Thank you leafhead, now you are just exhausting me! :-) I am out of room for any thing larger than Marigolds, snapdragons and yes, asters. I cannot decide which asters to get. They recommend Aster lateriflorus 'Lady in Black' and Aster novi belgii Alert (red), for my area. I did find a great plant list just for the Texas High Plains, so I think I will try their local varieties. They also sell plants, however it is a long drive, but they do have native milkweed, several varieties, I would like to try. Next year I will have time to put in more garden space, as I do away with more lawn, but for now I am full-up! I think I will learn alot this summer, and by next spring I should know more about what is good for me as far as natives, and if I see butterflies I did not expect, I will plant what I can to meet their needs. I am very excited about my first season. I don't think I have a chance of seeing either a Giant or a Tiger Swallowtail. The sulfurs we get are happy with grasses, so I have that covered. I do need Violets! The list never ends.... Thanks again, Debra

I haven't seen any in my yard/feeder yet either. My neighbor in front has a lot of bright store bought containers in bloom and the neighbor in back has a big garden that has many earlier bloomers than I do.I'm fairly certain I've seen them zip past me in the middle. This is the first year I had a feeder at this house. I got a "hummzinger" and I really love the at/wasp free design. I use home made nectar and change it every other day. I don't use any detergent, just HOT water and toothbrush. When my Rose of Sharon starts blooming, they will come. Till then, I suppose that bright red fleece blanket I have COULD use airing out!

A note about sugar ratio and percent: To say a 1:4 sugar:water mix is 20% sugar is incorrect; the sugar is in dry, granulated form and the water is (obviously) liquid. The sugar industry expresses sugar concentration as percent sugar by weight (mass for you scientists) also known as Brix; where one Brix is equivalent to 1 gram sugar dissolved in a 100 gram sugar solution. This is the number a sugar refractometer will give you. A cup of sugar weighs 200 grams. A cup of water weighs 237 grams. A 1:4 sugar mix is 200 grams sugar + 948 grams water = 1148 grams total. Percent sugar by weight or Brix is: 200g / 1148g x 100 = 17% (rounded to the nearest percent). You 1:4 purists are only offering half the sugar concentration found in natural nectar preferred by Hummers! So, get over it already... By the same method: A 1:3 sugar mix is 200g / 911g x 100 = 22% by weight A 1:2 sugar mix is 200g / 674g x 100 = 30% by weight A 1:1 sugar mix is 200g / 437g x 100 = 46% by weight Benjamin F Tucker was among the first to mass-feed hummers in the 1930s and '40s. He used laboratory glassware to make his feeders (no Perky-Pet or Droll Yankees back then). His work was described in the December 1946 Popular Mechanics article: "Hummingbird Cafeteria". The lead photo shows 22 of his 'beaker feeders' lined up on wood shelves. A quote from page 125: "If you supply artificial nectar - half water and half sugar - he'll stay long after blooming time." Sounds like a 1:1 sugar mix to me - 46 Brix - and I don't believe he poisoned a single hummer... (PM December 1946 may be found on-line - I'll let you figure that out for yourself...) - waw -

Yippee!!! Not only did *two* of them zip past me, I got to see a male hummer doing his dive-bomb mating thing. It lasted for a minute or two . . . he zoomed out to the edge of my yard and about 20ft high, then dove down into a shrub near the center at about 3ft height, then zoomed back up to 20ft on the other side of the yard. Kinda like a skinny figure-8 with the x dipping down to 3ft and the loops up at 20ft. He made at least 4 full circuits. A PBS show we watched several months ago showed that they make a friction chirp with their wings near the bottom of the dive. My next-door neighbors were mowing, so I couldn't hear it. Here is a link that might be useful: Home video of a male's courtship chirp