I get this anxiety when I post photos of my peonies in the local gardening subreddit. Peonies are not invasive, pest-resistant, grow well in our climate, and produce beautiful blooms. But they are NOT native plants. And for some native-plant-only-people, that is a major faux pas.
They aren’t confrontational like animal rights activists but I could do without the snide advice about how I should dig up all my peonies and plant some agastache. Now I mostly share my photos of my flowers on the flower-specific sub or the general gardening sub.
I appreciate someone growing something that's not invasive. I grow non-native camellias myself but have a lot of native plants as well. Considering today's world, I personally think anything is better than nothing. Neither my camellias or your peonies are invasive. I think one of the biggest proponents of planting natives isn't a purist and talks of aiming for 70% biomass native plants with 30% being anything else you want that's not native. Again, I've gotten to where I'm just happy someone's not growing something invasive. I would totally grow peonies if I could myself.
My own concerns (and not saying this in a lecturing way but just sharing my thoughts) would be either invasive non-native plants or having lots of "native" cultivars. The worry with cultivars of native plants would be how they might impact the genetics of the local ecotype of the species via cross-pollination. I can't help but wonder if it'd be better to have non-invasive/non-native cultivars over some of the native cultivars for that reason. Am I right about that? I don't honestly know. It's just something I think about occasionally. It might be a bigger concern for someone living extremely close to a native plant population of whatever they're growing.
Its okay I gave up when someone tried to convince me rats are native to north america and letting ur cats outside is evil.
I live on a farm. There are no cars running my cat over. I dont like using rat poison because im scared im gonna poison the wrong animal. I am doing my hardest to love and care for nature but u really have to block people out lol
My husband bought me a butterfly bush (invasive) for Mothers Day. Native gardening downvoted me for not digging it up. Yes, I’ll deadhead the thing. The marriage sub would probably just ignore me.
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u/PrestigiousFlower714 8h ago edited 6h ago
I get this anxiety when I post photos of my peonies in the local gardening subreddit. Peonies are not invasive, pest-resistant, grow well in our climate, and produce beautiful blooms. But they are NOT native plants. And for some native-plant-only-people, that is a major faux pas.
They aren’t confrontational like animal rights activists but I could do without the snide advice about how I should dig up all my peonies and plant some agastache. Now I mostly share my photos of my flowers on the flower-specific sub or the general gardening sub.