I’ve been getting lots of questions about where to get seeds and what to plant in the garden. I have read a lot about the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on bees and I am concerned about folks planting seeds that have been pre-treated with neonicotinoids. If you remember the reports from last year, 54% of a set of plants purchased at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Orchard Supply Hardware and other nurseries had been contaminated with neonicotinoid pesticides. While the study only sampled a small number of plants, they took them from very different stores in very different regions of the country which made me think the results fairly represented what we might end up buying on a typical shopping trip for spring garden plants. These pesticides do have negative effects on bees. The best readable work that I’ve seen that summarizes the research to date on neonicotinoids is in this research article.
We’ve been recommending people look for Renee’s Garden Seeds. We’ve partnered with Renee for a number of years and she has offered to pass along 25% of her proceeds to the Great Sunflower Project. If you use the Coupon Code FR225A and whether you buy Lemon Queen sunflowers to participate in our pesticide research project or some other plants (which you can also use to count pollinators), 25% of the proceeds will be donated to us. Renee has confirmed that they never pre-treat any of their seeds whether they are organic or not.
Now, if you work at a seed company that doesn’t pre-treat you seeds and would be willing to send a coupon to us to distribute to all our participants to get free seeds, give me a call!