Sharon,

Oooh, I love the old-fashioned cold-hardy lantanas! They do get huge. A friend of ours here in Love County has one that gets about 8 feet wide by 5 feet tall every summer and is always simply covered in blooms.

I don't know why the hummers aren't finding you, but here's a way to attract them.....

For the hummers, make up sugar water for a feeder, using the standard recipe of 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. Then, add just a couple of drops of Orange Extract (available with the spices and extracts at the grocery story) to scent it. Fill and hang a feeder. Ever since I started adding Orange Extract to my hummingbird feeders, I've had about 4 times as many birds as I used to have, so the orange scent must help them find the feeder.

For the butterflies, there are a couple of flowers they are just nuts about in our yard every summer. One is the tall verbena (mine get 4' to 5' tall in a good rainy year and about 3' tall if it is a dry spring and summer), which is Verbena bonariensis. The other is the common, ordinary zinnia. My zinnias have butterflies at them all day long every day in summer.

Dawn

Dawn...thank you! I've never heard of adding orange extract, but that makes sense. I have a feeder in my backyard, as well as one on my front porch; I keep hoping and watching...I'll definitely give this a try and see what happens!
Sharon

Lantana... I never knew that name of that stuff. We have some on the NE side of the house. Doesn't smell too great, does it?!

So hummingbirds and butterflies like it? Good!

I got a new hummingbird feeder put up last night. Hopefully this one will work pretty good. It's got little perches for them and I don't think it will leak.

The one I got last year (shaped like a cute jalepeno pepper) leaked the whole time. :-( It was so cute though. I wish I could figure out a way to put it someplace so that it wouldn't leak. Maybe wiring it to the fence? Maybe?

Boo hoo - one of my hummer feeders fell in the wind last week and smashed all to pieces. It was the one my daughter and GD got for me for Mother's Day. Nothing but plastic from now on.....

Dawn, thanks for the Orange Extract info - never heard of that either....even on the Hummingbird Forum. Wonder if I could use Lemon or Almond????? Nah, probably not. Those are just the ones I have on hand, well, other than Vanilla.

Most of the extracts contain alcohol, though. Does that hurt the hummers?

I usually get the juvenile Ruby Throats later in the year. They haven't yet developed their "ruby throats". Never had the black-chinned, but aren't they mostly in Western Oklahoma?

Lantana foliage does have a somewhat distasteful smell, but the butterflies love it. Maybe it's the smell that attracts them in the first place????? I have 'Miss Huff' and she is one hardy, fast growing, BIG lantana. Has the pink, peach, yellow flowers. I can root some easily if anyone wants a start.

Other recommended nectar plants that my butterflies love is:

Spring - Amsonias
Dandelions
White clover blooms
Phlomis tuberosa

Summer - Lantana
Milkweed (curassavica)
Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed)
Tithonias
Lavendar
Black & Blue Salvia (gorgeous blooms)
Campanulas
Ladybells (adenophora)
Zinnias (flat-tops or singles make better landing pads for them, but they will use doubles)
V. bonariensis (as Dawn said)

Fruit Plates will attract Red Admirals, Hackberry and Tawny Emperors, Painted Ladies, Mourning Cloaks (in fall now; they aestivate during summer), and Question Marks. I got a suet feeder and just put rotting, black bananas in it (open them up so they can get to the fruit inside), and hang them up. You will definitely get butterflies that prefer to nectar on spoiled fruit (you can also use oranges, watermelons, peaches, etc.), animal scat, and tree sap. Hanging them up high (not in a tree) also discourages the possums from eating the fruit overnight that I leave out in a plate. I give them a banana every now and then. But, the feeder attracts a lot of butterflies during different times of day. I even had a Nessus sphinx on the feeder the other day. They are gorgeous.

The Cloudless Sulphur loves the white cypress vines, pink & white salvia (Texas sage, I believe), and Hibiscus coccinus.

Daturas and moonflower vine will attract the sphinx moths at dusk and during the night.

I've probably said too much, but I have a butterfly garden, so everyone kind of "tolerates" my butterfly speeches! LOL!

Susan

Susan, I read about the orange extract years in a magazine article, although I don't remember which magazine. I've used it ever since and haven't seen any hummers dropping dead.....and we always have a lot.

I assume because it is just a couple of drops that whatever alcohol is in the extract is not enough to hurt the hummers.

And I enjoy your "butterfly speeches" even though I don't "have to" plant specifically for the butterflies since we have all the native stuff surrounding us. Still, I do try to plant stuff for the butterflies and moths....if I am going to plant anyway, I might as well plant something "useful".

Dawn