Today I stopped in at Lowes to purchase birdseed and began to talk with the cashier about her Hummingbirds this year. She said that she had HBs here until November 7th (very late for these parts) because she had a huge tubular flowered red vine on her arbor that the HBs would not leave alone. I don't know if she meant a trumpet vine or one of the ipomeoas, but it got me thinking about the best Hummingbird plants in our garden.
I can't say that we had any that plants that were real standouts this year, but I did find this wonderful newsletter, "The Hummingbird Nectar News", written by a couple in Madison, Wisconsin, analyzing the pros and cons of a variety of hummingbird nectar plants often touted for their attractiveness.
If you scroll down to the bottom of page 3 they review many different salvias, some vines and other HB plants. They especially recommend that you plant cuphea, trumpet honeysuckle, and canna indica in northern gardens, and then add other favorites as space and time allows...
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/mjrock/web/nectarnews9.pdf
They have done a lot of research and record-keeping on their garden so the newsletters are a great source of info for northern HB gardeners...
If you are a northern gardener do you have a stand-out Hummingbird plant in your garden?
Please let us know what you think...
Best Hummingbird Nectar Plants for Northern Gardens
I'll read it soon and post later. :-)
Well, fox, I have become obsessed with the salvias for northern gardens and am now bidding on some rare salvia seeds that 'Gerris' (a DG member) has listed on e-bay! These particular salvias are recommended in the Hummingbird Nectar article! I suppose I shouldn't mention it here on the WWW that I am bidding, but, the TV ad for e-bay says it's so much more fun to buy victoriously!! LOL or whatever!
I had all of my leaves mulched and piled on my compost pile today. And I'm having a load of compost delivered after Thanksgiving--am planning to make a new big sunny garden for the butterflies and hummingbirds....so fun!
Am also wondering about the Morning Glories. It seems like they would be great plants for the Hummingbirds, but I seldom see them recommended, except for the little red flowered varieties (can't think of their names now).
Fox, here's the link to the Agastache & Salvia forum thread with Rich Dufresne's comments about salvias for butterflies...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/742172/
Tabasco --
this was the first year i actually saw a HB in my yard, and it went right to the MG's.
IT was GrandPa Ott, so not even red. I'm working on getting some "red" flowered vines .. can't recall the name though.
cypress vine possibly...
when i mentioned it to my neighbor, she said the HB's go to her zinnias.
We both have lot of 4-O'clocks, but i didnt see the HB's there, but they are more out of sight from my patio, so that doesnt mean much.
I will go back and read that article.. thanks for posting.
Terese
Thanks, tcs. Yes, it's the cypress vine and I can't think of the other little red flowered vine's name right now. Very similar. They bloomed very late in the season for us and most of the HBs had left by then...
I get great response to my Zinnias. Not so much for my 4 o'clocks and I'll not be planting them again. They say red Nasturtiums are popular and I think I will try them instead next summer in hanging baskets.
I bought a few very special red salvia seeds from an E-bay site last week-- I believe the site owner is a DG member named "Gerris"--so I will be interested to see how attractive they are to the HBs next summer. These particular salvias are not available on the retail market and were recommended in the article linked above....
I miss the hummingbirds, but I have several hummingbird ornaments for my Christmas tree and they will have to do for now!