I only keep my feeders up in early spring and again in fall-mid fall. Otherwise between my neighbor and I we keep plenty of flowers :D
As for flowers I find our Hummingbirds (Anna's and Rufous) like to visit these.....it's not just tube shaped flowers either!

Echinacea
Salvia officinalis (purple and white)
Nepeta musinii (purple)
Hollyhock's (they don't care what color!)
Maltese Cross
Lavender
Lunaria
Monarda (purple and red flowering)
Echinacea
Geranium (red and pink)
Cerinthe major
Larkspur (mauve and blue/purple)
Zinnia
Columbine
Nicotiana
Knautia
Snapdragon
Nasturtium (have only tried red but also see them on yellow and orange in my neighbors garden)
Cherry tree blossoms (also love to perch in mine year)
Petunia
Sweet William
Clarkia
Verbena bonariensis

Added tithonia and 4 O'clocks this year and hear these are good ones too. Also hear goldenrod is another one to try :D

I never put up feeders and you can't go outdoors here from mid spring through fall without seeing them - usually in quarrelsome pairs! It isn't unusual for them to hover right in front of your face peering at you as if they were trying to figure out if you contain nectar. That can be a little unnerving. LOL But I'm in a very different part of the country from you. Although hummingbirds have a pretty wide range I suspect that local conditions really make a difference in where they hang out in numbers.

I've noticed that they particularly LOVE my larkspurs and salvia splendens but Vera is right - they'll check all kinds of flowers.

Thanks linda and vera...

Yes, you both seem to be in an area where I would expect to have more hummers than where I live. That is because I am almost in an urban area and 30 years of living here without seeing one says something right?

I also have grown 12 of the plants you listed vera, but not in large enough numbers maybe? Plus I don't really have any red plants in my yard. Red clashes with the other colors I grow. I do like maroons and violets though if that would work. For instance, I heard they like lobelia but I would rather have ruby slippers lobelia because it is more of a burgundy red then the bright fire engine red they usually are. I am always on the lookout for violet and good shades of red that work with the rest of my plants. I guess I will just have to keep adding more.

Is salvia splendens an annual form of it?

That is so funny how they 'levitate' in front of you, linda...lol. You are so lucky!

:-)

pm2,
Well, a bit further north than you. Feeders go out early May and don't come in until late fall. My gardens are just starting to really put out that summer flush of blooms at this time, and even if everything was blooming, I doubt there would be enough.

We have one male and four females this year as far as we know. They keep our four feeders active and I find cleaning them is no issue. We make our own feed, and I'll remove the feeders when it's dark which are going empty, rinse with hot HOT water, check for dirt, then refill and put them out.

Last year we even got to see the babies at the feeders!

Gee, that sounds so great tiffy. So you don't actually have to use a brush and soap and scrub them, you just rinse with really hot water, that's it? That doesn't sound so bad.

Do you have a garden that offers them places to nest, is that why you have babies? My garden is fairly young and not a lot of heavy shrubbery yet.

I did think it would take a lot of blooms to provide them enough nectar, and my neighborhood has very few people who have any plants at all, just shrubs. It takes so much energy for them to fly, I can't see how my few flowers here and there would do much for them. Of course, I hope in a few years, I will have a lot more but still...

Thanks tiffy..

There was a hummer drinking from my candy lilies on Saturday. It made the rounds to the monardas, verbenas and salvia before chasing away a second bird.
I would add cypress vine to the list of flowers that attract them. And my Heavenly Blue MGs have not flowered yet, but last year they were the favorites for the little guys.

I know they love monarda but I just can't grow something in the yard that spreads like that, or else I would grow it for them. I have Casa Blanca lilies, I wonder if they would be as good? Verbenas, like the short spreading annuals you can grow? What type of salvia do you grow? I do grow MGs and hope to keep increasing the amount we have. I didn't even know they liked MGs. Is it any kind or just the Heavenly Blue?

Thanks

hi PM-
I have one large upright clear-plastic feeder. The cheap $5 model. I did have a tiny one, but it was too light, and emptied instantly in a breeze.

I put it up in early May, and by the last week of May, they arrived. (I'm just north of you...25 miles east of Concord, NH)

There are 2- male & female- that frequent my feeder/garden. They've gotten tamer as the season goes on, perching on the shepherd's hook just a few feet from where I am standing most of the time.

Vera gave you a good list of flowers; I have many of the ones on her list. I will add nasturtiums to the list, as they seemed to take a liking to my Peach Melbas.

I clean my feeder about once a week, or more often if any small insects have found their way into it. That was my lesson this year when I didn't know why they hadn't come for a while, and when I cleaned it, I found several dead 'bodies' in there. Ick. I wouldn't want to drink that, either!

To clean: Unscrew, hot water, shake vigorously. The bottom I remove the yellow 'flower' thingies, and run water through the middle so the water- and subsequently any dead insects- flow out the holes.

For quick refilling, I keep a pitcher of nectar mixed in the fridge with a DO NOT DRINK! sign on it for the family. That lasts a VERY long time for me, since I only fill the feeder about 1/3 to 1/2 full each time. No sense wasting it.

That's it...quick & easy!

ETA: I had Heavenly Blue MGs and a bright pink one last year...they seemed to like the pink best.
Monarda- I've heard it's easy to control by just pulling it out...that's my plan, anyway, before it takes over ;)

And it (monarda)will take over! LOL But it is farily esy to pull up and share. :)
Pm2, I have verbena bonariensis and Black and Blue salvia.

Oh yes forgot to mention they've been in my Morning Glory 'Star of Yelta' and 'Sunrise Serenade.
Monarda is also easy to control by less frequent watering in not too fertile rich soil....not drought-like just less watering.
Verbena bonariensis...the upright tall one. It's an annual south of zone 7b.

Vera

Ahhh...very illuminating! I didn't realize so many people feed the hummers. Wow.

mmq...you certainly have it down to a science. My poor DH, he is the bird bath and bird feeder filler. I can't wait to see his face when I suggest we get hummingbird feeders..lol.

rose...I just saw Salvia Black and Blue at Lowe's and I was wondering, why didn't they have those out in the spring. Way too late to start them now. They aren't hardy here. I tried them one year and lost them. I don't have any more room to overwinter them either. I wish more nurseries would offer them in the spring as annuals. You can't winter sow them from seed, can you?

I imagine it is too late to attract them this year.

Thanks everyone, for the education.. :-)

PM2, we're in the same area - here's my take.

If the hummingbird you saw just came today, it is not too late to attract them. I have 2 feeders on a shepherd's pole. I think all the feeders have some red, which is known to attract hummers (note: my hummers drink from flowers of any color). The solution I use is 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. I didn't see anyone say this, but you do not want to use soap on your feeders for cleaning - if you need it, use a little bleach. I do; my feeders get a lot of mold.

Mine look for the feeders every spring. I leave them up through the season, and they use them, but right now they are often more around the flowers. Trumpet vine and honeysuckle - both pretty serious invasives, unfortunately - are classics for attracting them. They love my salvia sclarea, which is a sort of lavender and white - no red there! I see them around hibiscus, butterfly bush - almost anything, really. But the feeders will get them 'hooked' until you have enough plant material to keep them interested.

pm2,

No brush, no soap. Just HOT water. mmqchdygg is right about rinsing them out completely since some bug may have found it's way into the holes and into the feed.

Drippy is soooo right about the Honeysuckles. My neighbour used to have a rampant one up until a few years ago. The hummers would nest right in the plant and constantly be feeding on the flowers. They had to remove it for renovations.

In regards to the recipe of 4 to 1, bring the water to a boil, add sugar, stir, boil for 3 minutes, remove and cool.

Also, do me a favor... DH recently read in the National Geographic that those little birds really appreciate perches to rest on while they are feeding. Apparently, because so much energy is used for flying, they spend 70% of their day perching, and if some of this time can be provided during feeding, they like it. It's cute to see them sitting there and feeding. They look 'at home'. Mine are all cheap feeders which I bought for $7.00 and they all have places for them to sit while eating.

We have tall old spruces mixed with White Paper Birches and Rock Maples which surround our property. In the spruces is what we call 'nesting moss' which all birds in the area use. It just hangs from some of the dead branches. You can see what I mean in the background of the following picture. Although we've never seen a nest, we know they are there.

{{gwi:365934}}

Have fun!

Hi. MM is right about them getting tamer! I set up my camera about 2 feet from the feeder, & they didn't care 1 bit!
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My biggest problem is having them fly into my windows. I take a paper bag & cut out bird shapes & tape them to the outside of the window. They see that & don't want to fly by the fake bird. I saw this at Fernwood Botanical Gardens in lower Michigan, & it seems to work!
Maggie

I had a female Ruby-throat hanging out in one flowerbed for a long time yesterday evening. Oddly enough, the favorite flower seemed to be the sunflowers. She also fed from Russian Sage, Yellow Mexican Hat, Honeysuckle Vine, and Zinnias. Earlier this year I had one feeding on the very first blooms of the Red Mexican Hat. They also like host flowers.

we were at my husbands aunts and she had 15 or more hummers at her feeder at once. I counted them. it was hard! she had no flowers what so ever in her yard. i had taken her a hanging basket that day and they were all over it. it was a mixed geranium basket. it was so awesome to that many at once, and do you think i was smart enough to take a pic? noooo.... even though i had my camera in my hand the whole day!we have 2 0r 3 hummers at my house and my favorite thing is to watch them at night and in the morn when they are zipping around like crazy chasing each other. they seem to love my monarda and my moonraker cape fuschia. one almost landed on my head day before yesterday. i felt in on my hair. one came and drank out of the hose while i was watering, that was awesome!
Tanya

Pm2, I have not tried WSing Black & Blue - just let them self-seed and they come back every year with additional plants nearby.
Tiffy, that pic is beautiful!

Gosh, look at how many people have hummers! lol
I had computer problems today, so I just got back to this thread. Lots of posting. :-)

drippy...ok, so maybe I could try to get a feeder put up this year. Maybe some hummers on their way south in the fall will find me and remember us in the spring. :-) I have a honeysuckle on an arbor but I guess they didn't find me this spring. Thanks for the recipe for the food for them. I was going to ask about hibiscus. I have one in the yard right now and another that was winter sown and is just developing buds. Feeders sound like a necessity for sure.

tiffy..thanks for the 'cooking' instructions. I see the photo of the feeder with the perch on it below. Definitely will look for that. I wouldn't have thought of that. What a great photo of your yard. LOVE the space you have and the trees and the walls and what a nice shot of color you have made there!

etravia...
Thanks very much for the photo. Now I know what to look for in a feeder. :-) That is really close! Amazing! Our chickadees are like that. Another good tip on the windows. I would hate them flying into them.

mrsgalihad...I can't get sunflowers to grow for the life of me. I sowed three batches of them this year and the critters ate almost every one and those they didn't, haven't done anything yet. Very disappointing. I didn't think a hummer could get nectar from a sunflower though. I have Russian Sage and zinnias...but not enough yet.

tanya....that must have been a sight! I have done that...had my camera and been so distracted by what I was looking at I forgot to take the photo..lol. Oh, my gosh...drinking out of the hose?! That must have been really awesome is right!

rose...the one time I tried B&B it didn't go to seed here in my zone 6. I will have to ask if anyone has winter sowed it in a separate thread in the fall.

Thanks..I am getting a hummingbird education here! Such a surprise, I wouldn't have guessed so many people feed them.

pm2

I haven't seen as many hummers as I usually do every year. But the hummingbird moths sure are out in force, and my mater plants know it.
Both hummers and the hummingbird moths love my purple hostas, then move onto the purple liatris, zinnias and stargazers lilies.
I think I must work in the gardens too much because I can cut flowers or be out there and I could catch them, they feed while I am working right beside me.
My cat got one Saturady night on my Stargazer at dusk and there were 3 people yelling NOT THE HUMMINGBIRD!!! finally we got it away from the cat.
Put up my first feeder ever that a office gal gave as a Christmas gift.
Although the solution doesn't go down very much, perhaps because they enough with the flowers?

This is the first year I have put out a feeder. As soon as I saw on the map that they were in Maine I put my feeder out and about 10 days later it was visited by a pair and an extra male ruby throat. They battled constantly. Once the good flowers started blooming I got lazy and stopped filling the feeder. Yesterday we were delighted to see a juvenile hummer in (of all things) my pink baby's breath. She visited a few more flowers, rested on the honeysuckle bush and then flew away. We were both slightly late for work becaus of it. They frequent my monarda, cosmos, dianthus, salvias and they even enjoy my asiatic and oriental lilies. I think I will go steralize the feeder and see if I can attract them for pictures again. This is a picture DH took this spring (that's her tongue). Bonny

{{gwi:414028}}

lizzy, I think I saw a hummingbird moth this morning. Do they come out in the daytime? I thought moths came out at night? At least I think it was a hummingbird moth. I just googled it and came up with this photo and it looks like what I saw only I couldn't see the wings they were moving too fast.

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Wow, I can't get over how much life is around that butterfly bush once it starts blooming. I bought another one this year. I am glad to know they love purple hostas and liatris because I do have some of those too. My liatris are ws seedlings this year, but next year, I hope.

I think that is possible that the more you are out in the yard the more they get comfortable with you. I have not been out in the yard as much the past two weeks and I noticed even my doves took off just as I came out the back door and they were all the way across the yard. In the spring they were much more used to our being out there.
Chickadees are the boldest at our house so far.

Bonny, what a beautiful picture! So clear. the colors area so pretty and the eye almost looks like it has blue eyes. Look forward to more pics.

Thanks!
pm2

PM@ yup, that's what it was. I saw one last year at the Agway...neat little thing...couldn't have cared less that I was inches from him 'studying' him. (I'll assume it was a 'him' because it was very colorful).

At any rate, have you ever seen a HB swoop in half-circles when it gets REALLY pi$$ed at your cat??? LOL!

mmqchdygg - That's too funny!! I start laughing when they do that territorial thing. I call it the 'figure 8 bombadier' flight movement. LOL!! I figured out that they do this when they build their nests.

Etravia & Bonnylynn - I've got the same feeders. Came home with two more today because some others I have (not the same) were starting to attract wasps. Must be a crack in them letting the syrup out ever so slowly. Nice pictures!!

PM2,

You should winter sow Butterfly Bushes! :O) I winter sowed some this year and have wayyyyy toooo many. Heading to my parents' home on the weekend and will be bringing 20+ which are already blooming! They are about 2 feet tall. If you need seeds...

mmq...that sounds like an episode of Funniest Home videos I saw once. I still crack up every time I think of it. Only it was a mocking bird and a cat. The bird dive bombed the cat, actually making contact in his rump and the cat was so startled, it did a full back turn in the air. Funniest thing I ever saw. lol

tiffy...thanks so much for the BBush seed offer. I would love to, but I haven't any room left for more. You really sowed a lot. Which variety did you sow? You did well to grow them to 2 feet and blooming in one season!

Where are you all finder feeders to purchase? I saw a Backyard Habitat episode on Hummers and they showed a little attachment you can put on the part where the nectar comes out that would allow the hummers to get it but not the bees/wasps. Do they come with those already on them, too?

I saw two yesterday all over my Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia). They are just so adorable.

Got into this thread really late but just wanted to add that we simply could not be without our hummers. They provide endless entertainment. We have feeders on all three of our porches within easy view from inside the house and then out in the yard at 2 other places but the greatest pleasure is seeing them dart around the gardens getting necter from the flowers. That is how we know that we have done something right to improve nature.

As for where to get feeders - pretty much any big box store has them where they have the bird seed and other bird houses. We have gotten ours from Walmart, Lowes and Wild Birds Unlimited

and PM2 - cleaning the feeders will be a small amount of time compared to the time spent watching their antics so you need to add 'hummer watching' to your daily daytime activities :) .....

Lynne

pm2,

Bought my feeders at HD this past week.

I put my feeder out in early spring to get them here early. As they're arriving, I don't have many flowers in bloom yet. I have a LOT of them every year.

I have had those hourglass-shaped feeders and they are a pain to clean. I now have a Humzinger and that's a breeze to clean. The hummers seem to like it.

Karen

carrie...I have seen that tithonia and it is very large, isn't it? Do you have to stake it? Does it reseed a lot or spread?

lynne, I see...you have to plan on the amount of time you are going to be spending watching them! [g] Good thinking!

tiffy...they have HD in canada? Who would have thought. lol
Thanks, I will look this weekend. :-)

pm2

Karen,

Just missed your post. [g]
Thanks for that recommendation. I found a website for them linked below. They all seem to be the same size. When you fill them, how long before they are empty again? I was wondering if they keep the capacity small, because the nectar has a short shelf life?

Thanks Karen :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Humzinger

pm2: Mine is an 8 oz one from Wild Birds Unlimited. It's identical to humzinger in every way, even made for them by humzinger. They have a retail store near me and their feeder was a few $ cheaper than the brand name Humzinger.

8 oz is plenty for me because my birds will not allow more than one to feed at a time. I make nectar in larger portions and store in covered jar in the fridge. Only takes a minute for me to clean, refill, and rehang. Again, easy to clean and can even go into the dishwasher. I just use any old soap or spray cleaner. Someone above mentioned no soap but the manufacturer makes no such recommendation and I don't see how soap could be a problem as long as it's rinsed well.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Birds Unlimited

Thanks again Karen. Actually they have a store near me. They also have a 16 oz size that I see on their website. I wonder if you could go a whole week without refilling with that size. Probably the store personnel will know.

To be continued.. [g]

pm2: Probably depend on the weather, but it's hot here and the nectar gets funky, cloudy, after a couple of days anyway. That sugar water makes a good medium for germs to grow. So I dump it after a couple of days and refill. I fear the old funky stuff might make the birds sick.

Karen

What is the maximum you should leave the feeder before filling? Two or three days? So, the larger size would seem to be unnecessary if you are filling it that frequently.

pm2; That was my feeling about the small volume.

I don't know about maximum time but I imagine the length of time it's OK is inversely proportional to the temperature. The hotter the weather, the faster it gets cloudy and nasty looking. That's usually 2 days for me in the summer heat. (95 degrees today).

In spring and fall when it's cooler, it usually looks clear for about 3 days.

Karen

Thanks Karen :-)

I did get out and get a feeder and am now trying to locate it in the best place. I have sunflower seed feeders in the sight line of the kitchen window. Should I place the hummingbird feeder away from the other feeders, or with them?

Thanks

I found that if my hummingbird feeded was too close to wild bird feeders the big goofy clowns like bluejays scared off the hummers. But I have a hummer feeder and a goodfinch feeder both in one maple tree, a little distance apart, and the hummers aren't bothered by the little goldfinches at all.

Sunflower seeds do draw a lot of big loud clowns so the 2 probably would do better if at least separated by opposite sides of the tree.

Karen

Thanks Karen, will put some distance between them than. :-)
Yes, we get a lot of birds on that feeder. They are squirrel proof, so the large birds don't get into it, but they still show up and eat at the base of it and the squirrels try to get into it every once in awhile.