Do you think....

that this would be attractive to hummers?

Thanks, Lav

http://www.selectseeds.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/01132.2.5631987804374278442

Hummmmmm, Don't know about the hummers, but I'm very attracted to it. "grin"

ya know you asked for that one, Lav!

Love you. I want osme of these seeds!
But if it atracts hummers, all the better!
They are TUBULAR ya know.....

Tubular! Very Bill and Ted sounding :)

YESSSSSS ... and that is zactly how I pronounced it and how the hummers love flowers!

I guess they were the originators of the phrase!

I thought Hummers saw more in the Red zone?

I can just see all these hummers flying around my yard looking down and spotting a flower "tuuuuubular.." they say as they dive down. lol :)

They like tubular becuse the beaks fit in better, and in addition, they can beat the butterflies to the nectar.

SOME where I have a lillian stokes books on hummer,
and the order of preference of colors has purple, blue, magenta and red at the top of the (most preferred) list.

Later on are orange, white, yellow. (which happen to be butterflies' fave.

I will look it up. and get back to you.

Ok, I found a small reference to primo hummer attractants ...LOL, other than feeders...

" To further attract hummingbirds, plant red tubular flowers. A list of good hummingbird flowers:

Hummingbird Flowers

Hummingbirds drink nectar from flowers. They prefer tubular flowers that are red, but will visit flowers of any color.

Here is a list of flowers found in garden nurseries that are highly attractive to hummingbirds. Try to choose early, mid, and late-blooming varieties. When possible, plant native species.

Hummingbird plants available at nurseries

Bee Balm (Monarda spp.)
Blazing Star (Liatris spp.)
Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spp.)
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Century Plant (Agave americana)
Columbine (Aquilegia spp.)
Coral-Bells (Heuchera sanguinea)
Dame’s Rocket (Hesperis matronalis)
Delphinium (Delphineum spp.)
Fire Pink (Silene virginica)
Foxglove (Digitalis spp.)
Fuschia (Fuschia spp.)
Gilias (Gilia spp.)
Hollyhocks (Althea spp.)
Impatiens (Impatiens spp.)
Lily (Lilium spp.)
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum spp.)
Paintbrush (Castilleja spp.)
Penstemon (Penstemon spp.)
Phlox (Phlox spp.)
Red-Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria)
Salvia (Salvia spp.)
Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus)
Yucca (Yucca spp.) "


This info came fromthe Donald and Lillian Stokes website:

http://www.stokesbirdsathome.com/

I consider them to be the most knowledgeable resource for
hummingbird information.

I could not locate my book to look for the information
pertaining to "most popular colors". but as it says above, they PREFER red, but will go to any color.

Mainly they are looking for plants that have nectar, and preferably with tubular flowers onthem.

I have the Lobilia,guess I need to add some more,that is a great site!

Ok, I was just looking up the annual first sighting of
hummers as posted on another thread here on hummers...
and found this:

Attracting Hummingbirds

One good way to enjoy the company of hummingbirds is planting a hummingbird garden. In addition to providing them a natural diet, a hummer garden is an excellent way to attract birds to your nearby feeder: since hummingbirds feed by sight on regularly-followed routes - called traplines - their inquisitive nature will quickly lead them to investigate any possible new source of food.

A hummer garden is also a great way to capture the birds on film or video, and makes a much nicer backdrop for your photos than the typical plastic feeder. If you plan carefully and select a variety of plants that flower at successively later dates, you will be rewarded with happy hummers throughout the season.

Using pesticides around hummingbird plants is a very bad idea. Killing garden pests will also eliminate the small
insects hummingbirds rely upon for protein. In addition,
hummers might directly ingest pesticides sprayed onto
flowers, which could sicken or kill the birds.

REMEMBER: if you wouldn't eat it yourself, don't feed it to a hummingbird! (Well, maybe not the bugs...)

Since hummers, like most birds, have virtually no sense of smell, the flowers that attract them tend to have little or no fragrance, apparently directing their resources instead toward high visibility and nectar production. Note also that
cultivated hybrids often make much less nectar than wild
strains. While you should visit your local nursery for
suggestions specific to your climate and area, here are
some of the best plants to consider if you're planning a
hummingbird garden:

Plants to Attract and Feed Hummingbirds

Trees and Shrubs

Azalea
Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)
Cape Honeysuckle
Flame Acanthus
Flowering Quince
Lantana
Manzanita
Mimosa
Red Buckeye
Tree Tobacco
Turk's Cap
Weigela

Vines

Coral Honeysuckle
Cypress Vine
Morning Glory
Scarlet Runner Bean
Trumpet Creeper

Flowers

Some may be annuals or perennials depending on climate.

Perennials

Bee Balm (Monarda)
Canna
Cardinal Flower
Columbine
Coral Bells
Four O'Clocks
Foxglove
Hosta
Hummingbird Mint (Agastache)
Little Cigar (Cuphea)
Lupine
Penstemon
Yucca

Annuals

Beard Tongue (and other penstemons)
Firespike
Fuchsia
Impatiens
Jacobiana
Jewelweed
Petunia
Various Salvia species
Shrimp Plant

NOTE: Japanese Honeysuckle attracts hummingbirds, too,
but it's an invasive and troublesome exotic species
that's no longer recommended.



Other sites with good gardening advice:

Operation RubyThroat: Hummingbird Gardens
http://www.rubythroat.org/GardensHummerMain.html

NJ Audubon Society Nature Notes
http://www.njaudubon.org/NatureNotes/Garden.html


In addition to food sources, convenient perching opportunities will make your yard more hospitable to
hummingbirds, since they spend around 80% of their time sitting on twigs, leaf stems, clotheslines, etc., between feeding forays and sorties against trespassing rivals.

Another way to get hummingbirds' attention is to festoon (be tasteful, now!) your feeder with red or orange surveyor's tape, available in hardware stores. It is thought that hummers are sensitive to ultraviolet light, which these fluorescent tapes reflect in abundance. Regardless, if you hang a feeder, sooner or later a hummingbird will come to
investigate; it has been conjectured that, in a given year, not a square meter of the U.S. or southern Canada goes unchecked by hummers in their relentless quest for food.

All of the above info in this post came from

http://www.hummingbirds.net/attract.html

Here is the reply I received from the Stokes via email:

>question: I loaned out my copy of your hummingbird book, >but I remember you listed, in order of hummers' >preference, the colors that most attract hummingbirds.
>
>Could you please refresh my memory on this?
>
>Thanks, I enjoy your work very much, Lavanda
>
----------------

Hummingbirds like red the most. flowers need to be tubular. Good flowers are impatiens, bee balm, trumpet honeysuckle, cardinal flower, salvia.

Hummers will also come to tubular flowers of other colors like pink, blue and yellow but they like red the best.

Best wishes,
Don and Lillian Stokes,

P.S. To sign up for our free email newsletter
on birds go to:

http://www.stokesbirdsathome.com/tvseries/form.html

- To answer many of your bird questions about ID, nesting, and range see our Stokes Field Guide To Birds, go here:
http://www.stokesbirdsathome.com/shop/sh01.html

Thanks so much for all the great links and information. I'm planning a hummingbird garden this year. In past years they usually come to the garden but not in great numbers. I have noticed that one seems to come at the same time everyday and makes the rounds visiting the flowers he likes in the same order everyday.One flower not mentioned that he was fond of was crocrosmia lucifer. It isn't native but no chance of it becoming invasive here. It is hard to keep them established as they freeze out. I'll try the red tape or maybe make some small red flags.

Yes, they do like crocosmia...and many other ones not mentioned above.

I went and bought some hot pink lastic tape at the hardware to attract them.

I last saw one around here about 6-7 years ago, but probably I just havent noticed any since. We have wildflowers, but not many flower gardens aorund here.

They also like salvia leucantha a lot, and it blooms just when they start passing through both in the spring and fall.

Methinks it has something to do with the day lengths.

Oh,, and isnt day light savings time starting next weekend?
It will be so nice to have more light in the late afternoons
to be outside.