Sept. 27: A juvenile male hummingbird stopped by! This is the feeder on my deck. I was sitting out there and the hummer was OK with me being there but got spooked when I pulled out the camera so I didn't get a good shot of the whole head and throat. You can see the mottled gorget. Typical teenager - waited to the last minute before migrating. Claire

I agree with all of you that these guys are so much fun to watch! I'm sure the hummers being chased off have a different opinion, but, at least in the case of my backyard, they do have other nearby options. My neighbor to the north has a rose of sharon at the corner of her house nearest mine, and I did not see my little sentry chase other birds off until they entered my yard. The neighbor also has some sort of bright orange trumpet vine growing along the back fence at the side farthest from me. So, even though the sentry wouldn't let them in my yard there were still other food options only a few yards away. I do have several of the plants most of you mention. I planted four o'clocks behind the house this year. They haven't gotten very tall, but they are blooming. I also have Grandpa Ott morning glories on a 6'x6' trellis intended to shade my air conditioning unit. I have some Cardinal Climber, at least that what I asked Horn for when I bought seeds, although the leaves are not like the original Cardinal Climber I grew. These have palm frond-like leaves. However, these don't bloom much until/unless I abuse them. If I start cutting them back severely they'll start making blooms, otherwise they just grow foliage all over everything around. I haven't tried petunias since I moved into the house. I did grow them in containers, whisky barrels, on the patio at my apartment, but they always withered and died when hot summer temperatures arrived. Maybe they would do better though now that I can plant them in the ground. Of course, the problem with all these is they don't bloom until either late spring or summer whereas the hummingbirds generally arrive in Oklahoma in late March. It does sound like the cross vine Dawn mentioned might be just what I'm looking for, and I would love to plant some native red honeysuckle. Now I just have to find out where I can get them and figure out where they might grow in my yard. Unfortunately, my backyard gets a lot of shade due to tall evergreens that line the entire perimeter. Dawn, how much shade would the cross vine tolerate? Any idea where I might be able to buy some? Also, anyone know where I might find the native honeysuckle? And how much shade the honeysuckle would tolerate? I may have to get creative and figure out a spot to set an arched arbor or something similar just out in the middle of the yard for one of these. The fence from my house to the south property line gets sun in the morning and has a large evergreen branch that was seriously bent by the ice storms in Dec. 2007 that needs to come down. If I cut that branch off it would probably reduce the shade that piece of fence gets during the later afternoon. Might that be enough sun for one of these two vines to be reasonably happy? Thanks for all the suggestions. If you think of more, please let me know. While I'm specifically trying to figure out early spring bloomers for the hummingbirds, eventually I wouldn't mind digging up most of my yards and replacing the weeds with flower beds of various types. Not only would that be more colorful and fragrant, but it would cut down on the mowing. :D Debra

christie_sw_mo - I had a single American holly and it berried fine, but I am not sure why. Could have been a wild male in the woods as I was not in/near a neighborhood. There were some male Clarissa hollies on the property but those should not logically pollinate it. I am crazy about hollies for birds, but it sounds like they are just one of those bad luck plants for you. I've never seen a bird eat a nandina berry. Been some discussions on the subject here, and I have not heard of anyone that has had birds eat the berries either. No clue why that plant has a rep for bird berries. There were some on this property - okay a thousand of them on this property - but I pulled them up to replace them with other known successful plants. Nandina is a major problem in south Georgia forests so I decided to forgo them completely, make room for serviceberry. One thing that has become very clear to me with the moving from established garden to re-building is to plant hedgerows, hedgerows and more hedgerows. It's a major difference in the bird populations to have thickets and safe places. Birds have been nesting here, but only cavity nesters, and the second the babies fledge the parents take them off property to cover. Very few warblers around and no ground nesters except visitors. I have always heard that the vibunum dentatum berries get eaten quickly - will have to find out how that goes. The viburnum trilobum I have is the cuttings you sent so of course they won't berry, but the dentatum should if pollinated. The Aronia arbutifolia is one I want to watch as well - I have cuttings and purchased a potted plant, but it's just getting leaves. Very late to leaf out - is this normal? By the way, goumi (Eleagnus multiflora) was always a great bird food source. Grew it for ten years, nevera single seedling. It does not germinate easily and cuttings are difficult, so apparently not invasive. I've heard of others rooting cuttings so maybe it's my area, but it's a non-native I will grow. The cuttings are doing beautifully so far. I baby them and hope I can get them to make it. It's an outstanding collection for my personal hedgerow (thank you thank you thank you) in the making. Maybe I'll get to a point where I can grow enough to share. Been working on a system for potting and moving after they root. I've had people stop by and ask for advice on their own yards and I'd looove to be able to supply some of these plants you can't find in local nurseries. These are regular people, not gardeners, who just want some landscaping and birds and they aren't going to be ordering online like we are. I have a lot to learn, particularly about native plant ID, but can share what I do know. Some neighborhood kids knocked on my door and asked to "see the baby birds" as I had mentioned to one of their Mothers that I had birds in my boxes - and the kids were impressed with "how many animals I had in my yard". Apparently they told their parents. For me it was totally out of the blue and I was delighted. I did not relize there was a native plant exchange here - I need to head over and beg cuttings. :D dragonfly_wings - I had two mulberry trees before and they were my waxwing magnets. Hundreds of waxwings descended during migration, what a beautiful sight. Great plant and I want another, but one tree seeded all to heck and back. The other was an old tree, totally different leaf and I believe native. It was there long before I was. Both were red mulberry and distinctly different as mulberry tends to be. I had no problems with seeding on the second but can't figure out what exactly the genus of tree it is that I didn't have problems with. I loved it and really want another but it's gone on the back burner due to the fact that I am not positive which to get. If I see one on the side of the road similar to the one I like, I'll be hopping out of the car and knocking on doors and making a nuisance of myself. And I am shy!!!!!! But for that plant, I'll do it.

When my husband lured him out, he put the red feeder in a large ficus that spends winter indoors and had just been moved outside (because I can NOT completely get rid of the scale on it). The ficus is nestled in a shady corner by the garage door. Amazingly, although never having had a feeder anywhere near that space in the past, two males were fighting over it before nightfall. I think they really like having a feeder in a tree. They'll sit on the higher branches and then flit down to the feeder. My husband didn't know they were territorial and said the two hummingbirds were "dancing" around the feeder. HA! Next time my teenage boys start arguing I'm going to yell, "Ya'll stop dancing!" Either those two males were fighting over all feeders in the yard, or I have several hummingbirds right now. I did just see my first female at a feeder in an older location. Dicentra is blooming, forsythia is still in bloom, and I'm not too many days away from Columbine canadensis flowers opening.