I saw my first hummer yesterday on my bee balm. Several days ago I saw my first moth hummer....
Yall just don't know how excited I am over these sighting...
This morning I saw my first monarch butterfly..... Silly thing flew into the dog yard and one of my collies almost caught it, had I not been able to distract them...
I've been working very hard planting plants that hummers and butterflies can use this year and to see the hummers has made all the sweat and money well worth it.
Janet
First Hummer sighting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good going, Janet. I know the feeling. Exciting and rewarding all rolled into one exuberant scream of YES! You know what they say, "Plant it, and they will come" Be on the lookout for many more. They'll remember your gardens from here on out.
Do they really remember the gardens??? I was just about to cut the bee balm down as it to me looked to be on its way out, and I was hoping to get another flush of blooms.
The folks in the area are telling me to cut them back and hope for a second bloom. I hate to cut them back now if there is any good left in them for the hummers, but then as big as they grew this year, almost 5 foot tall, I sure would love to get another flush of blooms..
Janet
Do you have hummer feeders? At any rate, they are in your area more for the soft bodied insects they depend on more so than the nectar they use for quick energy. I cut my flowers back all the time. It wouldn't be the means for them leaving I wouldn't think.
cool, then I'm taking care of cutting this weekend.
I'm also going to go out and get some feeders and put them out. My neighbors on both sides of me have put some out this year as well... so why not me...LOL
thanks
Janet
My beebalm which is Jacob Cline gets tons of business from the hummers.
I did cut one of the blooms back but its taking a long time to get another bloom.
I hear your excitement Janet! Awesome news! It took me almost 4 years to get them to come to my yard. I've had them since November of last year when I saw my very first one, too! Excited was not the word for it! LOL!
If you cut off the dead flowerheads on the Bee Balm it should rebloom, though maybe not right away.
I didn't see any hummers from the middle of April until the middle of June. I had taken my feeders down thinking they had migrated north. But in the middle of June I started seeing one again. So of course put the feeders back up. Don't know why the sudden disappearance for a month. Nesting, perhaps? Don't know.
Anyway ... this past weekend I was sitting outside and watched one nectar from almost every bloom in my backyard. It ignored the feeder until the very end! LOL! It was nectaring from Salvia, Golden Dewdrop, Porterweed, Mexican Sunflower, and some Morning Glory blooms along the picket fence near my patio. It was so cool to watch!
Here are 2 videos on YouTube. The first one is one of my favorites and the second is one that I actually made of my first Hummer right after I saw them for the first time ever! Enjoy!
My favorite video of a hummer feeding:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnJui1XSQkI&feature=related
My video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyKrsl_AKDU
This message was edited Jul 24, 2008 2:01 PM
Hi Becky, Did your Yvonnes Salvia do okay?
Hi Pelle - I don't know, I planted some and have red salvia growing, but they look average size, so I don't know if they are Yvonne's or some that seeded in the bed from red salvia I've had growing for a few years around my yard. I have a few more Y seeds that I am going to be planting in a container. Salvia grows nicely in containers for me, so figured I'd give it another try to see if I can get really large Salvia to grow! :-)
I envy you guys. I've had my feeders up since April & not 1 hummer. Things
bloomed late, tho, because of a cool, wet spring. AND I'm doing battle AGAIN
with spidermites on my BF bush. 2 guys I work with were talking about hummers
yesterday; 1 is into gardening but not specifically BFs or hummers, & the other
said he happened to see 1 on his porch yesterday morning - at a hanging plant
that his wife put up, not for hummers but just because it was pretty. How wrong
is that?!