early season plants?

14 years ago

My hummingbird/butterfly garden is in its third year, with a new expansion, adding upright fuchsia, a second variety of cardinal flower, shrimp plant, pineapple sage, red hot poker, red columbine, coral bells, monkey face and azuga to the coral honeysuckle, cardinal flower, trailing fuchsia, butterfly bush, beebalm and black and blue salvia. Irrigation with misters is coming.

I'd really like to eventually attract some to nest, and wonder whether I would not need a food source earlier in the year to do that. I suppose the columbine will bloom earlier next year than anything that was already planted, and the honeysuckle put out blooms in May. But the salvia is only recently flowering (and the woodchucks don't help...), the cardinal flowers aren't even sending up stalks yet, and I suspect the fuchsias are only in bloom because they were bought that way at the store.

Are there dependable early-season hummer magnets that will be in bloom when they are migrating through? I think I'm pretty well covered for July through early September.

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Comments (9)

ellix
14 years ago
Crossvine blooms early as well is evergreen here (zone 8) but I believe elsewhere too. It grows way up trees along fences and can attach itself to brick. It blooms red orange and theres a yellow one.
hawkeye_wx
14 years ago
I've also been wondering what the heck hummers feed on when they first arrive here in late April. Very few flowers are in bloom at that time. My hummer flowers sure weren't in bloom then.
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penny1947
14 years ago
You already mentioned coral bells which blooms early so here are a couple of others:

If you hzave room for a large shrub/small tree go for a Aeculus pavia (Red Buckeye). The are one of the earlier bloomers that the hummers do use. Also Silene virginica and Silene regia. Virginica is a little hardier than regia. Pulmonaria is also an earlier bloomer that they use and they may use Nepeta species. These are all perennials. I grow the native eastern columbine as opposed to the hybrids and I think they bloom a tad earlier than the hybrids and they bloom longer.

Crossvine which was mentioned is great if it blooms. Our spring was so cold and so late this year that mine didn't even bloom here in NY. Has trumpet shaped flowers like Trumpet vine and is actually a relative of the trumpet vine but a spring bloomer instead of summer.

Penny
jeelli
14 years ago
Weigela- I have one very large bush, a medium sized one, and two small ones. They bloomed maybe a month ago? As a result, I started seeing Hummers much earlier than I had ever seen them (We had moved in July 08; we inherited the large and med Weigela)
I definitely want a Buckeye- that's on my list of must haves.
homerpa
14 years ago
Great question; I'd like to get some early bloomers, too.

Regarding what the hummers eat early, I've read that they eat the sap brought out by the habits of yellow belied sapsuckers; some sites even suggest that they follow the migration of the sapsuckers since they depend on the sap.
hummersteve
14 years ago
Im afraid Im guilty of not having anything for early hummers to feed on other than sugar water and need something in my yard. But doctorsteve I was wondering about your experience with coral bells as I have a couple this year for the first time as am wondering what to expect , so far just green leaves.
christie_sw_mo
14 years ago
I need more early plants too. I planted a red buckeye but it wasn't big enough to bloom yet this spring. A few plants that are recommended as early bloomers aren't quite early enough for the first arrivers here like native columbine. Perhaps in some parts of the country it would be early enough though.

Homerpa - Welcome! I've read that about sap also. I've wondered if it would attact hummingbirds if I pruned some small branches off of my maples in the spring. I don't think we have a lot of sapsuckers around here to make holes in my trees but I could be wrong. I might need to go out with a hammer and nail. lol

I haven't seen any hummingbirds using my redbuds yet but they bloom early and some sites say hummingbirds like them. Some cultivars are more red than others.

My silene regia isn't blooming yet. I believe it's only the s. virginica that blooms early.

Pulmonaria blooms early for me and for about a month. It's not long lived in my garden but seeds around a little bit. I hope someone is working on creating a long flowering varity with red flowers that attracts hummingbirds. : )
penny1947
14 years ago
I have a weigela and in fact two now as I took a cutting last year and rooted it. My hummers will check it briefly once or twice but then that is it. They come right to the feeders or will go to the coral bells.

I did add several of the plants I mentioned previously this year. I already have Coral Bells but added two more. I have plenty of native columbine as I let some reseeders develop. My red buckeye should bloom for the first time next spring as it it almost 4ft. tall now. I have added Silene virginica and pulmonaria this year and I already have 3 honeysuckle vines and a crossvine which I hope will all bloom well next spring. The honeysuckles were attacked by aphids this year and I had to cut two of them all the way back so no blooms to speak of and the 3rd honeysuckle was just added this year.

Penny
mindysuewho
14 years ago
I have seen hummingbirds when they first arrive in April at my red bleeding hearts.