Vines - native honeysuckle (lonicera sempervirens) perennial - annuals - cypress vine, cardinal climber, mina lobata, scarlet runner bean

perennials - Virginia bluebells (mertensia), native bleeding heart (dicentra sp.), native columbine (aquilegia canadensis), coral bells (heuchera), foxglove penstemon (penstemon digitalis), butterflyweed, monarda, cardinal flower (lobelia cardinalis), blue lobelia (lobelia syphilitica) - in rough order of bloom. Definitely use a cold zone nursery - one to check out is Missouri Wildflower Nursery, z5. I am not swearing that they are all hardy to z4 but definitely z5 and why not push things a bit?

Lilac and buddleia also attract them in some people's yards.

Tithonia and larkspur are great annuals - larkspur self-sows and tithonia might. Salvia coccinea self-sows.

If you want to dig up plants in the fall, hummingbird cannas (with small flowers) and some salvias like Black and Blue are easy to overwinter - the canna tubers go in a bag with peat moss, the salvia goes in a pot - you put them in a cool/cold but frost free place and ignore them until it gets warm.

I have good luck with fuscia, bleeding heart, Northern Lights Azelia, lobelia, and they even love my day lilies when they bloom. I don't know if it's that I am one of the only gardeners in my neighborhood or if I'm just lucky, but I get several in my yard.

Well then I could hope to have the same luck since not one of the neighbors yards that I can see have much to talk about as far as gardening or flowers. I did get the fuscia, monarda and a couple more honey suckle. I would love to get the scarlet runner bean but can't seem to find it locally. I guess I may have to look to order it, but that may have to wait until next year.

thanks for all the info.

I look forward to others advice as well.
Chris

Try silene regia - royal catchfly - it's a hardy prairie plant, drought tolerant.

I live in MN, too. Last year I planted Bee Balm, it has long red flowers teat the hummers like, and this year it's grown to about 4 ft already. The flowers are just starting to show now, and they lasted pretty much all summer and fall last year. It doesn't require alot of attention, and you can make mint tea with the leaves to boot :) The birds found it last summer, so I'm looking forward to thier return.

I also just moved into a new house and am starting from scratch on my garden. I was also intereted in a hummingbird garden. I think everything I'm naming is hardy to zone 4. This is what I've planted so far:
*Catawbiense Rhododdendron 'Bourseault' (closest I could find to the species plant, I got mine at Home Depot)
*Aquilegia canadensis Wild Columbine
*Campsis radicans Trumpet Creeper
*Lonicera sempervirens Coral Honeysuckle
*Aesculus pavia Red Buckeye (It is hardy to zone 4 even though the linked website says 6)
*Spigelia marilandica Indian Pink
*Lobelia cardinalis Cardinal Flower
*Monarda didyma Oswega Tea
*Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline'
Lilium michiganense Turk's Cap Lily (more known is *L. canadense)
Liatris pycnostachya Prairie Blazing Star
Silene virginica Fiery Campion
Dicentra eximia Wild Bleeding Heart
Astilbe 'Larissa'
Crocosmia Montbretia 'Fire King'
Phlox paniculata 'Tenor'
Tricyrtis hirta Toad Lily
Among others (I don't want to exhaust you!)

The ones with stars are recommended as the top 10 hummingbird plants. The only one I don't have is spotted jewelweed, only because I think it is weedy looking. I see it growing naturally around here. The others are things I liked and read in various websites, catalogs or forums that people found to attract hummingbirds. I try to select species plants because they are thought to have more nectar than hybrids. Although the hybrids I planted, I planted because they are much easier to find! This website along with the link I entered, I found quite helpful.

Copy and paste
http://www.hummingbirds.net/attract.html

I started a journal on daves garden. If you interested in looking at it let me know.

Here is a link that might be useful: Top Ten

I'm not in zone 4, but am growing 4 of the top ten. I thought you might want an opinion on their worthiness as hummer plants.

So far this year, I was delighted to see a bird feeding from the Aquilegia canadensis. I liked the fact that it bloomed much longer than the hybrids in mine and other people's gardens.

My Monarda didyma "Gardenview Scarlet," which is just now coming into bloom, is proving to be very attractive to one of the females. It's very cute to watch her methodically circling her way around the flower head, dipping into each flower, and then on to the next.

My rather late-blooming Campsis radicans (var. "flava," I think), was a big hit last year with the females and juveniles, but is only now just starting to develop buds. Watch where you plant it, for it will take over everything. It's also very slow to come into bloom. It may take several years from initial planting to see your first flowers. Once it gets going, though, it can really crank out the blossoms!

Lobelia cardinalis is new for me this year, and hasn't yet bloomed. I am optimistic that it, too, will be a hit.

I saw my resident male workin the monarda (didyma 'jacob cline') this morning! That's a first for me seeing him at my flowers. Even though my husband said he's seen him on the red petunias I have in a hanging basket.