Does either species of flower produce enough nectar to be interesting to a hummingbird?

I have heard it explained that feeding birds is like providing a Drive Thru service-they will eat the food that is easiest to get-from our feeders-but will not go hungry if we don't provide feeders. They will just go back to eating whatever they ate before we put up feeders. This goes for seed eaters as well as nectar lovers like hummers. It also will not make them stay around after migration begins-they are hard-wired to migrate & feeders will not make them stay. Hope that helps,
Susan

I don't do feeders cause i can be a bit negligent about filling and cleaning and don't want to make anybody sick...but my neighbors do. Every year, i have hummers show up, hovering in places i had fuschia baskets the year before...the past two years, i have a girl who comes around when i'm playing with the hose and asks for a bath! Seriously, these little birds are pretty smart...a lot smarter than my chickens and peacock! I wouldn't worry about them getting lazy, they're always learning new tricks.

here we have a short growing season and the only blooms and flowers are fruit trees or potted flowers that have been put out. We will still be getting frosts for another week or two and the hummingbird feeders keep the hummers going till everything is in bloom.
I don't have a garden anymore but do some container veggies and flowers in the backyard. when they do bloom the hummers do like a lot of the annuals but also suppliment with the feeders.

I think that in general feeders provide supplemental food for birds, and probably help them through lean times. However, it is more important that they have habitat and natural sources of food such as insects, otherwise they won't be able to raise their young. The vast majority of terrestrial birds feed their babies insects.

I don't normally put up a hummingbird feeder, but did so for a month or two during the summer of 2010. That was because it was so dry that the natural sources of nectar were basically dried up. I did try to water the hummingbird plants, but also supplemented with a feeder.

Otherwise, I grow various hummingbird plants in the "Hummingbird Garden" and also scattered amongst the other gardens. There are 2 or 3 hummers that use the gardens, but it could be more. The most I've seen at one time was 3.

Here's some of my Lobelia cardinalis - they love it -
{{gwi:236186}}

Does anyone know if hummingbirds feed on the blossoms of ornamental flowering crabapple trees? I notice a lot of them perching on the branches of my crabapple and it looks like they are feeding from them, but perhaps they could be picking insects instead.

Well drats. The server my pictures are stored on is down at the moment so the photo of Cardinal flower is not displaying.

Anyway, Spedigrees, I've noticed the birds just love the Crabapples pretty much year round. I observed Chickadees, Warblers, Red-winged Blackbirds, and House Sparrows during flowering this Spring and there were probably others. Not sure if they're gleaning insects or drinking nectar or both. I need better binoculars! They do pick insects all season, as there are numerous caterpillars that are hosted on Malus spp.

My mom used to put up feeders, and the hummers alternated between slurping from the feeders and eating aphids and gnats and feeding from the other flowers.

I think you may just be noticing the birds more at the feeders.

Well ,my group is now using the feeder plus the Lobelia and Fuschia as well as the feeder but still using the feeder most of the time.Maybe it has something to do is where they are and how cold it is.A feeder would probably give more energy then the plants or sparcity of plants that are availible.

I have feeders and a lot of bee balm on the property. When the bee balm is in full bloom, the hummers seem to prefer those flowers.