"HettieŽ" wrote in message
...
I've always wanted to try to attract goldfinches, too, so that is next but
I was worried about thistle seed spilling out. I let a volunteer thistle
grow one year so I could watch it (Sottish national flower) and took many
photos of it for practice mostly, one with a Monarch butterfly. I tried
not to let too many seed pods explode, but was busy with other things.
The next year quite a few thistles all over the yard. I got them all dug
out and under control, so don't think I'll do that again.
The "thistle seed" that is sold for bird feed isn't really a thistle. It's
Nyjer (sometimes Nyger) seed and it's in the sunflower family. If a seed
should happen to sprout it will look like a yellow daisy type flower and
have a very short, non reproductive life span. The Nyjer sold for feeders is
imported from Ethiopia and SE Asia, they've yet to get the stuff to
successfully grow as a harvestable crop anywhere in the US or Canada so
having it sprout up and take over most likely won't be a problem you need to
worry about. Also the imported seed is now heat sterilized so it won't
sprout (that regulation was around 1998) just to make sure non native plants
that may be invasive wouldn't be introduced.
If you want more info about "it's not a thistle seed" you can read it here.
http://www.ebirdseed.com/nyjer_niger..._birdseed.html
Val