My neighbor gave me some of her Cleome seeds and I got several plants out of them this year. The Hummingbirds and bees love them.

Donna, VA

I'm wondering what the best late summer, fall plants are. Sill blooming are my salvia, cleomes, morning glory, and butterfly bush. The butterfly bush has a lots less blooms though.

Hi Donna,

We have Cleome and CardinalFlowers growing together in one bed and it's a major pitstop for our hummers throughout the day. They spend as much or more time there than at the nectar feeders. And the Cleome flowers are so exotic looking. I like them too. :)

Kenn

hummersteve: Thanks for the info on the plants. Since we live
in a mobile home community we dont have alot of room for
planting. We recently added a beautiful awning, it has 5 poles. Around every other pole we planted Trumpet vine..
what would you suggest we plant around the other 2 poles
that the Hummers would like? The only thing is.. what draws
Hummers draws bees.. my husband is allergic to bee stings..
is there any such thing as a flower that Hummers but bees dont? :) TIA.

alii-- that is true most plants that draw hummers do draw bees, I have quite a problem with wasps here, but havent been stung. I also have a coral honeysuckle plant and I havent noticed any bees on those, dont mean they wont. Almost anything that has blue , purple or violet blooms or have a sweet scent will draw bees, I have them bad on my feeders. Hope this helps.

hummersteve,
I have lots of hummingbird plants and haven't seen a hummer since I spotted the first! Once I spotted it, I went out and bought foxgloves, hibiscus, pink penstemmon, another hummer plant the I can't remember the name, salvia- dark dancer,geranium- red and a hummer feeder. I already had a big clump of bee balm, purple coneflower, columbines, lord balt. hib.S, what do you think my problem might be? I do keep fresh nectar as suggested by you and others on this forum- a 3:1 mix. I have lots of bees and butterflies but no hummers.

gardengirl-- It is not your fault as your have a lot of good plants there, the problem is , right now the hummers are migrating so if you saw that hummer fairly recently it will be moving on . If you want hummers next spring about all you can do is prepare for next year. There is also a good chance you may see another hummer before they are all gone.

gardengirl---your truest test of wether you have any hummers is be outside in your yard early way before sunup. for me now it is between 6:45 and 7:30 it varies on where you live but during that period if you have any hummers they will show then, from there they will scatter out for other promising food sources.

I was wondering what time would be best...I'll get up early and have a cup of coffee and wait- I'll keep you posted.

I think next spring will be better- I traded in the seed trade forum for hummer/butterfly attractant plant seeds so that I will have them all around the house and not just up front. Like a hummer haven and I need to get a little bird bath as well.

My feeder traffic is also heavy in the evening around 7:30-8pm here.

nanny56-- Yes ive been having heavy evening traffic also.

Bees and hummers will check out all sorts of flowers but they have their preferences.

Hummers notice reds and oranges first, and tubular shaped flowers. But they'll check out others especially if they're looking for tiny insects to eat.

Bees notice blues and yellows first. In fact they can see shades of blue that we can't, off of our visible part of the UV spectrum. In my experience they really seem to go for the shade of blue of russian sage or catmint. Bees are least attracted to white OR almost black flowers. This doesn't mean they won't check them out - they'll just go to others first. Bees also like fragrance - most birds have a lousy sense of smell.

You might want to consider planting the plants bees like out far away from the house and pathways and plants for the hummers closer in or just outside a window.

I hope this helps. It's impossible to do a completely bee-free garden. Wasps are even worse as they're predators and will check out everything. But I hope this helps.