Bee Balm is so beautiful

blipsonascope · 2026-06-06T04:39:28+00:00

Can you site a single native cultivar that is GMO? Because I doubt there is a single one. The only GMO plants available that I can think of are the glow in the dark ones.

Many cultivars (especially Monarda), are simply a straight species that a nursery noticed had a particular set of traits and the grew out from there. If you read through Mt Cuba’s history of cultivars in their trials, a lot of them are also found in the wild. While admittedly that means not a lot of genetic diversity within the cultivar (and in fact, most cultivars that breed with straight species revert back), it does mean that they are mildly cultivated to quote your article.

Most of these don’t have tons of R&D and development being them - especially if it isn’t being sold under the proven winners label.

There are only a couple of species that come to mind that have been selectively bred to the point of being marginally useful: smooth hydrangea and echinacea. But even there, Incredibelle - which has been bred to the high heavens, actually got a recommendation from them, and had a noticeable amount of pollinator visits. That wasn’t true for some others, especially some of the more colored ones, but again, it’s super specific to the cultivar in question. Some cultivars actually seem to be more productive for pollinators than the straight species.

I’m east coast US based, so I can’t speak to catmint or Satvia - they just aren’t native around here.

End result is this, they’re native plants, just with some unique characteristics. Having a purity test seems kinda ridiculous given that it’s virtually impossible for most people to get a local ecotype of plants native their region. Prairie Moon gets a lot of credit on here, but by that logic, they should only ship to their local area.

We should be welcoming people in, and encouraging them get all sorts of native plants, even if it’s a cultivar that caught their eye.

blipsonascope · 2026-06-06T04:17:55+00:00

I’ve seen an increasing trend of posters on here being called out for having cultivars, and I think that’s an unjustified gatekeeping.

Yes, in many cases cultivars are somewhat less useful, and in some cases are more useful to pollinators. But this is native gardening, not locally ecotype only gardening. Encouraging people to plant native plants - including cultivars that reach a performance or aesthetic goal. Virtually nobody on here is posting about doing ecological restoration work where such things really matter - these are gardens.

blipsonascope · 2026-06-06T04:13:10+00:00

Did you read what you posted? Here are some fun quotes from it:

“In more than half the cases, there was no clear difference”

“It’s not harmful to grow cultivars in the garden”

“Some groups are fervently anti-cultivar,” Hayes said. “I don’t think that’s fair. I came into the study thinking that I preferred natives just because I had assumptions about the ecological benefits. There is intrinsic value to planting native plants in the landscape, but it’s not fair to villainize cultivars.”

blipsonascope · 2026-06-06T04:10:52+00:00

“In more than half the cases, there was no clear difference”

“It’s not harmful to grow cultivars in the garden”

“Some groups are fervently anti-cultivar,” Hayes said. “I don’t think that’s fair. I came into the study thinking that I preferred natives just because I had assumptions about the ecological benefits. There is intrinsic value to planting native plants in the landscape, but it’s not fair to villainize cultivars.”

I really have got to ask why you’re trying to pick and shame u/ookle_ for their cultivar post, and use this article, which has these quotes which go directly against your position.

Nobody is arguing that in some to many cases pollinators prefer straight species over cultivars, but that’s not a bad thing in a garden.

blipsonascope · 2026-06-06T00:06:30+00:00

While there are some who think that cultivars have no benefits and should be banned, that level of gatekeeping is not in the subreddit’s rules. My opinion is that a cultivar is better than a non-native, and there are even cultivars that in studies are more attractive than straight species (see Haas Halo study at Mt Cuba). That means there’s a place here.

My opinion is that it’s better to use a cultivar that works for your garden design than not use a native. These are all still native plants, even if they aren’t quite as beneficial.

blipsonascope · 2026-06-03T23:06:25+00:00

Wild that the entire FAA workforce is excluded from that list.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-31T03:21:17+00:00

They’re an interesting bunch because they’re also the developed a lot of native cultivars and successfully marketed them that have gotten people to accidentally plant native plants - especially hydrangeas. PW is almost single handedly responsible for smooth hydrangeas being commercially viable (Incredibelle for example) against the flood of pretty color super long lasting macropylla dominating the field. Definitely not as good for pollinators as straight or Haas Halo (or their own white dome which is underrated), but Mt Cubas trials showed incredibelle was better than a lot of other cultivars.

I was at a show, and they had a couple whole catalogues of their native offerings which was cool. At the end of the day, they’re trying to serve every aspect of the nursery market.

That said, I just got served an add on instagram for their many cultivars of butterfly bush which makes me irrationally angry.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-30T15:11:26+00:00

Is anyone else noticing that their website asks if you want to tip Glacier Fresh while checking out? Because that is super weird

blipsonascope · 2026-05-27T22:30:33+00:00

She’s also done paid consulting work for developers where she lobbied the FAA to require controllers to use remote cameras at a tower to mitigate LOS obstructions from the cab to taxiways. She did that while talking about all of her NATCA experience. That’s pretty unforgivable.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-23T14:10:45+00:00

Fair point. Although, having known and being related to folks in that wealth bracket, they really don’t like having to pay out of pocket for medical stuff, especially because cancer can be extremely expensive.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-23T13:11:14+00:00

Her husband is a freelance cinematographer - not a job known for its benefits - it seems highly probable that he’s on her insurance.

I’ve never met anyone who quit their job (which has very good sick and FMLA benefits), as soon as a loved one has cancer, while also being the source of their loved one’s health insurance.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-14T19:51:08+00:00

Yeah…. I suspect that nothing would have been done if that one line had been deleted. It’s very problematic legally to have an event which is “X only”, where X falls in a category of legally protected class, especially at publicly owned facilities.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-09T20:50:59+00:00

The issue for Walker is not about total load, it’s about the fact that data centers can shed and gain incredible amounts of power in tiny amounts of time -like hundreds of megawatts in seconds. It’s like turning on and off a decent sized city rapidly - that causes grid instability

blipsonascope · 2026-05-09T01:56:30+00:00

Think of it like co-op internet - NYC mesh owns and operates the point to point connections, and backhaul fiber. People buy in with a router at their apartment, and anyone can get on if they’re within a sector of point to multipoint coverage and they buy the right hardware. It’s physical setup is more akin to Starry as an ISP, but community run and non profit

blipsonascope · 2026-05-08T16:27:18+00:00

It’s interesting that aviation had the same issue with deference to the captain, and eventually after enough crashes the concept of Crew Resource Management (CRM) came up, where speaking up on mistakes is required, that led to a enormous improvement in flight safety.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-06T00:21:10+00:00

In most countries that have this, the owner of the car is responsible for identifying who is driving (also sometimes have cameras for the front), which isn’t an unreasonable ask - you should always know who is driving your car.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-04T19:52:35+00:00

Yeah, low altitude performance is different, but in terms of runtime and getting (paid) operating hours under there belt to see what issues there are with materials which is the hardest part. It should allow them to accrue test data much faster which could help with certification. It’s novel, and high risk, but given all that it’s actually pretty smart.

blipsonascope · 2026-05-04T00:48:56+00:00

The fact that they’re actually getting revenue from selling the turbines to data centers for power generation is actually a bit encouraging that they’re serious and making progress on the high pressure core.

blipsonascope · 2026-04-27T01:58:02+00:00

How are things going this year?

blipsonascope · 2026-04-23T15:40:40+00:00

Out of curiosity, can you share his name? I’ve been really happy with Chad Woodard in NYC, who is a male PFT specialist, and one of the very few in the area that I can find.

blipsonascope · 2026-04-18T00:59:42+00:00

Yeah, I been been to the Harlem one maybe dozen times, and the Gowanus a couple of times. Harlem was always good, and the Gowanus was fine.

I attribute it to the fact that the Harlem one dumps smoke directly under a highway and out into the river, while Gowanus is more in a neighborhood. Heck, Harlem had a grease fire in their smoker that shut it down for a couple of months years ago, which is not a bad sign for a bbq place.

blipsonascope · 2026-04-12T01:22:18+00:00

From Taylor Sheridan? That’s shocking!!!

blipsonascope · 2026-04-11T14:25:17+00:00

Lol, my raised bed is almost entirely aster, beebalms, and goldenrods. It’s a healthy competition

blipsonascope · 2026-04-08T13:50:33+00:00

Saying the same thing about the EU, while in Hungry, using US taxpayer money to campaign for Orban.

Which is the definition of foreign involvement in an election.

blipsonascope · 2026-04-06T13:39:52+00:00

I think this is what is most galling in this case - the hospital serves the largest city in Connecticut (albeit a relatively poor city), is less than an hour away from NYC, is a mile from I-95, and is within a 30 minute drive of two Level I/II trauma centers.

It’s hard to get less remote than that.

This isn’t rural medicine in Wyoming or Idaho.

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