Quick start Hummingbird Garden

I was just up at my Parents house and my Dad wants to add a Hummingbird garden.
They have put up a feeder for several years but don’t get a lot of action. They do see some hummers from time to time but not a lot. The area they are looking at would be about 16 ft long and come out maybe 8ft. There is a very old Lilac and several privet hedges planted there. We are going to pull out the privets leave the lilac or replace it with a new one and add a butterfly bush. I know that hummers love cannas so they will be planted in there and I told Dad if he wants to build a trellis we could add Trumpet vine.
They will have a feeder in this garden as well.
My questions is not just what plants the hummers will like but what is the quickest way to get them into this garden. What are the first plants that will bloom and draw them in.
Their house is in Zone 6B and I would like to try and keep as much of the garden Zone appropriate but I can add a few plants that will need to be dug up and over wintered. And I was wondering if some of the more tropical vines could be started in the house in pots and placed in the garden to give an earlier food source to more quickly lure the hummers in?

Holly - Some nice choices. But I must confess ... I am afraid of the Trumpet vine. It is very aggressive here in my zone and I have heard that in many other zones, too. Can you grow it in a BIG pot. That's what I am doing now. It has a tendency to put out runners ... everywhere!!! DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE that vine!!!

The favorite plants my hummers love in my yard are Firespike, Red Shrimp plant, and Morning Glories! Yes ... my birds love MGs! (Probably why you see paintings of hummers nectaring from MGs so much!) Perhaps you might grow MGs instead of Trumpet Vine. They do well in pots, too, or the ground.

I am going to try growing Coral Bean this year in my hummer garden bed. I have heard they like the blooms of that vine as well.

Hi Becky, Yes I do know about the Trumpet vine I have a huge one that I have trained and is so beautiful that it is worth the extra work. But I did warn Dad that they are pretty aggressive. Although not quite as bad up here as in the South I think. Also I'm wondering how long it would take for a couple of my runners to start flowering. I think I had mine 3 years before they flowered. I have a lot of MG seeds from several trades I did. Funny I was thinking about the MG but I never noticed the Hummers at my MG only the Butterflies. Although Dads main focus is Hummers I will be adding quite a few Butterfly attractors too. Which I know the hummers will like as well. Tall Phlox, Scarlet Milkweed and Bee Balm are a few that I already have.
This link will take you to a picture of my Trumpet Vine. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=2644316

Oh Holly! Your trumpet vine is gorgeous! I wish I could do something like that with mine. I don't dare let it loose in the yard again. Mine has yet to flower. Maybe this year will be my lucky year! (3rd year)

The hummers here definitely use the MGs for nectar. And they look so cute going up and down the vines looking for blooms! I forgot about Bee Balm - another favorite! :-)

Love, love those red and orange blooming nectar blooms! :-) I;m glad the hummers do too! :-)

Holly,
Trumpet Vine is very invasive and can get very large, it also take 3-5 years for it to start blooming. A much better choice would be Lonicera sempervirens (Coral Honeysuckle) Hummingbirds love mine, it is well behaved, and puts out tons of flowers. Hummers also love Salvia coccinea, Lady in Red, Coral Nymph, are good ones. I live in a Hummer Breeding area and have lots of Hummingbirds. During peak times in summer I go thru 2 gallons of nectar a day in addition to all the flowers I have planted for them.
Nancy

Holly, some of the earliest blooming hummingbird treats in my garden are dicentras (bleeding hearts), loniceras (honeysuckles), pulmonarias (lungworts), and mimulus cardinalis (cardinal monkey flower.)
Susan

Hi Becky, I am more north than you, but I think for fast plants don't go for trumpet vine it will take a while to get flowers. I've had one for 2 summers, that I bought in a 5 gal. pot and I haven't seen a single flower yet. I would recommend Monarda 'Jacob Cline'; Cardinal Flower; and Lonicera sempervirens. For annuals Tithonia rotundifolia 'Torch'; Salvia coccinea; scarlet phlox drummondii & zinnia.

Added - Every spring I buy a red petunia hanging basket and bring them in at night if I have to. The cardinal flowers are for later in the season but they will love them.

This message was edited Feb 16, 2008 8:58 PM

Heres my Jacob Cline with a hummer at them.

Meredith - Have you any seeds for your Jacob Kline? I have unknown pink monarda. I received a few seeds in a trade of JK, but so far they have not germinated. I have been trying to get some seeds for several months now. Yours are beautiful!!!

I've tried collecting seeds for these two years and I have never gotten more than 5 seeds. I don't know if that's the norm but if it is, this may be why yoor having a hard time finding seeds.

Hmmm ... that is interesting. Another DGer wondered the same thing as she didn't find many seeds on her JK either. I got a ton of seeds from my Pink Monarda.

Why not try a coral honeysuckle? Hummers around here are attracted to them and the web sites highly recommend them.

To get HBs into the garden early in the season, hang out baskets of red impatiens, red morning glories, or other red flowers (even red plastic ones) along with your feeders. The birds will spy them and zero in on the yard and scout for nesting.

Other early season favorites around here are lilac and red buckeye.

Later in the summer try zinnias and tithonia (mexican sunflower). And the salvias like 'Black & Blue' are popular.

Thank you everyone for such good suggestions. Some of these will really get my parents Hummer garden off to a fast start.
Meredith, I really love the red petunias idea. I would be able to put out a couple of baskets around Mothers Day. There would be something blooming right from the very start to bring them in early. My Dad loves projects and needs a few to keep him busy. So a couple of trellis for the MG or maybe an arch. Two years ago he made the most beautiful planter boxes.
Nectar, I would never have thought about Bleeding Hearts. I only have one small one, guess I will have to keep a better eye on it.
Beebe, I really like the Coral Honeysuckle and have been thinking about getting one for myself guess I better pick up a couple. Thank you everyone Holly

I also got lots of seeds from my other Monarda which is a mix of pinks and purples. The JC's had more beetles than seeds so I think they got eaten up!

I can't beleive I forgot to mention Red Columbine (A. canadensis)!

Added - MOthers day is when I get my petunias too! There usually aren't too many nights they can't stay out after that. There are lots of other plants to bring them in too.
Lychnis chalecdonica (Maltese Cross) can be easily grown from seed and can flower it's first year but not much.
Penstemon barbatus Iron Maiden - also can flower first year from seeds (Mine didn't when Winter sown) But they need to be started indoors now if there is any chance of flowers this year.

This message was edited Feb 16, 2008 9:58 PM

I had a "Hummingbird Salvia" come up in a petunia plant pot I bought a couple
years ago - it came back the next season, in the pot & in the garden below it.
Apparently it reseeds prolifically! Is that the salvia coccinea others have men-
tioned? I know the hummers liked it. (I've been trying for years to get hummers -
finally got 2 visitors the last 2 wks of Sept., '07).

They also liked the candy corn I planted last year. Does candy corn reseed?
I sure hope so - they were labeled "annual", so I pulled them up when they got
tall & ragged at the end of the season.

I'm a fair gardener - "light brown/green thumb"! Lots of (expensive) mistakes
but I keep trying. My main interest is birds, flutterbies, hummers. My garden areas
get mostly full sun all day.

If anyone can send me some plant/shrub suggestions, just give me the common
names - the Latin ones just confuse me!

Thanks

Holly ann-- If you have a big spot to plant out, you might have fun with this Salvia that I just found on the 'net---

http://mamakane.com/yvonnesalvia.htm

The seeds are offered for the asking with the promise that the recipient will write to Yvonne and share your appreciation with her. A very touching story. I was trying to find out more about it and who might be growing it on the Salvia Forum--not a lot of new info there, but a few DGers seem to know of this special salvia...

Sorry I have been away, I am having computer problems. Thank you all for the great suggestions and I will be checking out the ones that I am not familiar with when I have better computer access and I will be checking back in on this thread as soon as I can. Hopefully Ric will get this all sorted out soon.

T - That red salvia is AMAZING! I am going to try to get some seeds for my garden. I bet my hummers would flip if they saw those huge plants and blooms! Just amazing!!!!

Just a little info Becky. Yvonnes salvia does not does as well in the South as it does in the North.

If you want some seeds I'll send you mine.

LOL, Are they still good after 1 1/2 years in the fridge??

Pelle - LOL! I am willing to try them if you don't mind sharing them. Have you ever grown them?

What have I got to lose? And much to gain if they do grow here! :-)

D-mail me and let me know if you would like to trade for something or do you want me to send you an SASBE?

BTW - Here is the thread for more info:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/exseed/msg0116535317286.html?26202

Yes I got my seeds quite a while back from Emily who is such a sweet lady. It was on the Yahoo groups where I first heard about it and got involved.

I just had to write a nice little note to Yvonne.

I have never grown them because they need to be started indoors and after numerous trys w/ other seeds I was not successful so didn't want to waste these seeds trying it again.

I'll D mail you.

That's a huge salvia. : ) I think they might do alright here, Becky. It never hurts to try. When yours gets big, I'd like to have a few seeds, please. I trade you something. : ) So pretty.
~Lucy

This Salvia splendens from Thompson & Morgan seems similar to Yvonne's salvia but is 'just' two feet tall...Looks pretty healthy, too.

http://www.tmseeds.com/product/4527.html

good morning, I would suggest they be sure to start early with a plant post that can hang a feeder and a cascading annual plant favorite full of blooms to lure them in :) Fuschia baskets are nice and in bloom early season as are bright red verbenas, calibrachoas (million bells) and petunias.

One of the earliest blooming hummer perennial I've noticed in our zone is the quince, but not everyone likes them (thorns), I wish we had one ~ don't have any quince yet personally. Cowslip is adorable; pale yellow blooms in April. Everything that has been mentioned already is good esp. the suggestions for trumpet honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens , that blooms early too and they really adore that plant a lot!

It won't be too long before the hummers return :) Happy Hummer Watching!

Wind - your honeysuckle is beautiful! I can't wait until mine is that big!

that photo is not the greatest, but you get the idea :)

It didn't take long at all to get that big. That one is Lonicera sempervirens “Blanche Sandman”- This is the second one I had to grow in that spot. It is climbing right on the chain link fence. When we had work done on the house in 2002 the fence had to get rolled back. So this one is around 5 yrs old. Alot of little birds like it to hide in too.

Very pretty wind, I have a small coral honeysuckle, I think I will put mine on my fence. Yours is beautiful.
~Lucy

Hi everyone, I just got our computer back up and running. Or should I say that my old computer is now being cleaned, refurbished and donated to a good cause and my new computer is now up and running. I was at my parents house this morning and was asking Mom what colors she thinks she would like along with the basic red. She said talk to your Dad it's his project. LOL She thinks his project will be a lot of work for me and I told her what better way to spend my day visiting them and working in their flower beds. She can sit in a shady spot and talk while I plant and weed then make me lunch. Dad will love making a few trellises and maybe I'll get him to make a couple for me, too. I love the ideas you have all passed around and I will post pictures this summer of the whole project so you can all see what your good suggestions have produced.

Congratulations on your new computer! And good luck with your garden plans.

Sounds like all you need now is a rocker for your mom and good recipe for a Tom Collins or a Long Island Iced Tea and some time to watch the hummers!

Our hummers fly past the bee balm to the hostas. I guess they didn't read the book on hummer attraction.
the annual red salvia works also. They have tried the columbine. another Lucy

Lucy, Interesting about the hosta. They must be dripping with nectar! Any special kinds?

Is your garden mostly a shade garden? Wondering what else you are planting and if you have feeders up...?

Yes, the hummingbirds go to my hosta too, but here they love those red monarda. I have Krossa Regal and Hyacinthina. They like my neighbors too, she has the common variegated type.

We are gonna have to start assigning ourselves numbers. Lucy1, Lucy2, Lucy3,,etc. LOL : )

I have a hummer habitat garden and gardens around the property with flowers for hummers and butterflies. They have alot of flowers they visit but I would rank the top 5 hummer favs (besides their feeders) here based on highest activity (with a tie for fifth) as:

1) Trumpet Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens “Blanche Sandman”
2) Trumpet Vine- Campsis radicans
3) Jacob Cline Monarda didyma
4) Cigar plant, Cuphea ignea
5) Cardinal Flower, lobelia cardinalis and Gartenmeister upright Fuchsia

Must be Lucy who? We have a winter feeder mid-Oct to Mid-April. Don't have a hummer feeder as probably not enough time to take care of it properly. The hosta in question was one that popped up when I bought columbine from a friend. We do have smaller ones on purpose, lemon-Lime and sanguinea, We have scattered shade so can put them in as the occasion merits. We are really iris nuts and enjoy dragon flies helping out with mosquitos on those.

not the greatest photo, but here is our little hummer habitat :)
I really love watching the hummers and can't wait for their return

Oh wind, that is beautiful. I need to get some Jacob Cline Monarda didyma, and some Cardinal Flower, lobelia cardinalis, very soon. : )
~Lucy

Wind - very nice! What are the white flowers? Are those calibroche (million bells) ?i think? in the basket?

Such a pretty red, white, and green garden. So often when the color scheme is limited it really shows off the plants. And such well-grown monarda, BTW! No wonder the HBs like it there!

I have to get a better honeysuckle. Mine comes into bloom fairly late in the season and seems to be ignored for the most part. It's a coral but has some yellow in it--perhaps too finely bred to have a lot of nectar and not red enough....

the round white blur in the photo is a white hydrangea, not really a hummer plant but I stuck it there!

on the other side of the house we have a really pretty blue hydrangea ~ the red, white and blue colors are all in bloom around July 4th. The red monarda are past their peak but can still make it into flower arrangements then. It is fun to sit outside (depending on the mosquitos!) and watch the hummers :)