September 2, 2008
WE’RE IN THE WANING WEEKS OF DIVE-BOMB SEASON at A Way to Garden. The ruby-throated hummingbirds are in a nearly final frenzy of aerial displays, meeting at high speed in mid-air, then swooping downward into their favorite treats.
The ruby throats, the only species of hummingbird that breeds in Eastern North America, always come back from Central America at the same moment as my bleeding hearts start blooming. No mystical or evolutionary correlation, just a colorful coincidence: two of nature’s most unusual creations having a moment together. They’re in the tall verbena (above) and elsewhere now.
The bleeding heart, Dicentra spectabilis, is hardly the traditional trumpet-shaped flower hummingbirds are said to favor, nor is it red (reportedly their favorite color). It’s just one of the plants in my palette that has proven an unexpected attractant for them, despite not being on “the list” with “hummingbird plants” like honeysuckle, trumpet vine, penstemon, and salvias. It’s not native (an Asian alien), so it certainly doesn’t make the list of best native hummingbird plants, either. (I think the best mail-order selection is at High Country Gardens, by the way.)
Neither does the flowering tobacco, hailing from more southerly climates than mine. I always have to stop myself from pulling up too many of the self-sown Nicotiana, prodigious seeders it’s hard to be without once you’ve grown them. A few big patches in a sunny spot are better than any hummingbird feeder you can buy (and cheaper, too).
Another tenacious self-sower, Verbena bonariensis (top photo) is almost equally attractive. Who knew those tiny flowers packed into dome-topped clusters called cymes would be the thing? And anise hyssop, including the showier golden-leaf variety called Agastache foeniculum ‘Golden Jubilee,’ below, is doing a great job (as well as with the bees).
I always put some tender red salvias at the edge of the vegetable garden for the ruby-throats, including S. coccinea ‘Spanish Dancer,’ below, or any of the many great red choices. My token gesture, apparently, as the hummingbirds seem perfectly happy with what last year’s garden left behind.
I’ve mentioned it before: I count birds. Do you? And do you see any iridescent little guys out there with their motors really running?
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Ive not seen a hummingbird yet this year :( I have so many butterfly bushes- they seem to usually like them. Loads of butterflies though.
My butterfly bushes are going a little crazy- they are so big- almost too big now!
One big problem I just noticed- it looks like snow is laying on the trunk of my lilac bush-looking closer they are a fine bunch of skinny objects- about the size of a lower case l it must be some sort of egg.Any thoughts??
I let one corner of my garden go to the blackberries. They build nests in there all the time. It’s almost scary how close they get to my head when I’m working out there!
@Kass: Some kind of scale insect? See if the scale portion of that entry sounds familiar, or if any of these images (click to enlarge) fit your situation.
Welcome to Rachel. I love the image of the thicket you have let go becoming a bird sanctuary; that’s the favorite situation for many birds: thorns and twiggy messes where they can tuck in. Nice to “meet” you.
In my garden, Agastache “dessert sunrise” and salvia (red/white) do the best for attracting hummingbird so far… It seems I don’t see them earlier the season even though I have load of penstemon in my front yard…
I’ve started seeing them late summer, and now!!
Speaking of birds, I’ve started seeing 3 flickers in my back yard. They are beautiful, even thought eating thru my suet feed so quickly! ;)
There are always hummingbirds around the monarda, verbena, and ivy geraniums, but usually only the females. I’ve only seen the ruby-throat once this summer, but what a treat! And have you heard their sweet little songs when they stop to rest on a nearby branch?
The catbirds have forbidden me from trimming the wisteria that is quickly overtaking my universe. There used to be a 4′ walkway between it and the mophead hydrangeas, but now it is reduced to about an inch. They sound more like cats when they are annoyed, angry, and distressed, and they swoop!
It’s true that Dicentra spectabilis is not native, but there are some that are, such as Dicentra formosa and D. canadensis, and I know the hummingbirds sample from both the native and non-native bleeding hearts just outside our basement windows. Wild Flora’s Wild gardening wrote a blog post about bleeding hearts last year, and I committed some of it to memory. :) (The post is here, in case you would like a bit more info.)
I’m not looking forward to the annual hummingbird exodus this year, they are such wonderful garden neighbours. We had 4 females sharing the feeder this year (more or less peacefully, too! What a shocker). The male was hardly ever seen, and then only at the monarda! I wonder if he was mantaining a harem?
Yes! First sighting yesterday- all too brief. There’s a salvia, (guardiensis? something like that,) which they always like, and a bright red cardinal flower. We gave up on feeders, after the ants swarmed them.
We have hummingbirds here, and also those moths that look like hummingbirds out of the corner of your eye. Both seem to really appreciate the Phlox paniculata. Or maybe it’s just that the phlox is close to the window I look out most frequently, and they are all over the flowering tobacco, too.
Our hummers have dwindled in numbers from a dozen or so at the feeder, to about 3-4. Another certain sign that Summer really is waning.
I’ve seen hummers, but always females–go figure! Right now my phoebes are gone, but I’m rich with goldfinches, whose wings sing when they fly…what a joy!
By the way, weirdly, I am “Kassie,” and upthread we have “Kass.” Wow, two of us! Where are you from, Kass?
Im from Westchester County in New York.Saw that you’re Kassie too.I also love the goldfinches- Ill have to notice their wings singing from now on.
I’ll have to tackle this “scale” on the French lilac- thanks for the heads up.
I’m just over the border in CT, so my climate is very like yours. I always have the hummers –they are one of the joys of my gardening life. Brash things — they don’t care if I’m too near the plants they like, and they love to loop-de-loop the phlox paniculata as we sit watching on the porch. Their favorites, absolutely: red monarda (ick). I’m not really one for red flowers — I love the pinks and purples, but I’ll do anything for my hummers, so I’ve made my peace with the red. My guys don’t follow form either: I keep trying new things that they are supposed to like, but not one visitor has come to the black and blue salvia or the penstemum, or the pentas. They stock up on the eupatorium and the sugar water before finally flying off. I give them another three weeks here. How I love them.
Diane Ackerman has some wonderful passages about them in her NATURAL HISTORY OF MY GARDEN.
We have hummingbirds every year starting in early April. They usually stay until near the end of September. We have a wonderful feeder just outside the kitchen window where we can see them easily. This time of year they are super busy and are very interested in some tomatoes on the deck! This summer several of the young ones are puzzled by the moonflower vine — they spend the day trying to get into the flowers that won’t be open until the evening — you can almost hear them saying, “I know there is a way to get into this flower!”
I just found your blog and am really enjoying it!
I’m from Westchester County in NY too! I grew salvias this year and the hummingbirds love them! The salvia beats the hummingbird feeder.
I saw one this morning sipping on a big red Dahlia. They also like the Abyssinian glads that are still blooming with their purple throats. Very fragrant and apparently delicious, too.
I had hummingbirds earlier this summer but they seemed to disappear, which is too bad. They loved my monarda. I wish they would come back!
I saw a hummingbird on my butterfly bush this weekend and a small brown bird(don’t know what kind) plucking seeds from a sunflower in a pot next to the butterfly bush. They’d finally come to a truce about close quarters after a couple of chases.
Around here, hummies seem to be attracted to the comfrey a friend gave me a few years ago. Unfortunately, I have found that I have to be vigilant about cutting the flowers from the plant to avoid invasion (my friend sort of failed to mention what a pig the plant is!), so it’s a back and forth thing.
This past week we had a hummingbird get trapped inside our art gallery (where I work) twice. The first time I was quite certain it would die of exhaustion, trying to find a way out. A handyman with a tall ladder finally shooed it to the door for an escape. The second time it didn’t linger as long. I’ve never before had one come inside.
“Up north” in Michigan I’ve seen kind of flocks of hummies — five or six at a time visiting feeders or swarming a plant.
They are amazing!
My daughter saw a hummingbird out the window this morning before we left to go meet her kindergarten teacher. That must be considered good luck in some culture, right? We have hummingbirds that seem to stay year-round - I haven’t ever put out a feeder and don’t know where their next is, but they love the rosemary and jasmine in the spring, the butterfly bush and salvias in the late summer, and seem to find enough to eat at other times of year. One came up on my ear really frighteningly once, I was worried it was going to poke its beak in! Luckily, it flew away.
- Karen
http://greenwalks.wordpress.com
I dared to go out this afternoon and even waited till after supper to log back on and oh, my, guess I won’t take any more breaks away from the computer! Welcome, all of you…and such great, informative comments about hummingbirds.
Among you are some new friends: Welcome Peggy and Sandy, Lucia, and Sarah. I love the tales you all tell of loop-de-loops and hummingbird truces and the inquisitive attempt at moonflowers and of the native Dicentra cousins. I know everyone hopes that you will all come back soon again.
I have at least 5 hummers hanging around my Tennessee garden this year. They really like the red flowered salvias (Pineapple, Texas Hummingbird, and Fire Cracker). They also like Gold Flame Honeysuckle. The Gold Flame is great because it starts blooming early, about the time the hummers show up. And it keeps going until after they leave. But best of all it smells amazing.
Welcome, Tamra. Pineapple sage is one of my favorite plants…but many years it barely gets to blooming here before frost. You are making me jealous! Come back soon with more Tennessee tales.
My hummingbird likes ‘hearts and honey’ morning glory, black and blue salvia, Gartenmeister fuchsia, plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’, abutilon, ruellia, cigar plant. I’ve even seen it at my ‘Bonfire’ begonia.
The garden surrounding my apartment building includes several red salvias. The hummingbirds fight over them and have even tried to chase me out of the garden to protect their beloved salvias.
That red Salvia is so eye-catching. I have coveted that for years, but somehow it always disappears, whether store-bought plants or from seed, I never get to see the flowers.
Know what? I wonder why we don’t have hummingbirds over here in the UK. Winters are nothing compared to NY state, where I did see them. Thought they were huge insects at first, everything else seeming so big to us then, from cars and restaurant dinner-plates to icecreams. ;-)
I am so naive: they probably migrate, don’t they?
Welcome, Joco. Yes, hummingbirds are New World species, natice to the Americas. Though they migrate an astonishingly long distance in a single flight to Central America each winter, they don’t make any transatlantic flights. :( As for the salvias, I have to buy plants of decent size in May, and even that way don’t get flowers till high summer. Now is we lived in Texas… Do come visit again soon.
Our porch is rimmed with Hollyhocks. (They were planted black and came up crimson, but that’s another story) The hummingbirds sip from the leaning flowers in the late afternoon. When the birds come, everyone stops whatever they are doing–to watch. Totally magical.
The hummers favorite is scarlet gilia. They also love various salvias, agastache and trumpet vine(which I regret planting except when the Hummingbirds are here). The goldfinches are back from the mountains and we still have the 3 western screech owl teenagers.
I was delighted to find this post. We are relative newcomers to Connecticut’s NW Corner and have spent gobs of time this summer watching our busy little iridescent friends work our bee balm and cat mint. We’ve seen at least three females working our plants — and, boy, are they ever territorial!
You mention that the ruby throats are the only ones in the Northeast. We have, however, seen a beautiful coppery colored hummingbird working in the blue mist and Japanese maple on the other side of the house.
Welcome, Stephanie. I will do more homework about who travels through our area, but only the ruby-throated breeds here. Back shortly after a little more research!
Welcome also to Elizabeth. Sounds like your hollyhocks (whatever color they may be) are doing a great job as a birdfeeder indeed.
What great info about all the plants these deceptively fragile looking little birds like! They arrive in my garden (Cincinnati OH) when the lilacs bloom (late April) and are hard at work right now on their favorite, lantana, as well as the blue salvias, joe pye, butterfly bush, hardy passion flower, cleome, etc. They seem to be more territorial over the feeders than the plants, looking like little jedi warriors chasing one another up over the trees and the house….
Welcome Barbara. Yes, they are territorial…apparently one male will defend like a quarter-acre or so during breeding, and multiple birds will share food sources when the family-rearing is over…but not without the aerial antics.
Hi Margaret,
This summer I’ve only seen one hummingbird darting around my Lobelia but what a treat! My garden in Northern Jersey does attract a great variety of birds which I try to record, not in very professional manner, but it is fascinating to mark their arrivals and departures. The comments are wonderful everyday.
Hello! Any suggestions. The beavers are busy felling trees along our Adirondack lake shoreline. They are cute and we are humane but heard they can clear an acre of trees in a season.
I’m here in dry, dry, Eastern Indiana. I see hummingbirds at various flowers while I’m working outside but the most amazing thing has been to have males fly almost up to the window behind my computer. It’s second story and I look right out into the canopy of a sugar maple. I figured it out!
I have a tiny red glass doo-dad hanging on a string from the window latch. I’m removing it for the birds’ safety but I’ll
miss them.
We’ve had the treat of indigo buntings nesting near an old fence line.
Chris
Welcome, Chris. I used to have indigo buntings every year when I put out birds feeders, and they came closer in where all the bird activity was, but now I only see them in the outer reaches, not by the house at all. What a treat they are; I miss their visits, and really understand that you will miss the male hummingbird (but you did the right thing). See you soon again I hope.
@Dahlia Delight: I have heard people tell of this before, and have no idea what the remedy is. A guess it’s another homework assignment for me, huh?
@Stephanie: If you have a Rufous hummingbird, which is possible, it would be good to record it. You will probably be able to find the local Audubon affiliate online by searching, or you could go to birds.cornell.edu and start there. Have a look at the checklist of where hummingbirds have been seen outside their normal range, including CT, and the accompanying photos.
@ Dahlia Delight: Our city puts wire fencing around the base of trees to prevent the beavers chewing on them. It works, but it’s time consuming and not attractive.
Don’t forget the “Black and Blue” salvia. Though not the supposed favorite color, our three hummingbirds couldn’t get enough of it this summer. They’d be so engrossed that I could walk within three feet of them.
Welcome, Judy. They do love that salvia, too, and it’s a beauty. Thanks for visiting, and please don’t be a stranger.
I have seen a hummer feeding at a hanging basket of white impatiens - and also eyeing her reflection inquisitively. One quiet day, 1 female buzzed another in huge arcs about a dozen times. It was quite entertaining!
Question - my lonicera sempervirens bloomed for the first time this summer, but then has stopped as it looks like something eats out the buds. All that is left is a set of green prongs where the flowers would have been. Any ideas?
I have just watched your segment on The Martha Stewart show and of course just had to come and see the Frog Boys etc. On the hummingbird thing, I have always loved nature and am primarily a horse person but have been trying to set up a safe feeding platform for all my birds around our house. I don’t have a lot of flowers but I sure will be reading up on your recommendations for bird and insect friendly plants. I also hung a hummingbird feeder recently not really expecting to see any of these tiny little guys and was pleasantly surprised to see them come to feed within 24 hours!!!
Of course my other passion is photography and I have captured numerous images of them on my Canon digital DSLR (I use it in manual mode, like you I like making the decisions on f-stops and shutter speeds although do reply a bit on autofocus because my eyes are taking a beating with all the computer work etc.)
I would be very pleased if you would visit my blog, you may have to wade through some of the stories, it started as a photo a day blog and has ended up as a diary of sorts but you can just view the pictures LOL.
Oh yes can you put in a good word for me with Martha, I would love to photograph her Friesians!!!!! especially in the snow!!!
Okay thats it for me, I will be back for sure and will catch up on a bit more of your blog, your photos are wonderful and you write with great humor.
Lori Schmidt
Welcome, LoriProPhoto. I will be clicking over to visit you soon…once I say hello to all the new “faces” today here. And yes, aren’t Martha’s horses amazing? (All I’ve got is some stray frogboys and a stray cat, all of whom adopted me years ago and seem to like the place enough to stick around.)
I just found your website today after watching Martha.
It is really enjoyable! Thought i would tell you that
our hummers arrive in Georgia every spring about the
fifth of April and leave about the middle of October, almost
to the day. First the males leave about September,
leaving the females and young. Then one fall day, you
look out the window and they’re all gone. One favorite
flower that they really love are the Mimosa blossoms,those
pink, powder puff blossoms which smell heavenly.Next to
bluebirds, hummingbirds are my favorite birds.
Welcome, Frances, a fellow bird-lover. I am fascinated to hear about the hummingbirds’ enjoyment of the mimosa blossoms…not something I have here, so I didn’t know. The mental image of those little shiny birds in those powder puffs is lovely. Thanks.