After going to the Hummingbird Festival this weekend, I decided to make my newly-shrub-free zone in front of my house a hummingbird garden. I know it's a little late in the season, but I'm hoping what I've planted will take root and make it through the winter... I got all perennials.... 2 kinds of salvia, bee balm, cigar plant...
I need suggestions, though, on a ground cover to fill in around these things and knowing how to prep them for the winter. Do I just cut them down to the ground and let them come back?!?!
I have so many hummingbirds in my back and front yard it's sometimes like a war zone. I didn't take them long to find the new patch of goodies I started planting for them Monday.
I appreciate any suggestions.
Hummingbird garden
Judy, don't know how others treat their perennials but I leave them alone as long as there is green. Even after that some plants will have seedheads, such as coneflowers, etc. that the birdies love. It is just a good idea to mark them so you remember where they are if you do cut them. I've made the mistake before of not marking where plants are and then go digging in the spring......surprise!!
Hi!
What is hummingbird festival? Was it in GA?
Re: Hummingbird Festival
Yes, do tell! Did I miss something? DH and I are redoing the entire back yard, so I'm focusing on flutterbye and hummingbird plants at the moment.
Thanks,
/Sunny
Aug 11th & 12th Gaither's Plantation near Mansfield Ga had their 2nd annual hummer fest. visit www.gahummer.org
Also, in Hogansville, Ga they hold a hummer fest in October. I think it's mid Oct. I don't know how long they have been celebrating hummer fest but I have noticed city advertising signs posted around town when we drive through.
Deb
The one in Hogansville is a nice one. One of those things where a lot of vendors set up and sell their wares. I went to it last year. Really enjoyable. Also a lot of kiddy rides.
A friend that sells Japanese maples was at the recent one.........wish she had told me about it before-hand because it sounded really nice. They were actually banding the lil guys. The Hogansville one might be a good one to try............thanks for telling us.
I googled hogansville, ga hummingbird festival and this is what popped up:
10-21, Hogansville, GA, Hogansville Hummingbird Festival, Arts & Crafts, Demonstrating Art, Antiques, Food, Children's Games & Rides, Entertainment, 706-637-9497
sounds like fun - I will be marking my calendar.
Here's the full link, thank you Judy for cluing me, the clueless, in!
http://hummingbirdfestival.com/
-Sunny
Thanks, everybody. I'm gonna mark my calendar, too, for the festival in Hogansville. Hope it will be as good as the other one. We went, too. It was hard to hear anything, though. The guy needs a mic. Sorry, it never occurred to me to post that it was coming up--duhh! Judy, the only groundcover I can think of is still kinda tall--Texas betony or Stachys coccinea, but it's 18" tall. Oh, wait, how about sage? I know they like the unnamed variety I've got when it blooms. Sheila
Most hummer plants here are a little late to bloom, not really much of a spring show. So how about a beautiful carpet of blue underneath? Here's a beautiful creeping blue veronica. I planted some along my "hell strip" between the sidew alk and the curb and it's done beautifully.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/01170.html
Thanks all. I bought some Hummingbird Gold honescuckle last night to drape around my iron fence that's in front of the garden. So now I have Salvia (red and blue), bee balm, cigar plants and honeysuckle. Looks a little shabby right now since it's so late in the season and I just got started but I'm told everything will develop quickly and be in full bloom, so to speak next year. Regardless of how it looks, the little buggers are all over the stuff!
The festival was in Mansfield last weekend. As I understand Friday was the better day... I, naturally, went Saturday. A lady who works at the Duluth Wild Birds Unlimited was helping with the banding. She said they banded about 40 of the little dears Friday but only about 5 Saturday. They think they need to move the event back a week next time.. this was the second annual one.
Thanks for the heads up about the Hogansville one.
OOOohhh, I like that plant GGG. I'm adding it to my wish list (which takes up about 5gigs of storage on my puter...LOL). Maybe I can find some seeds. Yeah, delayed gratification, but it's cheaper :) Gosh, next spring is going to be soooo hard to wait for!!
-Sunny
heyitsmejudy,
Did you plant the cigar plant, cuphea ignea, or the giant cigar plant? I have cuphea ignea now that I grew from seeds and the flowers are very small. I've never seen a hummer around mine. I've heard the other variety, the giant cigar plant, is best one to grow for hummers.
Digs
Mine's just the little one and they're on it! Not as much as the bee balm. I barely had that stuff in the ground before they struck it!
Judy
You have the same one that I have, cuphea ignea. I'm going to try growning the giant cigar plant next year. Don't know how cold hardy they are and it's too late in the season to plant an iffy variety. Hope you have plenty of hummers to watch. I love 'em.
Digs
Girlgroupgirl:
Crazy enough, I went to the nursery this weekend and picked up something that I thought was what you had posted about, planted it and got back on the computer today and discovered what I bought was EXACTLY what you are talking about! I hope it fills in as ground cover well. If it's half as pretty as the pic you posted I'll be tickled. Thanks.
Great! I'm so glad you found your plant. You can make more too! Mine came from a friend. She just put a small container of soil underneath one section of the plant as it spread. When it was well rooted in the container she just cut it from the mother plant.
I was thinking that tomato or grape baskets would be good for this. They are small, and could be burried in the ground. Perfect drainage and it would blend in until you wanted to remove it and move your new plant along to a new home.
Your garden sounds lovely!
GGG
GGG, what great news. I too, love that "Georgia Blue" veronica. Nice to know that if I limit myself to just "one" (like a Lay's chip?) that maybe I can grow others and have it spread.
Is it hardy here for you in the winter? Or does it die back all the way and then come back in the spring?
Loved that rain last night, but it awakened us to a roof leak :( I think I've lost my garden helper for a while as DH determines what we need to do (other than call the landlord!)
Judy,
Where did you find yours locally? I haven't seen it anywhere in my last two weekends out and I'd like to get one.
I've gotten a lot of new butterflies, but no hummers yet. DH likes the hummers so I'd like to get more plants for his likes as well. I have seeds, but I'm impatient!!
Thanks all,
~Sunny
GGG,
IT IS? Yahoo! Then that makes a good selling point to DH :D
I have Veronica Speedwells (Sunny Blue and Red Fox) that I just got for 1.00 this weekend at Lowe's - but alas no Georgia Blue anywhere.
If anyone here is a clematic lover, they had them for 2.00 (down from 9.98) as well. (Lowe's @ Peachtree)
I also rescued a charred lobelia, and the rain is really helping it.
~Sunny
I got the Ga. Blue at Randy's Nursery on Hwy. 29 in Lawrenceville... I LOVE that place. They are always helpful and have good prices on stuff. I went in with a new "Best Plants for Georgia Gardens" book with sticky notes on pages marked "attracts hummingbirds" and got one of their people to walk with me to find everything.
Check out their butterfly house while you're there! It's really cool.
Hineni: No hummers yet! What a bummer! I so enjoy watching them chase each other around the yard. I don't know how the buggers get any syrup at all, they're so busy playing guard dogs with the feeders.
Glad to hear Veronica is evergreen. I'm anxious to see what everything looks like with a full season of growth on it. I'll try to post a pic soon! I'm really happy with it. When I bought the house there were shrubs covering up about the entire front of my house. It's changed quite a bit.