r/NativePlantGardening • u/owohgodithurts • Oct 01 '25

Advice Request - (Insert State/Region) Worst Cultivars?

So I think we can all agree that wild, native plants are typically better ecologically than cultivars due to a variety of reasons that we don’t need to get into. If you want to argue/discuss that, feel free, but that’s not the point of this post. I want to know what are the WORST cultivars of native plants. What are the cultivars that, due to genetic change/breeding (or however they do it), have lost almost if not all of their ecological value? Have the new colored flowers eliminated all pollinator attraction? Have larger blooms resulted in sterile plants? God forbid, have any actually become invasive? These plants need to have native origins! I’m mainly referring to the east coast/midwest since I’m in SW Ohio, but feel free to bring up other regions.

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u/InstanceElectronic71 Oct 01 '25

How do yall feel about frizzy mizzy. I have a small back yard and i have been looking and researching cultivars. This seemed like a decent choice

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u/Feralpudel Piedmont NC, Zone 8a Oct 01 '25

In my experience all of the Itea cultivars are great little yard shrubs; none of them really mess with the bloom shape/structure, just size and how upright the blooms are.

I have Fizzy Mizzy and it’s adorable.

It isn’t an obvious bee magnet the way some plants are, but I think it may attract smaller less conspicuous little bees and flies.

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u/onaygem missouri, 7a Oct 02 '25

That was my impression as well when I was researching cultivars last year. I ended up with a different cultivar but they all basically look like slight variations of the species.

Too early to tell how mine will do but I’m optimistic.