Hoping to Provide New Data Soon!

[gb]

Hi,
I've been a birder for a long time, and hummingbirds are fascinating to me. I am glad I found this site, and hope to learn a lot about attracting them to my yard.
I've had a feeder up for a while, still no hummers. Hoping that will change soon, also planning to relandscape the front yard to make it more attractive to birds over all.
Thanks!
GB Hoyt
Lakeland, FL.

[moboston]

Where are you in Lakeland, GB?

[gb]

Sept 21, 2013 18:52:31 GMT -5 moboston said:

Where are you in Lakeland, GB?

Near Edgewood and New Jersey.
I've been reading the Lakeland thread, very exciting things happening it seems!

[moboston]

Welcome GB. There are a number of us who have met through our interest in hummingbirds and butterflies. I live off Hallam and there are two gals here who live between me and 540. There are several others, some further west and north. Hummers seem to like Lakeland!

[gb]

Excellent! Still no hummers at my place. I need to get some plants out for them, I think that would make a big difference. What's growing well now that I can plant for hummers?

[moboston]

Firespike - the deep purple one blooms in the winter and hummers love it. The old fashioned Red Pentas - look for a variety with the name Ruby in it, they can grow over 5 ft tall and bloom continuously. Firecracker, Firebush, Salvias, Red Shrimp plants, Coral Porterweed, Purple one too. Cape Honeysuckle. Hope this helps. There should be a list on one of the forum topics here as well.

[moboston]

Firespike - the deep purple one blooms in the winter and hummers love it. The old fashioned Red Pentas - look for a variety with the name Ruby in it, they can grow over 5 ft tall and bloom continuously. Firecracker, Firebush, Salvias, Red Shrimp plants, Coral Porterweed, Purple one too. Cape Honeysuckle. Hope this helps. There should be a list on one of the forum topics here as well.

[marthaloul]

Is cape honeysuckle invasive? If so, how do you keep it under control?

[marthaloul]

OOps,
I forgot to say thanks for the list. Where did you find the purple firespike?

[moboston]

Yes Martha, it is invasive. I have mine in pots. That helps - however, I still find runners coming up from where the roots grow out of the pot. Its probably not my favorite - mine doesn't bloom as much, probably cause its in a pot but when it does in the winter, the hummers love it.

I can't recall where I got my original plant, probably at USF. It gets huge, probably 10-15 ft or more and puts out large purple plumes of flowers. I have the red one which blooms now and a deep pinky-purple one that blooms pretty steadily throughout the year. It is in the shade and I can't tell you if the hummers use it here or not. I got it from Steve Backes and I know his hummers use it. I just can't see it from where I watch for the hummers. I do know they love the purple one.

[gb]

Thanks for the list Mo, do you use that nursery next to Sunoco on Cleveland Heights Near Hallam?

[moboston]

No, I don't. Most of my plants either come from USF plant sales or from cuttings from friends. USF has several during the spring/summer and I go for butterfly and hummingbird plants. I can find Salvias at Lowe's or Home Depot at times and some plants at Peterson's. There is going to be a plant sale at Munn Park in Oct and I did get two hummingbird plants from a guy there last year. They were small last year. One was used by hummers, the other had't bloomed. They are both established now so maybe this year will be used more. For the life of me, I can't recall the name of either one of them!