As I stated in my previous post, the primary problem is the "lesser canna leaf roller". The night flying moth lays eggs and stitches the leaves into tight cigar shaped pattern. This prevents contact insecticides from effectively controlling the insect larva. The larva works in this rolled up leaf and deposits the black "dung" while eating away at the leaf. Getting control of the problem at this stage is more difficult but given time and a good systemic insecticide it is very doable. It would have been much better if you were to have started an effective spray program early in the season before attracting humming birds etc. In order to minimize the effect to your hummers and bees, consider applying the insecticide during the least active time of the desirable visitors. This would likely be a dusk or late evening. Night flying moths are part of the problem! Most systemic insecticides become less dangerous to casual contact after the pesticide is dried and have a REI on 12 to 24 hours. Read and follow instructions. As Abutilon suggested, your red blooming canna (top photo) is likely C. ÂRobert Kemp and the green leaf orange is likely C. ÂOrange BeautyÂ. I am not sure about the green leaf yellow and the bronzed leafed red may be C. ÂKing HumbertÂ. You can have a really nice display bed of canna if you can control the insect problem!!! Regards, Kent

Thank you to all of you for your wonderful photos and input on this topic! Because of your input and ideas, I have ordered a few more plants for late summer/fall planting that I hope will be established enough by next season to provide food for pollinators: Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' (the perennial one) Silphium perfoliatum Hardy hibiscus (said to be attractive to both bees and hummers) Echinops 'Blue Glow' Solidago 'Fireworks' (I already have 'Little Lemon') Calamintha nepeta Nepeta 'Joanna Reed' (said to be sterile and constantly blooming, just like Six Hills Giant) Aster 'Edo Murazaki' Aster 'Raydon's Favorite' (to add to Bluebird, Fanny, and October Skies) Vitex 'Abbeville Blue' Agastache 'Blue Fortune' (I already have this but it can't hurt to add a couple more!) Another Helenium 'Mardi Gras' I am going to try to grow the Eryngium mentioned above by seed next year. Thank you all again for the great observations and inspiration!

???? Just FYI...I have seen ants on some of my flowering plants that DO have specs of pollen on them simply because they travel in and out of the flowers. And I recall watching a documentary a few years ago about certain plants relying on ants for pollinization. (Forgive me, but I don't remember what the plants were or WHERE they were located in the world.) While I am not an expert on pollination, I am familiar with the different methods...hummingbirds, bees, wasps, hornets, and ants are all great pollinators. It just seems logical that there MUST be another factor involved in the pollination of figs since people all over the east and south are reporting "wild" grown fig trees popping up out of nowhere, producing nice figs. The birds that ate them and pooped out the seeds certainly didn't do it while the figs passed through their digestive systems. SOMETHING pollinated them prior to being eaten. The original question is a good one, in my humble opinion. ~ Erin

Lorna, why did you take your hummer feeder down, because of the ants? You could have just purchased an ant moat to go on top of it or purchase a feeder that has an ant moat. Is there a problem with killing ants too, are they beneficial, cause here at my home I have millions that invade my yards and land and even my home every single year. I was told I have several colonies. I think sometimes they live in my walls. As far as wasps go, they like to build around my back door, they do not bother my hummer feeders, like the ants used to. But......they do get into my house a lot since they build right next to the back door. And there is nothing like having flying wasps in your home, along with ants. I do nothing about either, except kill them when they are in my home.....and use an ant moat for my feeders. Now if I was getting wasps on my feeders, I would probably do something about that. Whenever my daughter tries to weed eat, she get hoarded by bees and gets stung sometimes. I suppose it is the kind that burrow in the ground. She is 16 and scared to death of bees, but still does it. What do we do about this situation? I think in certain situations, you have to do something, whatever that might be, good or bad. Do you get JB's? What do you do about them?? I am at a loss because I think I am going to lose a large tree because of them.