Hi! what would you recommand for attracting hummingbirds? I am looking for bushes that bloom for most of the summertime.
Thank you all
HELP best hummer bushes
They love my butterfly bushes. I do put out lots of feeders for them. Last year I had 7 in different spots in the yard. I had many hummers, and was entertained all summer.
Do you have a long flowering cultivar? Or is there any cultivar that seems to attract them more?
Thank you so much.
Lilac is a great hummingbird attractor. They say that the Ruby throateds time their spring migration to the bloom time of the lilac.
Also different kinds of buckeye bushes and trees --red buckeye and ohio buckeye--are favorites in spring.
They also love red cypress vine. Those bloom later but the hummers drop out of the sky for them. I can share some seeds if you'd like.
I also saw a lot of the swallowtails on my yellow lantana last year.
Diane
Out here in south Texas, zone 9, hummers go nuts over Turk's Cap, Campsis Radicans, Mexican Flame Vine, Fire Bush (hamelia patens) and Sapphire Showers/Golden Dewdrop Bush (duranta repens).
When my bananas trees start blooming and putting out fruit they fight over the blooms.
Of course, they fight over the feeders too :o)
Pretty much all of those I mentioned grow and bloom all year around down here...then again, we don't usually have freezing temperatures or a real Winter.
~ Cat
This is a photo of the Turk's Cap hibiscus.
I will try some of your suggestions for the first time this year, although I do not know if they will flower the first year from sowing, I am incredibly excited to see them bloom. Anybody ever started the folowing from seeds? How much time before the first bloom?
Turk's Cap
Fire Bush
butterfly bushes
Zarcanat,
The Turk's Cap and Fire Bush grow quickly and bloom even when they are still under a foot...they both can grow 5 to 6 feet tall if left unpruned. I have hedges of the fire bush on both sides of my driveway that I let grow to about 6 feet. I prune them back during the fall season. The turk's cap is grown at all the local butterfly parks. I don't have that in my yard and have never bothered to gather seeds...since the plant can be bought in gallon pots at Lowe's and other garden centers for a very reasonable price.
Those plants and bushes remain green all year long and bloom pretty much the same...but that's the south Texas climate...very different from the snow and freeze ya'll get in the upper north.
I have several butterlfy bushes in my yard as well but the hummies rarely visit those. They stick with the firebush, banana tree blooms, duranta and the feeders. I usually hang out a dozen or so 32 ounce feeders from the backporch eaves and another 30 or so smaller 10ml recycled insulin bottle feeders all around the yard hanging from trees, trellises and amongst the flowers.
~ Cat
A couple of other plants are the Texas Betony (also known as Scarlet Hedgenettle) and Penstemon Pinifolius 'Nearly Red'. The Texas Betony blooms from midsummer to Fall. The Penstemon Pinifolius attracts when in bloom. Another plant is the Cape Honeysuckle. It takes up the slack time of other plants in Spring.
I have also read that, in order to attract regular hummingbirds, you may have to provide a feeder during the first season so that they will become familiar to your area. I have two in my small backyard.
Good luck,
Chuck
Thanks TPP, I will see this summer if I am to north to be a texan seed grower hehehe! The other thing that I do not know is, even if these plants bloom here, would they supply sufficient nectar and would the hummers be interested int them. I will see this summer with some chance.
CB, I already have addicted the hummers, my summer place is filled with neighbors that have feeders so I do not even bother to fill one once my flower pots are in place. It is so much fun to see them gather the nectar, a bloom at a time. I sowed Penstemon Pinifolius last year, I hope it will bloom this summer although I have hard time keeping it inside this winter.
Dear zarcanat,
Good for you that you have a steady supply of hummingbirds frequenting your summer place. I will let you know about a couple of other plants that I am trying this year: Agastache(Desert Sunrise), salvia greggii and coral bells. This is the first year that my French Lavender has bloomed and it is attracting the hummingbirds, too...although I didn't know that its violet flowers would attract them.
Good luck!!
Chuck
My Mexican Bush Sage has been blooming a lot the last few years. The first year it bloomed in the Fall but then it started blooming in Spring too, so it's usually always in bloom. The butterflies and the hummers just love them.
Thanks Konkrete, I was just about to throw this one away because I never succeeded in making it bloom, I will give it a last chance from what you are saying.
Oh yes, please give it another try! I'm not sure why it's not blooming tho. I wonder if it requires more heat? I have no idea what kind of weather you have, but I know it's colder than here! lol What are your Spring and Summers like?
I read that it is a short day bloomer and I never let it outside until it get the appropriate daylenght I guess. I take it inside around the first week of october and then put it under fluorescent light for 12h a day. The first time I overwintered a small cutting it bloomed under 10h daylenght. This summer I will let it grow a nice size and try to see what it will do, if it blooms a suffiently long time in spring, it might worth it (cannot take i outside until the end of may here).
zarcanat-- can you give your Mexican sage a sunnier spot?
Also, do you have any 'Superthrive' on your garden shelf? Maybe your mexican sage needs a shot of growth/bloom vigor?
Also, you might try giving it a good watering next spring with a quarter cup of hydrogen peroxide in a 1/2 gallon of water...try some of that on your penstemons, too, this spring, to give them a boost.
You can pick up 3% hydrogen peroxide at the grocery or drug store or Big Lots for 50 cents a bottle or less. Then mix a little with a bucket of water.
.....Just some 'sickly flower/plant booster' ideas from other threads going right now on DG.... that I thought I'd pass along. (-: t.
Hey T, what's this about the hydrogen peroxide? Never heard of using it on plants, but have some fairly new pennstemons that I could give it to.
What does it do? What is the principle behind?
Hydrogen peroxide/water solution-- 1 part (3%) H2O2 to 20 parts water-- is said to 'oxygenate' the root systems of sickly plants or plants that need a 'wake up call'. Something about the extra oxygen molecule bonding with the roots to really give the plant a good dose of it...
You can find this (3%) Hydrogen Peroxide in the grocery or drug store or even the Dollar Store (it's about $.50 a bottle).
Gardeners use this H2O2 solution for all sorts of things-- including soaking seeds before planting for quick and/or high rates of germination; for sanitizing the soil in seed flats and potted plants (getting rid of gnats), soaking roots of transplants... that sort of thing.
I heard about it and have been researching (googling) it and many well respected organizations and gardeners use the solution to give plants a 'boost' and to 'perk up' stressed plants.
There are several threads on DG discussing it now...
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/576085/
Sounds interesting. I have used it on seedlings before. It comes in handy for all kinds of things, so I'll give it a try. Thanks!
Edward Goucher (Pink) Abeila works pretty good to attract hummers as well. Blooms all summer.
Thank you very much. :-))