Japanese Barberry

Japanese Barberry is an incredibly invasive species here in the Northeast so I was shocked to find it's seed for sale here!

It has many negative characteristics, spreading in multiple ways, thorny, crowding out the understory, perfect tick habitat, and so on. I finally found one redeeming feature, it's listed as a good bee forage!

there are a number of plants that fit that bill. Japanese knotweed is a great nectar source, for example. Scotch broom is a decent source of nectar and pollen. English ivy is an important source late in the year. but most predominantly out here, Himalayan blackberry provides our largest nectar flow by a safe margin.

I don't go planting any of those things, but I'm also not quite so dead set against them as most folks seem to be.

Maybe we should rename this thread "Plants we are not so dead set against."

Is honeysuckle invasive where you are? It's right up there with Japanese Barberry here. I guess the flowers are too deep for honey bees but I read that they can get nectar/pollen after bumble bees have visited the flower and my husband did spot a few honey bees on a big honeysuckle we were observing.