Cheerios’ Gives Away Bee-Friendly Wildflower Seeds: THIS Is What You Need To Know!

David Avocado Wolfe

Bee populations have been in sharp decline over the last 20 to 50-years. Reasons include pesticides and unfavorable landscape changes. Bees need pollinating plants to survive. In an effort to curb the decline, the cereal company Cheerios gave out 1.5 Billion wildflower seeds for Americans and Canadians to plant.

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The idea was that if enough people plant the wildflowers the dwindling bee populations would have more nectar and pollen to feed on, increasing their populations. The campaign started just weeks before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the first continental-U.S. bee species on the Endangered Species List.

So what’s all the buzz about Cheerios? Their well-intentioned (and creative) “Bring Back the Bees” seed dispersal campaign included wildflower seed varieties that should not be grown in certain areas.

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Cheerios inadvertently sent thousands of people potentially invasive wildflowers to plant in their backyards. If planted in an area outside the wildflower’s natural range in a place where it is considered invasive, the new flower has the potential to spread and wreak havoc in the landscape. However, the invasive wildflowers may still be beneficial to the bees Cheerios was seeking to help. Taking a cautious stand, some are encouraging the Cheerios wildflower seed recipients to not plant the seeds.

Though the seed packet campaign was an “oops” for Cheerios, it turns out Cheerios has done other things to help bees bounce back.

In spring 2016, Honey Nut Cheerios announced that in four years farms growing oats for the cereal will house approximately 3,300 total acres of dedicated pollinator habitat. The work is being done on 60,000 acres of land through a partnership with General Mills, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Past planting efforts have found that bee habitats around farmlands can potentially double the amount of bees in the area!

What You Can Do

Did you already order Cheerios seeds? The good news is you have 4-6 weeks to decide what you will do when you receive the seed packets. When they arrive, you have two choices – do not plant them or find out if they are safe for your area. The Bee Friendlier Mix packets from Veseys Seeds are a mixture of 20 annuals and perennials. The mix includes:

Lavender Hyssop, Rockcress, New England Aster, Beeplant, Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, Plains Coreopsis, Dwarf Cosmos, Chinese Forget-Me-Not, Purple Coneflower, Aspen Daisy, California Poppy, Annual Gaillardia, Globe Gilia, Tidy Tips, Sweet Alyssum, Bergamot, Forget-Me-Not, Baby Blue Eyes, Corn Poppy and Ohio Spiderwort.

To determine if these 20 wildflowers will be suitable for your area, meaning non-invasive for your state, you can try to contact your local USDA Agricultural Extension Service. You can also try using the USDA’s PLANTS database.

Looking for another solution? Buy local wildflowers and plant those instead. You can purchase local wildflower seeds from Xerces or native nurseries in your area and plant those. Xerces, an organization dedicated to supporting pollinators (ironically an organization Cheerios claims to have partnered with in the campaign), provides locally customized, ecologically friendly seed mixes. Xerces also publishes regional gardening guides to help you figure out the best plants to buy.

Another way to help the bees, don’t spray pesticides. Ask your landscaping service not to either. You can even take the Xerces pollinator pledge swearing that you’ll lay off the insecticides, and that you’ll grow plants that nourish bees and other pollinators (like butterflies and their caterpillars) year-round.