Quite a number of plants, even purportedly bee-friendly plants, that were bought from big-box store garden departments such as Lowe's, Home Depot, and Walmart, have been found to be coated in neonicotinoids, the pesticides that kill bees. These pesticides, by the way, do not wash off.
We are losing 30% of our honeybees each year, but profit apparently comes before the planet, even in the face of such devastating losses. These stores are well aware of the problem, but thus far have refused to do anything about it.
Our own EPA has a revolving door with executives at Monsanto, and is tremendously corrupt. The EPA, whose mandate is to protect the environment, continues to permit neonicotinoids to be used, despite irrefutable evidence that they are responsible for massive die-offs of our pollinators, and are also harmful to birds and butterflies.
Read more about this problem here: http://www.wired.com/2014/06/garden-center-neonicotinoids/
