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ala8south

need plant suggestions

ala8south
16 years ago

I want to put a plant next to my house to attract hummers. The site gets full sun about 5 hours a day. We are in zone 8, hot humid Alabama, and have acid soil. The plant could get up to 5 foot tall and wide. Looking for something with a long bloom time. Any ideas? Feedback I'm getting from the salvia forum is that might not be enough sun for most salvias.

Comments (6)

  • jimmyjojo
    16 years ago

    You might try a single flowering fuchsia triphylla like 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' or Fuchsia boliviana also likes a little shade. Not too sure if they mind acid soil.

    Actually it sounds like a nice place for rhodos.

  • ala8south
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Haven't had any luck with fuchsia in our long hot humid summers here. And the rhodos only bloom in the spring. So will have to find something else. But aren't fuchsias gorgeous! Such intriguing blooms!

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    16 years ago

    You could consider clethra or sweetspire. This is a sweetly fragrant, summer blooming shade tolerant shrub that hummers love. Other possibilities are loropetalum, hardy fuchsias (not the foo-foo annual hanging basket kind) and Cape fuchsia, Phygelius species.

  • ctnchpr
    16 years ago

    Cleome spinosa (Spider flower). My hummers love 'em. It grows 5-6 ft tall, loves the heat & humidity of the South, and blooms from early June until the first moderate frost. It will reseed like a weed. (I have some seeds if you want them.)

  • mimidi
    16 years ago

    Black and Blue salvia would be real good. It blooms early and then until our first frost here in southeast Alabama. A big favorite of hummingbirds.

    If you lived close enough to me I could give you plenty B&B in the early spring.

    I really like the cleome too but in our zone the B&B has a longer bloom time. I do not ever want to be without either.

  • mimidi
    16 years ago

    ala8south if you live close to Dothan there is a Hummingbird Workshop at Landmark Park January 26 at 10:00am.

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