For the Houston area, two vines span the early migration. Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) blooms fairly early and will catch any real early migrators. The native coral honeysuckly (Lonicera sempervirens) blooms for several months in the spring just in time for the main spring pass through. Coral honeysuckle is also nowhere near as invasive and rampant as the Japanese species is. It's a very well behaved and attractive plant.

I also just moved into a new house and am starting from scratch on my garden. I was also intereted in a hummingbird garden. I think everything I'm naming is hardy to zone 4. This is what I've planted so far: *Catawbiense Rhododdendron 'Bourseault' (closest I could find to the species plant, I got mine at Home Depot) *Aquilegia canadensis Wild Columbine *Campsis radicans Trumpet Creeper *Lonicera sempervirens Coral Honeysuckle *Aesculus pavia Red Buckeye (It is hardy to zone 4 even though the linked website says 6) *Spigelia marilandica Indian Pink *Lobelia cardinalis Cardinal Flower *Monarda didyma Oswega Tea *Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline' Lilium michiganense Turk's Cap Lily (more known is *L. canadense) Liatris pycnostachya Prairie Blazing Star Silene virginica Fiery Campion Dicentra eximia Wild Bleeding Heart Astilbe 'Larissa' Crocosmia Montbretia 'Fire King' Phlox paniculata 'Tenor' Tricyrtis hirta Toad Lily Among others (I don't want to exhaust you!) The ones with stars are recommended as the top 10 hummingbird plants. The only one I don't have is spotted jewelweed, only because I think it is weedy looking. I see it growing naturally around here. The others are things I liked and read in various websites, catalogs or forums that people found to attract hummingbirds. I try to select species plants because they are thought to have more nectar than hybrids. Although the hybrids I planted, I planted because they are much easier to find! This website along with the link I entered, I found quite helpful. Copy and paste http://www.hummingbirds.net/attract.html I started a journal on daves garden. If you interested in looking at it let me know. Here is a link that might be useful: Top Ten

Dana, I'm excited for you! I lived in an old farmhouse in the middle of cornfields and you can bet I had a hard time attracting hummers to my yard, but I kept planting bird-attractive plants (flowers, shrubs, and trees) and provided water sources and low and behold, after 8 years, I finally got my first hummer! They were regular visitors for the remaining 10 years I lived there. Enjoy, and I'll do a happy dance for you! :)

I'm not sure if this is helpful at all, but in general, solar lights just don't last that long. If you're able to run power, you might have better luck with low voltage lighting.