Hey all. I have been trying to catch up with the posts again this morning before I head out to the yard to survey any possible damage from last night's thunder buster. The past week I have been in hummer heaven! It seems that my little adult male that was here has left but the juvies are on the move...all over the yard. Except for one previous short rain last week we have had an extremely hot and dry summer so I spend 4 to 6 hours a day watering everything with a nice slow spray. Day before yesterday as I was watering the jewelweed one of the babies decided it was bath time so there he sat on one of the leaves bathing in the mist from the sprinkler. When my sister in law came over she actually had to duck as she almost got empaled by two babies chasing each other all over the back yard. It has been a riot around here for about a week or so and I have spent every free moment I can muster enjoying all the activity. I have one hummer that sits up in the dying maple tree to await any other visitors and then the chase is on. Over the week end I even had one take off after a poor little butterfly that was visiting the coneflowers.
I read the post on everyones manettia and I have to say that mine is blooming well. It is in a large container with a tomato cage since it outgrew the trellis that i had. Then I extended the tomato cage by making a wire spherical cage on top of that and now I need to add something else at it has covered the tomato cage and the wire ball and is about 6 inches above the ball. I have one little one that like to sit on the cage and feed from the nearby flowers and sometimes she will sit on top of the ball which is about 3 ft away from the patio table. She sits there and watches me while I talk to her. They have gotten quite used to me being out there now and come to the flowers that are right next to me on the proposed dug out patio area. For the time being I have all my container plants around the perimeter of the patio and I have the patio set at one end which is only a couple of feet from many of the pots. They come up and say "howdy" and then go over to the plants (lady in red, black and blue, manettia, fuschia, million bells and batfaced cuphea). My jacob's cline is still going strong so they are all over that as well. I am already planning what will go after this year and what will stay and where it will be moved. The new patio will provide more planting space since I will be able to put beds around the perimeter. I also added another 18 ft to my existing fence bed which I will use to overwinter my ten rose of sharon babies that sprouted this year then it will be used for more salvias next year.
I have one female that like to feed from the feeder by the front door as that area is somewhat sheltered and no competition from the others. The other day I didn't see her and walked right up to her. She fluttered and I jumped a bit as we startled one another then she settled right back down to the feeder. I was so close that I could have touched her without even stretching out my hand (maybe only 18 or 20 inches from her and she went on feeding until she was done. Of course I stood there motionless so as not to interupt her. I have been tempted to sit quietly with a feeder in my hand to see if any of them are brave enough to come to it but unfortunately I am not able to sit still long enough to try it. Hopefully things will slow down around here more and I will have more free time. DH hopefully gets his cast off around the 12th. of this month.
Have a great day everyone!
Penny
oubliette
bobky
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