Green House – Danger Pesticides

This is a recent picture I took at the greenhouses at Forest Park.

The picture says it all, yet hundreds of people were jamming into the greenhouses to buy plants to give to mom for Mother’s Day.

While I know that Home Depot is marking their plants with pesticide labels, I wonder how many of the other plants we buy from other sources, have pesticides used in or on the plants and soil.

Note – a friend told me that she did buy some plants from Home Depot, but did not see the label. When she got home and took the plants out of the pots, she found the pesticide labels pushed down into the soil.

That’s the Catch 22 we face as gardeners. We want beautiful gardens that will attract pollinators, birds and wildlife, but we may be  killing them by planting pesticide laden plants.

I was talking to a candidate for state office who was walking the neighborhood and he bragged about the fact that he raises bees. We talked about colony collapse disorder and I asked him if his bees had been affected. He told me that despite the mild winter, he had lost all four of his hives. I wonder if all of the pesticide protected plants that we are putting into the ground may be part of the problem.

Even the “Organic” label may not be enough to indicate safe plants. Here’s a document on the permitted and prohibited items for the organic label.

Caveat Emptor – Buyer Beware – is something that we all need to heed when buying plants this year.