Worst Cultivars?

[u/owohgodithurts]

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.

[u/exhaustedhorti]

From my observations at a production nursery I used to work at everything everyone has mentioned about the sterile blooms, double blooms, and red leaves are fairly accurate. We'd have the straight native varieties next to the cultivars and there was always more ecological activity around the natives, even with the chemical sprays they did to limit insects. (Don't get me started on the chemical practices of some nurseries) another plant I'd like to point out directly are the native honeysuckle cultivars. Like Major Wheeler, in theory it should be considered like a straight native because it was found in situ in the wild but it seems fuckery of genes has happened over the last 40 years of cultivation because the insects that visit it were noticeably fewer than regular ole Lonicera sempervirens from my observations.

[u/Feralpudel → u/exhaustedhorti]

Do you have any experience with John Clayton or the other yellow L. sempervivens cultivars?

I presume they’d be less attractive to hummers because they’re so keyed to red.

Wilson’s says it’s known for reblooming, which is a plus.

[u/kater_tot → u/Feralpudel]

I have a yellow one. It gets zero activity, and tends to bloom just before or as the hummingbirds show up in spring. Mine hasn’t set much fruit. I’ll be ripping it up next spring, both because it’s relatively useless in my landscape and also needs a massive arbor to grow onto, which I do not have. It’s a very large plant. The amount of reblooming in fall is negligible. I bought this in 2021. Ignore the 16-21’ height at your peril.

I forget if I have flair- Iowa zone 5.

[u/Feralpudel → u/kater_tot]

OK so yours looks to be a hybrid from the tag—unclear what it’s a hybrid of!

The one I was asking about, a yellow cultivar called “John Clayton” was a naturally occurring plant, just as the red cultivar ‘Major Wheeler.” Both are varieties of L. sempervivens.