Making Hummingbirds Happy

I love hummingbirds.  Who doesn't?  I had never seen one until a few years ago.  After that, I was hooked, and determined to provide hummingbirds a welcoming habitat.

There are two ways to attract hummingbirds.  The first is to get a hummingbird feeder.  I saw one at a friend's house that had suction cups that stick onto a window.  She said that you only need a day or two for the birds to find the feeder.

Most of what she said is true - but I had to enhance my environment to get the hummingbirds to notice my feeder.  I bought a few pots of colorful annuals, gazania, snapdragon, and vinca, and placed them near the feeder.  Then, I hung a fuschia  plant near the window.  In a few days, I had my first hummingbird visitor.

You have to be careful with feeders.  The sugar solution needs to be changed every three to four days.  It is easy to prepare - just add one cup of water to one quarter cup of sugar, and heat in a pot until the sugar is dissolved.  Once it has cooled, you can add it to your clean feeder.  Because you are using a sugar solution, you may also attract ants and insects.  Also, I am not having great luck with the suction cups.  The feeder was working just fine until I had to take it down when we had the house stained.  Since then, the cups keep slipping.  Somebody in my family will figure it out.

The purist's way to attract hummingbirds is to plant a garden with flowers and flowering shrubs that the hummingbird can feed from.  I have several of these in my garden.  My neighbor has several in his flower bed, and I have included a picture of his flowers.

His July garden is dominated by rudbeckia (commonly called black eyed susan), echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower), and the not-yet blooming coreopsis (I believe 'moonbeam"), also known as tickseed.

I have a different selection of flowers and shrubs in my border.  Althea (rose of sharon) is blooming profusely now, and the hummingbirds really like it.  They also use the branches to take a break from beating their wings.

There was a hummingbird feeding on the flowers' nectar, but unfortunately, I was not able to get a picture of it.  These shrubs come in lots of colors.  I would tend to stay away from the lavender ones; they tend to get a mauve tint that I don't find very attractive. 

The flower that I have had the most success with attracting hummingbirds is lobelia cardinalis.  The flowers are a beautiful, clear red, and you can easily see and photograph the birds because the plant is erect.

These plants like moist soil and they spread.  I don't mind the spread because they are good looking and distribute red throughout this particular bed.