Heh! Heh! Found your post in the native plant listing...am interested in your seeds anyway. Asclepias incarnata, asclepias syriaca, a. canadensis (wild red columbine), black locust tree, scarlet runner bean vine, Spanish Flag (mina lobata). If you haven't traded these away, please look over my exchange list and let me know if anything is of interest for a trade. ~ Cat GW: TexasPuddyPrint

I got Scarlet Runner Bean seeds specifically for Hummers. Two things I'm trying to figure out: 1) Read if you don't keep beans picked flowering will decline and then stop. Do you all get on a ladder to snip off beans once vine gets over 5 feet in height? Some people, although from warmer zones, say they can get over 15'. 2) Proper support - Have been warned that bamboo teepee can be used but blows over in wind. Have been told by handy people to build support out of metal poles (horizontal & vertical) with some metal fencing attached...not within my ability or my father's tolerance level and it's his yard. Trellises are somewhat expensive when you get into the 72" height with enough width and heft to support this vine but I'd go for it and just leave it up after vine dies down after frost. Don't know if I need as strong a support as I'm thinking. Going to have to put inside double 3' & 4' fencing with Tithonia so deer and groundhogs don't get Scarlet Runner Bean vine. I don't want to pick the wrong support or go to the trouble/expense of getting one just to have those miserable animals eat them as they did the Tithonia last year. I know I'm overthinking to most of you but I'm not building a sizable metal support which I have nowhere to store let alone ability to build and I don't want to choose something without enough height, heft and stability to hold this vine...but I want it for the Hummers! If any of you with SRB vine experience have suggestions for not too involved or expensive support could you provide them? Thanks a bunch...from me and the Hummers.

Penny, Thanks for the advice. I may see if I can find that particular fuchsia, and do some research on whether it tolerates part shade and very moist soil. As for Jewelweed, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not thrilled with Jewelweed as a garden plant. It looks pretty in the woods, and just carpets the hollows around here, but I don't think it would look right in my garden because I just don't have enough space for a proper massing of them. I forgot to mention that I have Bleeding Heart. I forgot about it because it isn't in easy view from the window and is in a different part of the garden than the rest of the hummer plants. It's in an old perennial bed that has really gone to hell and yet this lone plant has continued to survive well in spite of the encroachments of weeds. I hadn't thought about the bleeding heart, probably because I'd just as soon forget that the derelict garden exists. It's going to take a lot of work to get it back into shape, and I just haven't felt up to it. I'll have to keep an eye out this spring for the Bleeding Heart and see if gets any visitors. I haven't really noticed hummers in the spring around here. Obviously, they must be around, but it wasn't until last summer that I first got the idea to put up a feeder. Over the years, the hummers I'd seen were coming to my mid and late summer garden plants. I really will have to start paying more attention this spring--especially to the earlier bloomers like the Bleeding Heart and the Aquilegia. I will also be sure to put my little home made whisky bottle feeder up in April. I made it from one of those sample sized bottles that had been kicking around the house from who knows where. It works extremely well, and doesn't drip all over the place like some of the commercial ones I've seen. I was getting at least four different birds last summer, possibly more, so maybe some of those same ones will survive the return trip. I hope so. If they do, my little whisky bottle feeder will be waiting. Fortunately, the hummers aren't snobbish about these sorts of things, just hungry!

Ctnchpr, I already bought Scarlet Runner Bean seeds to plant next spring but have been wondering what support to use. Reading that 7' wasn't even enough is kind of scary...LOL. What shape and material is your trellis made of? I've been surfing the net for trellises and there are so many shapes and materials. Wondering if I need wood or sturdier metal to hold up the Scarlet Runner Bean vine. Seems like Bamboo trellises are reasonably priced and read they're sturdy. Just don't know what shape is best...wall, tee-pee, obelisk, fan, etc. I'm not handy in the least so I'll be buying whatever I end up using for Scarlet Runner Bean and, after seeing your photo, trying a Cypress Vine. Thanks in advance for any advice you could offer.