Serious question, why does everyone say native plants are automatically better?
Last week at the Raleigh botanical garden, a volunteer told my kids that native plants are always the right choice and anything else is basically wrong. I pushed back a little and she looked at me like I kicked her dog. Here is my issue: half the "native" tags at my local nursery are slapped on plants that do not even grow in my soil, and my non native zinnias feed more bees than the native stuff I planted two springs ago. I get the point about local bugs and water use, but I think we turned a good guideline into a rule with no room for argument. Anyone here actually tracked pollinator visits in their own yard and gotten results that surprised them?