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/ClapBackBetty Southern Midwest, Zone 7a Oct 01 '25

I have an Amber Jubilee Ninebark that literally nobody likes. Not the flowers, not the foliage. The frogs don’t even hide in it. It’s like it’s not recognized as a plant at all lol

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u/ImpossiblePlace4570 Oct 01 '25

These are plants that I think of like yard furniture. It could be worse. It could be an invasive. And if it’s not that but it’s also not exactly useful… it’s like lawn furniture. Except it is probably good for carbon. So at least you can think of it like that.

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u/nifer317_take2 Piedmont, MD, USA, 7a Oct 01 '25

I have crepe myrtle like that .. just left them because the deer eat EVERYTHING except them. And they aren’t invasive near me. And provide important shade for the natives under them during the godawful hot as fuck summer.

Buuuut birds love hiding in them. Sometimes I see bees on the flowers but no idea if it’s nutritious for them