US: Does the new phlox feed insects well?
Today, horticulturists have discovered or created hundreds of new garden varieties, or “cultivars." New cultivars have been bred for improved color and disease-resistance.
“These may look wonderful in your garden,” Nevison says,” but they raise a number of ecological questions.”
Phlox, he notes, are only pollinated by butterflies and moths, which use the flowers’ nectar as a food source. Any impact these new phlox cultivars have on pollinators, however, is not yet understood. It is unclear if new cultivated varieties of phlox provide the same level of nutrition for those insects as varieties found in the wild, in the same manner that apples bred for improved color may have lost some of their taste.
Click here to read the complete article at www.delawareonline.com.