“NO MATTER HOW MANY HUMMINGBIRDS I SEE, NO MATTER HOW MANY WORDS I WRITE ABOUT THEM, I NEVER CEASE TO BE AWESTRUCK BY THE IRIDESCENCE AND ARTISTRY OF THESE TINY CREATURES, MICROCOSMS OF WONDER, JEWELS OF THE BIRD WORLD, FLYING RAINBOWS. WHAT MYSTERY! WHAT POWER! WHAT INFINITE GLORY WRAPPED IN FEATHERS, RADIANT COLOR AND MOTION!
THE LEAST
WE CAN DO IS PROVIDE A WELCOMING SPOT ON THE HUMMERS’ JOURNEY BACK HOME.
PERHAPS OUR GUIDING GARDENING PHILOSOPHY SHOULD BE: “IF WE
PUT OUT A SUGAR-WATER FEEDER OR PLANT A GARDEN, THEY WILL COME.”
June Osborne, “The
Ruby-throated Hummingbird”
In This Issue:
·
Announcement of Dates for our
2013 Hummingbird Garden Tours: SEPTEMBER 8 & 11,
2013
·
Mail Order Nursery
News
·
Canna Indica Tubers
Available
·
Salvia Amistad (Friendship
Sage): A Hot New Addition For A Hummingbird Garden!
·
Hummingbird Feeder
Information
·
Are There Really Fewer
Hummingbirds This Season?
·
An Easy Guide To The Best
& Easiest Hummingbird Plants For An Upper Midwestern Garden
·
Wisconsin Birding
List
Hi
Everyone,
HAPPY SPRING
AND SUMMER, finally!! Spring and summer have been a long time in
coming this season after an endless winter. We hope that everyone
enjoyed their winter season, but now it’s time to move on to hummingbirds and
gardening.
This
newsletter is extremely late because our spring has been quite busy with travel,
family matters, and hummingbird gardening programs. However, we
have been working furiously to get our hummingbird garden up and running
(especially with spring being so late this year) and have definitely been
thinking about all of you and hoping that you are enjoying your
hummingbirds. It was nice to see some of you at the Dane County
Garden Expo sessions in February and our sessions at Wildbirds Unlimited in
May.
Our first
hummingbird was quite late this year. Typically, we see our first
bird around May 1---this year, our first bird, a female, arrived on May 13.
We were afraid that our hummingbird season might be quite sparse,
but interestingly we believe that we have seen more hummingbirds in our urban
yard this year than any other season. In past seasons, we have
often struggled to record even a single hummingbird sighting during May and
early June, but this year that has definitely not been the case.
We have no explanation other than fifteen years of attracting and feeding
hummingbirds at this location. We have heard from any people
through Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest that the numbers of hummingbirds they
are seeing are fewer than in past seasons. Sometimes
nature-related events defy explanation!
We hope that
you have your feeders up and clean and fresh and that you are offering a few
great flowers for your hummingbirds. This update will contain some
new information about feeders and plants that might be helpful in your journey
as a hummingbird gardener and give you some fresh, new ideas.
We are very
excited that we will be presenting our “Gardening for Hummingbirds” program at
the 2013 Sedona Hummingbird Festival for the first time. If
you happen to get out that way, please come and see us! To learn
more about the Festival and to purchase tickets, please visit:
http://www.hummingbirdsociety.org/festival.php. We attended the Festival last year and
it was a wonderful experience and we learned about hummingbird gardening in a
whole new part of the country and met some wonderful people too.
Additionally, Sedona is extremely beautiful and worth visiting anytime of
the year.
Thank you for
your kind support of us and interest in our work and we hope that you will
consider planting a salvia or two for your hummingbirds this season.
Go out and find the best that summer has to offer!
All the
Best,
Kathi
and Michael
ANNOUNCEMENT OF DATES FOR OUR 2013 HUMMINGBIRD GARDEN
TOURS: SEPTEMBER 8 & 11
Our 2013
Hummingbird Garden tours at our home will take place on Sunday, September
8, 1 to 5:30 p.m. (door prize drawing at 3 p.m.) and Wednesday, September 11,
3-7:30 p.m. (door prize drawing at 5 p.m.)
Our address is 5118 Buffalo Trail in Madison, Wisconsin.
Refreshments and, hopefully, hummingbirds in abundance, will be
available. It is not necessary to RSVP for the tour unless you
need special accommodations. We look forward to seeing you there!
Watch for more details on our website and in the next e-Update.
MAIL
ORDER NURSERY NEWS
Operation of a
small mail order nursery with a specialized plant selection is clearly a “labor
of love” and a very risky business. There is absolutely no way
that the prices gardeners pay for these plants online could ever compensate a
nursery owner for their time and expense incurred to ship these fragile and
perishable plants across the country under the most adverse of
conditions. Many fine nurseries have discontinued mail order
service and others have unfortunately gone out of business completely.
While the closing of a high quality nursery offering unusual plants is
always a tragedy, we have found that new and interesting nurseries always seem
to make their way into the spotlight, despite the poor economy.
Here are a few updates:
-Sweet
Nectar Nursery (www.sweetnectarnursery.com) in Battleground, Washington has unfortunately ceased
operations. We will really miss this very fine
nursery!
-Flowers
By the Sea in Elk, California is a fantastic new player in the mail
order salvia trade. You can visit them at www.fbts.com. They have literally hundreds of new,
interesting and rare salvias for sale and their customer service, shipping, and
plant quality are really superb. We highly recommend that you give
them a try this year.
-Vincent
Gardens located in Douglas, Georgia is another hot new mail order
nursery on the scene. They carry a very interesting selection of
hummingbird annuals and perennials. Some of their plants are not
the greatest for the Upper Midwest, but they send very high quality plants for a
very fair price. Visit them at www.vincentgardens.com.
-One nursery
we’ve been very pleased with this year is Avant Gardens in
Dartmouth, MA. You can visit them at www.avantgardensne.com. The size and quality of their plants is
simply amazing and shipping is wonderful. They have been very
responsive to any questions or concerns about orders. They offer a
nice selection of perennials and annuals, including salvias, cuphea and fuchsia
and most are very appropriate for and growable in our area.
-The
World of Salvias: Richard Dufresne. Richard
is an absolute genius in the plant business and really knows his stuff.
He has so many interesting salvias and other plants available.
While the plants are small, they are of high quality and prices are
reasonable with shipping being extremely inexpensive. Visit
Richard at http://www.worldofsalvias.com/plntlist.htm.
CANNA
INDICA TUBERS AVAILABLE
If you live in
the Madison area and would like to try out Canna indica in your garden this
season , please e-mail Kathi at kathijr@yahoo.com or call her at
(608) 233-7397. We only ask that you come and pick the tubers up
at our home. We will provide detailed planting and growing
directions. Please note that the tubers need to dug up and stored
after the first frost in the fall in zones 3, 4, 5 and 6. Here is
a link to our website with more information about this fabulous plant for
hummingbirds:
SALVIA
AMISTAD (FRIENDSHIP SAGE): A HOT NEW ADDITION FOR A HUMMINGBIRD
GARDEN!
This wonderful
new annual (for those of us in the north---this plant is only hardy in zones
9-11) salvia has been years in the making and those of us who are passionate
about hummingbird gardening have been waiting for its release with much
anticipation and excitement. Flowers ByThe Sea Nursery in
California is the only mail order nursery currently carrying this exciting new
sage (some people have reported finding it for sale in local retail nurseries,
but we are not aware that it’s available anywhere in Wisconsin yet).
Please visit the following link to learn more and to see a
photo:
In addition,
here are a few other links to photos and information:
We currently
have two Salvia ‘Amistad’ planted in our garden and a hummingbird has already
checked this plant out. They have been in bloom with beautiful,
large, deep purple flowers since we received them about two months ago.
Today two more were planted in containers and will be very curious to see
how this salvia will handle the ups and downs of our Wisconsin weather and if
hummingbirds will choose it over Salvia guarantica.
We will also be interested to see how successful we will be in
overwintering this plant in our minimally heated sunroom. We’ll
keep you posted.
HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER UPDATE
Properly
maintained hummingbird feeders are an integral part of your efforts to bring
hummingbirds to your property. So often, people ask us if they can
just plant a few perennials and attract lots of hummingbirds. The
answer to that question for most of us is an emphatic “No.” In our
northern climate, it would be almost impossible to find enough perennials that
really attract hummingbirds to cover the entire season, early May through
mid-October. Also, feeders fill in on the days when nectar in the
flowers is unavailable, a very cold day, a very hot day, or a rainy day.
Hummingbird feeders are always available, no matter what the weather or
time of the year (unless they are frozen in winter!). Also,
hummingbird feeders with their red coloring (the nectar should be clear though)
serve as an identification of your property as hummingbird-friendly---you might
be interested to know that hummingbirds can see red for up to a mile away and
return to the place of their birth each year (there are many fun stories of
hummingbirds “knocking” on the window with their bills to let their human hosts
know that they are back and hungry!)
“How many
feeders should I hang?” is another common question. The answer
that everyone needs to hear first is only put up as many feeders as you can
properly maintain (that means cleaning regularly as well as changing the nectar
solution.) And, place all feeders in places where you can easily
view them from your home. If you live in an urban area, MORE
feeders will be needed to bring in hummingbirds on a daily basis---we have 8
up right now, although hummers are primarily using one “favorite feeder.”
By mid-September, we will have as many as 20 hummingbird feeders
up! If we lived in a rural or wooded area, we absolutely would not
need to work this hard!
If you have a
very territorial, aggressive hummingbird, put feeders on the opposite side of
your home so the “bully” cannot see the other feeder and that way
everyone has a change to feed in peace (as much as hummingbirds can have
peace!)
As more
flowers begin blooming in late July and August, the feeders become less
important, but please don’t take them down. Many hummingbirds will
still use them at any time of the year when they need a quick shot of reliable
energy or the weather has taken a bad turn. One late summer day,
we saw an immature Ruby-throat rest on a feeder for almost 30 minutes at the end
of the day. With their fast metabolisms, hummingbirds face an
energy crisis quite often, especially very young birds. Feeders
are a great fall back and safeguard for your hummingbird friends.
We reprint the
following information about use and maintenance of hummingbird feeders from a
past E-Update:
HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS 101---ALL THE "INS AND OUTS" OF
HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS
The diet of hummingbirds consists of small insects and nectar. You faithful readers of the Nectar
News are well aware of the different kinds of flowers that provide
sweet nectar for the hummingbirds. But when the hummers return from
their winter homes in April and May, there are no blooming flowers in
Wisconsin that are attractive to hummingbirds. We may like to look at
daffodils and crocus and tulips, but those are not hummingbird flowers.
So, to maximize the number of hummingbirds in your yard throughout the
season, one must have hummingbird feeders. Here is a quick primer on the
feeders that have worked well in our yard and the care of the feeders.
Feeder styles: There are two basic feeder styles: bottle feeders in which
the nectar is above the feeder ports or saucer style feeders.
In the bottle feeder category: a workhouse feeder that has been in
existence for many years is the Perky Pet Pinch Waste Feeder
(http://www.birdfeeders.com/store/hummingbird-feeders/bhbpwf), also
known as the Perky Pet 4 Fountains feeder. This feeder is widely
available at retailers such as hardware stores, home improvement stores
and birding stores. If you have this feeder in your yard, you are
guaranteed in seeing hummingbirds use it. One drawback of this feeder is
that if it blows in the wind, the nectar will slosh out of the feeder
ports.
A feeder that we discovered last year (although not new on the market)
is the First Nature Hummingbird Feeder
(http://www.firstnature.net/product_hummingbirdfeeders.phtml). These
feeders have 10 feeding ports with holes that are in a horizontal
position, so when the wind blows, nectar does not slosh out of these
feeders. In 2010, we found that the hummingbirds use this feeder to a
high degree. One disadvantage of this feeder is that the feeding port
holes are large oval shapes..... large enough for yellow jackets to fly
into the nectar. First Nature has redesigned this feeder to have smaller
round holes with yellow bee guards. You may see this licensed under the
name Mainstays Hummingbird Feeder. This is a new product in 2011 and it
remains to be seen if this feeder is used as much as the original First
Nature design. You can find this feeder at stores such as Walmart and
Fleet Farm.
Another bottle style feeder is the Dr. JB's Clean Feeder
(http://www.drjbs.com/). This is made of very durable plastic and a
hardened glass bottle. The feeder ports on this feeder are oriented such
that the nectar does not slosh out in a strong wind. This feeder is
widely available at retailers such as Wild Birds Unlimited and Mounds
Pet Food Warehouse.
In the saucer style category, a company that makes many of these feeders
is Aspects (http://www.aspectsinc.com/2_HumFdrs.html). These feeders
will not leak nectar in a strong wind. Although we have seen some use of
these feeders in our yard, the saucer style feeders are not used as
much as the Perky Pet 4 Fountains or the First Nature Hummingbird
Feeders. These feeders are available at hardware stores and Wild Birds
Unlimited.
There are dozens of styles of hummingbird feeders. We only mention the
feeders above as these have been used in our yard and we can attest that
they are good feeders. You will likely have success with almost any
kind of feeder. However, we do not have any experience with the fancy
glass blown feeders that have a single spigot feeding port. In our
discussions with other hummingbird enthusiasts, we have heard that
hummers do not use these feeders very much and that they can be very difficult to clean.
Nectar
Now that you have your feeders, it is time to add nectar. Many of the
pictures of feeders shown in the web sites listed above contain nectar
with red dye. The dye is not necessary, as there is enough red on the
feeder to attract the hummingbirds. So, you can either buy a commercial
nectar mix, or make your own nectar. We do the latter by mixing a ratio
of 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. The water can be boiled, or hot water
out of the tap. (One could also use room temperature or cold water, but
the sugar will take longer to dissolve compared to hot water.) Stir in
the sugar until it is totally dissolved, and then place in your feeder.
We do not fill up our feeders because we do not have enough hummingbirds
to drain our feeders. We only place enough nectar in the feeders to
last until the next nectar change, as often as every 2-3 days during hot, humid weather or at least every 4-5 days. Changing the nectar is
necessary, as otherwise, the nectar will become cloudy, sour, and moldy.
The feeders also need to be cleaned. One can purchase different mops and
brushes to clean the feeders. Alternatively, a 10 to 1 mixture of water
and bleach can be used to soak the feeders for approximately 10
minutes. This is very effective at eliminating any mold.
Lastly, it is time to hang your feeders. We place our feeders at
approximately eye level. Place the feeders where you can see them and
enjoy watching nature's flying jewels in your yard. In our opinion, the
more feeders that you have, the more hummingbirds that will be attracted
to your yard. This may not be exceedingly important if one lives in the
country near ideal nesting habitat. For those of us living in the city,
we think that a large number of feeders helps us to see hummingbirds
during most days of the late spring, summer and early fall. At the
height of the fall migration, we maintain over 20 feeders in our yard.
The diet of hummingbirds consists of small insects and nectar. You faithful readers of the Nectar
News are well aware of the different kinds of flowers that provide
sweet nectar for the hummingbirds. But when the hummers return from
their winter homes in April and May, there are no blooming flowers in
Wisconsin that are attractive to hummingbirds. We may like to look at
daffodils and crocus and tulips, but those are not hummingbird flowers.
So, to maximize the number of hummingbirds in your yard throughout the
season, one must have hummingbird feeders. Here is a quick primer on the
feeders that have worked well in our yard and the care of the feeders.
Feeder styles: There are two basic feeder styles: bottle feeders in which
the nectar is above the feeder ports or saucer style feeders.
In the bottle feeder category: a workhouse feeder that has been in
existence for many years is the Perky Pet Pinch Waste Feeder
(http://www.birdfeeders.com/store/hummingbird-feeders/bhbpwf), also
known as the Perky Pet 4 Fountains feeder. This feeder is widely
available at retailers such as hardware stores, home improvement stores
and birding stores. If you have this feeder in your yard, you are
guaranteed in seeing hummingbirds use it. One drawback of this feeder is
that if it blows in the wind, the nectar will slosh out of the feeder
ports.
A feeder that we discovered last year (although not new on the market)
is the First Nature Hummingbird Feeder
(http://www.firstnature.net/product_hummingbirdfeeders.phtml). These
feeders have 10 feeding ports with holes that are in a horizontal
position, so when the wind blows, nectar does not slosh out of these
feeders. In 2010, we found that the hummingbirds use this feeder to a
high degree. One disadvantage of this feeder is that the feeding port
holes are large oval shapes..... large enough for yellow jackets to fly
into the nectar. First Nature has redesigned this feeder to have smaller
round holes with yellow bee guards. You may see this licensed under the
name Mainstays Hummingbird Feeder. This is a new product in 2011 and it
remains to be seen if this feeder is used as much as the original First
Nature design. You can find this feeder at stores such as Walmart and
Fleet Farm.
Another bottle style feeder is the Dr. JB's Clean Feeder
(http://www.drjbs.com/). This is made of very durable plastic and a
hardened glass bottle. The feeder ports on this feeder are oriented such
that the nectar does not slosh out in a strong wind. This feeder is
widely available at retailers such as Wild Birds Unlimited and Mounds
Pet Food Warehouse.
In the saucer style category, a company that makes many of these feeders
is Aspects (http://www.aspectsinc.com/2_HumFdrs.html). These feeders
will not leak nectar in a strong wind. Although we have seen some use of
these feeders in our yard, the saucer style feeders are not used as
much as the Perky Pet 4 Fountains or the First Nature Hummingbird
Feeders. These feeders are available at hardware stores and Wild Birds
Unlimited.
There are dozens of styles of hummingbird feeders. We only mention the
feeders above as these have been used in our yard and we can attest that
they are good feeders. You will likely have success with almost any
kind of feeder. However, we do not have any experience with the fancy
glass blown feeders that have a single spigot feeding port. In our
discussions with other hummingbird enthusiasts, we have heard that
hummers do not use these feeders very much and that they can be very difficult to clean.
Nectar
Now that you have your feeders, it is time to add nectar. Many of the
pictures of feeders shown in the web sites listed above contain nectar
with red dye. The dye is not necessary, as there is enough red on the
feeder to attract the hummingbirds. So, you can either buy a commercial
nectar mix, or make your own nectar. We do the latter by mixing a ratio
of 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. The water can be boiled, or hot water
out of the tap. (One could also use room temperature or cold water, but
the sugar will take longer to dissolve compared to hot water.) Stir in
the sugar until it is totally dissolved, and then place in your feeder.
We do not fill up our feeders because we do not have enough hummingbirds
to drain our feeders. We only place enough nectar in the feeders to
last until the next nectar change, as often as every 2-3 days during hot, humid weather or at least every 4-5 days. Changing the nectar is
necessary, as otherwise, the nectar will become cloudy, sour, and moldy.
The feeders also need to be cleaned. One can purchase different mops and
brushes to clean the feeders. Alternatively, a 10 to 1 mixture of water
and bleach can be used to soak the feeders for approximately 10
minutes. This is very effective at eliminating any mold.
Lastly, it is time to hang your feeders. We place our feeders at
approximately eye level. Place the feeders where you can see them and
enjoy watching nature's flying jewels in your yard. In our opinion, the
more feeders that you have, the more hummingbirds that will be attracted
to your yard. This may not be exceedingly important if one lives in the
country near ideal nesting habitat. For those of us living in the city,
we think that a large number of feeders helps us to see hummingbirds
during most days of the late spring, summer and early fall. At the
height of the fall migration, we maintain over 20 feeders in our yard.
ARE
THERE REALLY FEWER HUMMINGBIRDS THIS SEASON?
Hummingbird
lovers on forums and birding lists are saying the numbers of hummingbirds they
are seeing this season are fewer. Each person has a historical
memory of what they have seen in their yard from year to year (we maintain
meticulous records on a calendar, but some people are not this formal about
it.) Although our birds arrived later---typically, we see our
first bird around May 1 and this year our first hummer arrived on May 13, we
found that we have seen more hummingbirds generally and that they have been more
consistent from day to day. We cannot explain this trend (other
than living in our home and doing this work for 15 years) and most experts could
probably not either.
Master
Hummingbird Bander, Nancy Newfield, who lives in Louisiana told us this
in mid-May on The Hummingbird Forum:
“I can say that returning migrants
were a bit tardy this year, but the majority of migrants have already crossed
the coast. I did receive a report from the extreme southwestern coast of
Louisiana of at least 1 Ruby-throated at a feeder. They do not nest on the
immediate coast, so this single individual is surely a tardy migrant.
Still, one cannot look at just a tiny speck on the map of the vast geography where Ruby-throateds nest and think that a snapshot of a single location can give an accurate image of the entirety of a species with perhaps 8,000,000 members. For every living thing, there are 'boom and bust' cycles within the population. These cycles occur in microcosm in different areas at different times, so the entire population remains relatively stable while in various parts of the organisms's ranges, there are seasons of plenty interlaced with seasons of dearth.
Here in Louisiana, I've been banding Ruby-throateds once each week from mid March until mid October at a site north of Lake Pontchartrain for 13 years. Generally, we take a break from the schedule for about a month in mid May because the number of birds is very low and they are difficult to catch at that time. Nesting does not occur at this particular site, but there are nesting hummers within about half a mile of the site.
In those 13 years, we've seen ups and downs in the population. Numbers were definitely higher prior to Hurricane Katrina. There was an horrific loss of trees in and near the subdivision and further, many homeowners removed perfectly healthy trees to protect their homes from future storms. This spring was one of the best springs at that site since the storm.
At my own place in suburban New Orleans, where I've watched and studied hummers since 1975, there is no nearby nesting population. I've come to understand the expected seasonality of occurrences. Northward migration is relatively modest with a few hummers passing through in March and a small, but steady stream of them passing in April. Come early May, I know that there won't be many until after the nesting season. This year, I saw a flush of northbound migrants for about 5 days, beginning on 10 May - and none since.
Many different, unknown factors can affect the numbers of birds we might see. Nearby development may destroy a healthy nesting population. The population cycle may be at a low point. Some natural or man-made catastrophe might have reduced the population itself or the food upon which it depends.
Additionally, the flowering of particularly favored plants just might be luring birds away from feeders and gardens. Here in my area, the flowering of Japanese Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica in mid to late April often reduces the numbers of hummers around feeders.
On the other hand, sometimes observers recall their periods of abundance incorrectly. Often, people remember the vast crowds of late August and September and forget that their population is much smaller in late May and June. If you are still seeing few hummers late in the summer, look at your surroundings to see if there have been significant alterations.”
Still, one cannot look at just a tiny speck on the map of the vast geography where Ruby-throateds nest and think that a snapshot of a single location can give an accurate image of the entirety of a species with perhaps 8,000,000 members. For every living thing, there are 'boom and bust' cycles within the population. These cycles occur in microcosm in different areas at different times, so the entire population remains relatively stable while in various parts of the organisms's ranges, there are seasons of plenty interlaced with seasons of dearth.
Here in Louisiana, I've been banding Ruby-throateds once each week from mid March until mid October at a site north of Lake Pontchartrain for 13 years. Generally, we take a break from the schedule for about a month in mid May because the number of birds is very low and they are difficult to catch at that time. Nesting does not occur at this particular site, but there are nesting hummers within about half a mile of the site.
In those 13 years, we've seen ups and downs in the population. Numbers were definitely higher prior to Hurricane Katrina. There was an horrific loss of trees in and near the subdivision and further, many homeowners removed perfectly healthy trees to protect their homes from future storms. This spring was one of the best springs at that site since the storm.
At my own place in suburban New Orleans, where I've watched and studied hummers since 1975, there is no nearby nesting population. I've come to understand the expected seasonality of occurrences. Northward migration is relatively modest with a few hummers passing through in March and a small, but steady stream of them passing in April. Come early May, I know that there won't be many until after the nesting season. This year, I saw a flush of northbound migrants for about 5 days, beginning on 10 May - and none since.
Many different, unknown factors can affect the numbers of birds we might see. Nearby development may destroy a healthy nesting population. The population cycle may be at a low point. Some natural or man-made catastrophe might have reduced the population itself or the food upon which it depends.
Additionally, the flowering of particularly favored plants just might be luring birds away from feeders and gardens. Here in my area, the flowering of Japanese Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica in mid to late April often reduces the numbers of hummers around feeders.
On the other hand, sometimes observers recall their periods of abundance incorrectly. Often, people remember the vast crowds of late August and September and forget that their population is much smaller in late May and June. If you are still seeing few hummers late in the summer, look at your surroundings to see if there have been significant alterations.”
The weather in
Wisconsin and in the Upper Midwest generally was very strange this
spring. Climate change (what the experts are calling it instead of
global warming) can definitely affect bird and animal populations, especially
hummingbirds who are so dependent on reliable food sources for survival.
We will be most interested in seeing what the fall migration will bring
this year. Do you have an update or experience to share about this
topic? Please e-mail us.
AN EASY
GUIDE TO THE BEST & EASIEST HUMMINGBIRD PLANTS FOR AN UPPER MIDWESTERN
GARDEN
“Hummingbirds are very smart and they can
remember every flower they have been to, and how long it will take a flower to
refill.” The World of Hummingbirds.com
If you are
interested in attracting hummingbirds to your garden, you have upwards of 200
perennial and annual plants and shrubs to choose from. The key is
to have something great in bloom during the entire season that hummingbirds are
with us---from early May through mid-October. Most gardeners
(especially those are just beginning) sadly don’t have the experience, time, or
resources to grow 100 or more plants in their garden (especially given our
difficult climate and short growing season!) The best way to get
started is to identify the best, easiest and most accessible plants and to
select a few key plants for each time period of the growing season (late spring,
early summer, summer, late summer, and fall) and then to fill in
with well maintained hummingbird feeders. Below is our effort to
provide that information for the Upper Midwest region in an easy to access
format (certain shrubs listed are not necessarily hummingbird magnets, but are
the best plants that will grow in our climate at that particular time of the
year and will be the “foundation” of your garden). For more
information about the plants, please visit our website at https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/mjrock/web/gallery.htm. or
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/mjrock/web/HUMMINGBIRD%20GARDENINGII.pdf
We noticed
today when we were shopping at The Bruce Company in Middleton that they still
had some large, beautiful Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ plants for sale for
$9.99 that need a good home!
LATE
SPRING
Perennial
Annual
Shrub
|
Lonicera
sempervirens (Trumpet Honeysuckle) (Vine)
|
Fuchsia
triphylla (Honeysuckle Fuchsia)
Cuphea ‘David
Verity’
Salvia
‘Wendy’s Wish’
|
Lilac
Wiegela
florida
Azalea
|
EARLY
SUMMER
Perennial
Annual
Shrub
|
Nepeta ‘Six
Hills Giant’
Penstemon
barbatus coccineus
(well drained
soil)
Aquilegia
Canadensis (Columbine)
|
Fuchsia
triphylla
Cuphea ‘David
Verity’
Salvia
guarantica
Salvia
greggii
Salvia
‘Wendy’s Wish’
|
Dwarf Red
Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) or Red Buckeye
Tree
|
SUMMER
Perennial
Annual
Shrub
|
Monarda ‘Jacob
Kline’ (Red Bee Balm)
Impatiens
capensis (Spotted Jewelweed) reseeding annual
Campsis
radicans (Trumpet Creeper) (Vine)
Penstemon
barbatus coccineus
(well drained
soil)
Hosta (mass
planting best)
|
Cuphea ‘David
Verity’
Salvia
guarantica
Salvia
greggii
Nicotiana
mutabilis
Salvia
coccinea
Salvia
‘Wendy’s Wish’
|
Buddleia
‘davidii’ (Butterfly Bush)
Hibiscus
syriacus (Rose of Sharon)
|
LATE
SUMMER
Perennial
Annual
Shrub
|
Monarda ‘Jacob
Kline’ (Red Bee Balm)
Impatiens
capensis (Spotted Jewelweed) reseeding annual
Lobelia
cardinalis (Cardinal Flower)
Agastache
rupestris (well drained soil)
Campsis
radicans (Trumpet Creeper) (Vine)
Ipomoea
coccinea (Wild Red Morning Glory) (Reseeding Annual
Vine)
|
Cuphea ‘David
Verity’
Salvia
guarantica
Salvia
greggii
Nicotiana
mutabilis
Salvia
coccinea
Canna indica
(Wild canna)
Agastache
auranitica (well drained soil)
Salvia
‘Wendy’s Wish’
Phaseolus
coccineus (Scarlet Runner Bean) (Vine)
|
Buddleia
‘davidii’ (Butterfly Bush)
Hibiscus
syriacus (Rose of Sharon)
|
FALL
Perennial
Annual
Shrub
|
Lobelia
cardinalis (Cardinal Flower)
Ipomoea
coccinea (Wild Red Morning Glory) (Vine)
|
Cuphea ‘David
Verity’
Salvia
guarantica
Salvia
greggii
Salvia
coccinea
Nicotiana
mutabilis
Salvia
‘Wendy’s Wish’
Canna indica
(Wild canna)
|
Buddleia
‘davidii’ (Butterfly Bush)
Hibiscus
syriacus (Rose of Sharon)
|
THE
WISCONSIN BIRDING LIST
Although we
love and are interested in all birds (and feed other birds during the winter),
hummingbirds are clearly our passion. We recently joined a
computer listserve group called “The Wisconsin Birding List”.
Seeing the messages posted by members of this group from all over
Wisconsin helps us to monitor trends in terms of hummingbirds and other birds we
are particularly interested in (for example, we read the messages about the
recent Great Gray Owl in Middleton with much excitement and went to see this
fabulous bird!) Recently we posted a summary of what we have been
doing with hummingbirds on this list. Here is the text of this
message, which we thought some of you might find to be interesting:
Hummingbird Update: City of
Madison
As some of you know, we are very
passionate about attracting hummingbirds to our property in the City of Madison
(near westside, near the Hilldale Mall.) We have made many major changes to our
yard over a 15 year period. When we first moved in, there was not one blooming
flower, too much grass, and too much hummingbird/bird unfriendly shrubbery,
etc. Our first year, we saw our first hummingbirds in early August with one
feeder and a few flowers. We have slowly built up over time and are now seeing
hummingbirds on just about every day of the season (early May through
mid-October) with a sizable showing in late August/early September. We have
done this through the use of many hummingbird feeders and the best plants for
hummingbirds on all four sides of our home and a small garden pond with a
mister/dripper and a small waterfall (and this pond has brought many interesting
migratory birds to our yard.) When we first began, an employee of a nearby
birding store (that has since gone out of business) told us that we would never
attract hummingbirds to our yard in our location---we proved him
wrong!
A few
exciting highlights of our work have been viewing the shuttle flight several
seasons, having juvenile hummingbirds hovering right in front of us, and having
a hummingbird visiting our yard until November 17 in 2010. We are still waiting
for that Rufous hummingbird to arrive! We have gone from 1 feeder 15 years ago
to 20 feeders every August and September. We currently have 8 feeders
hanging.
This
year has been a unique year for hummingbirds and gardening and for birding in
general in the Midwest. Typically, we see our first hummingbird around May 1
with April 30 being our earliest sighting. This year we did not see our first
hummingbird, a female, until May 13 (our first adult male was seen a week later,
on May 20). The first week of viewing was a little sparse, but then after that
we found that we were seeing MORE hummingbirds at that time of the year than any
other year. Typically, we would only have one or two sightings of a single bird
(although it could have been a different bird---without color marking by a
bander, we could not know this for certain)---this year we have seen two
hummingbirds simultaneously (sometimes chasing each other) on many days and this
amount of activity is unusual for us in May. Since May 13, we have had at least
one hummingbird sighting on all days except for three and this is quite good for
us. The best chance for a sighting is at dawn and dusk, but we are now starting
to have sightings at other times of the day too.
In terms of
blooming flowers, Lonicera sempervirens is in full bloom, as are Nepeta and
Cuphea 'David Verity', and tender salvias are beginning to bloom. We plant a
mixture of native plants and non-invasive exotic plants and this combination
seems to work the best for hummingbirds. For the first time ever, Monarda
didyma is lagging behind and it will be interesting to see how hummingbirds will
use this key plant this season.
If
anyone is interested, you might want to visit our website and view photos from
our yard or you might want to pop in for our upcoming Hummingbird Garden Tour on
either September 8 or 11. E-mail me or visit our website for more
information.
Enjoy your
hummingbirds this season!
Kathi and
Michael Rock
To learn more
about the Wisconsin Birding List or to join this group, visit the following
link:
http://wsobirds.org/?page_id=1555
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