habits. I’ve been worried that flowers that are selected to be self-seeding could have a higher chance of becoming invasive if they escape the patch of my lawn. The store I bought the seed from has no online list of contents, so the only way I can do research is by going in store and seeing if they have any of the bulk seed mix left over and the list of contents written down somewhere.
On the other hand, they have successfully attracted tons of pollinators, are very pretty, and are relatively low maintenance.
So I guess to sum it up, my questions are:
Do more experienced folks on here think that the risks outweigh the benefits?
Should I keep them in the ground or rip up the patch before more of them go to seed?
Do you think in future I should avoid labels that market themselves as “Pacific Northwest Plant Mixes” if they contain non-natives? I feel a lot more wary of them now, and I wish I had done more research prior to planting them
The mess of a garden area that came with my house is overrun with “weeds”. Some of them I welcome happily the others I deadhead the flowers after pollination and before seeds explode. I wait to yank things unwanted until I know what they are for sure. It’s slow and there’s always some.
Identify as many as you can.
Don’t feel bad about the seed pack, you’re on the right path now.
Posting observation for id will help and so will checking your area’s county extension office and universities websites will help you, too
Edit: my daughter works for a park system. We discussed a recent wildfire and the clean up. She reminded me that as long as you stay on top of the invasives, and pull the non natives Nature will replenish the native plants. ( “that’s why they’re called natives, Mom”)
My strong feeling is that it is your garden and you can plant what you want, whether it’s native or not (unless it’s actually known to be invasive). Seems you and the insects are enjoying what you planted and that’s great!
If you want to make your work maximally beneficial for local plant populations as well as the insects, look around for local people or companies that sell seeds from your local area. You’ll probably have to select the species individually but some places may sell mixes.
I would. Many of our native bees are specialists who can’t exploit non-native plants. There are an increasing number of nurseries and seed providers who specialize in local native plants and most are more than willing to help new customers. Some will even make custom mixes for specific needs.
Edit: Now that I think of it one of the owners(?) of one of the specialist PNW wildflower nurseries is an avid iNatter.
Very concisely, some issues to be taken into account:
is this plantation intended to be in a wild habitat or in a garden?
are the species to be planted native in the area?
do you have the strength to maintain that plantation? Usually such planted meadows do not last for long and are superseded by wild plants that are more competitive
are the terrains where you intend to make that plantation public or private? With all that follows
I’m obviously biased but I also don’t like telling people what to do with the space they steward, I would just caution that you should be prepared to control what you have introduced, especially if you are in a wilder area compared to one that is more developed (in theory contained and already compromised).
Introduced plants are only “non-invasive” until they aren’t. Species included in these mixes tend to be the ones that do just fine on their own and spread easily, meaning they will naturalize and have the potential to invade less compromised areas and out-compete the native species there. I’ve been watching an invasion of bachelor buttons take over many of the natural areas near me (east end of the Columbia Gorge) over the last 20 years (my time here, the invasion predates me) that was likely introduced in this way.
I’m not an expert in this aspect, and there are folks who can speak to this better, but many of the plant species in these mixes will provide nectar to the adult pollinators (bees) but do not provide compatible pollen (lack of shared evolutionary history) for them to collect to rear their young. Also these non-native plants may be able to provide nectar to butterflies, but are inedible to caterpillars (again lack of shared evolutionary history). This is kinda like having a town full of bars with nowhere to get food. So I would always favor planting locally appropriate native species for the pollinators.
I do wish there was more locally appropriate native seed available that’s easy to access. There are groups, agencies, non-profits, businesses and others working on this for all levels of need, from home landscapes to large scale restoration. There are some great sources out there but it may take some googling and calling around to find them. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to endorse businesses here on the forum and I’m obviously not sure exactly where you’re at, but I would recommend checking out Northwest Meadowscapes the next time you’re looking for seed.
Thanks for your reply, that is sort of what I suspected. Thankfully I live in the middle of the city and the flower patch was only about 1 x 10 feet long against the house. I’ve slowly been pulling them as they finish flowering, before they go to seed, and I don’t intend to sow any new seeds in a mix like that next year.
I’ll check out Northwest Meadowscapes (and try to do my research better this time!) I wonder of they extend into Canada or if it’s only an American company
Northwest Meadowscapes does ship to Canada and when we used to offer seed for sale we had minimal issues sending seed to BC. The only one being some species that are common here are listed in BC (pretty sure it was Triteleia grandiflora) and we never got a clear answer if we could send those.
Definitely seems you’re on the right track now!
Ironically, my first red flag should have been the fact that I’d noticed a problem with bachelor’s buttons in my area and spent several hours hand picking out all of those seeds from the seed mix because I couldn’t find any mixes without those in them…
I wouldn’t plant any mix with a non-native species. That’s what my biggest rule would be.
In Michigan, people saw companies selling ‘native’ wildflower mixes and planted these mixes thinking they were planting native plants. Unfortunately, some of these mixes contain baby’s breath, which is not native. This species is really good at sprawling and crowding out other plants. In addition, its roots are very shallow. Baby’s Breath got into national parks and started growing on the sand dunes and crowding out the local flora. An important thing about the natives which usually grow on sand dunes is that their roots are long and hold the sand together, keeping the dunes from falling apart. In dunes where baby’s breath has taken over, entire dunes are collapsing.
As long as the plants you are seeding are native to your location and ecosystem, I don’t see any problem with planting wildflowers. The biggest thing is checking what species are included in mixes, even if they say ‘native’
I hope this helps, and good luck with your wildflowers!
