glad2garden, You are probably right! A few years ago Maman put some mulch in this area and never did anything with it. The soil underneath was great to begin with so I asked if I could start a butterfly garden in 2008. The Buddleia is the first thing I put in and then I put Echinaceas, Asclepias, Heliopsis, and Sedums. The Sedums were the only things not winter sown. In 2009 we realized how big this Buddleia was going to be. It is so full and so sturdy. Funny you should mention the Joe Pye - I have a spot with such soil in front of our house and a winter sown Joe grows to 9 feet every year if not taller. :O)

hmmm....and all this time I've been boiling my sugar water? Right now wasps are chasing off my hummers. I did have 2 feeders side by side, the one having yellow flowers and the other feeder having no yellow at all. I've moved the one with the yellow flowers to the back of the house. I guess the wasps found out that if one feeder had the sugar, then both did. Now I need to move it to another location and hopefully get rid of the wasps.

Well, I boiled up some nectar today, and put it out after it cooled down. It is clear, as I've read on here and elsewhere that the red coloring isn't good for them. Didn't see any activity today in the yard, so i think i was in the right spot at the right time the past two days. Hopefully if he/she finds the feeder, they'll be back on a regular basis. When is the nesting season for hummers?

Hi, Dotty. I got my first over-wintering Anna's hummingbird visitor last year, right about this time. This year, my winter visitor showed up in late September, right where I had my window feeder last winter. Good memory. There is a fascinating research paper that discusses your questions and many more about feeding hummingbirds. If I can find it (not so good memory), I'll post a link. The researchers found that the sugar concentrations of North American flower nectar range from about 50 percent sugar, or about 2 (water) to 1 (sugar), to 5 (water):1 (sugar). Most summer flowers were 3:1 or 4:1. Apparently, hummers drink only when they're hungry and stop when they're full, on a calorie (not volume) basis, so the higher the sugar concentration, the more attractive the nectar--and the less time a hummer will spend feeding at that high-energy source. In winter, I use a 3:1 solution until temperatures drop into the low-20s, when I shift the solution to 2:1. Increasing the sugar lowers the freezing point and gives the birds more calories with less effort. The downside is that you won't see them as long at your feeder. But even that works out well, because more hummers get access to the feeder, instead of just one bird guarding the area for half the day. On a separate note, I have found that the traditional hanging tube feeder drains quickly in the rain. Rain runs down the outside of the feeder, down the tube, and pulls the nectar out with it. I switched to a small window-mounted bowl-type feeder, which has a cover and a little overhanging rain shield, but rain that blows onto the bowl cover drains into the holes and dilutes the nectar after a day or two. I think feeders with little plastic flowers might not allow as much water to run into the bowl. In any case, enjoy your Anna's!