I planted some seed-raised agastache cana and they seemed to like them a lot, but I do see them around lots of other annuals also. I planted a red honeysuckle by the porch for them late last year so I don't know how that will work. I think anything with a tubular flower and in the pinks and reds attracts them.

I agree on the honeysuckles for hummingbirds . I have a L. sempervirens on a trellis by our front door . It is visited by hummingbirds constantly . Of course , they like all kinds of tubular flowers ( as gldno said ) , and a lot of nontubular flowers if they have nectar they can get to .
I no longer put out feeders , but have hummers around all season .

gldno - I had Cana one year and it did well but didn't com back after the winter. Do you think your red honeysuckle might have been sempervirens too. Let me know if you found that locally. Hoping to find an inexpensive one at Lowe's or somewhere. Someone mentioned it in the hummingbird forum also. I was happy to find out that it's not an invasive one. Is it fragrant Marian? How cool to have hummingbirds by your front door! (as long as they don't fly in when you go out). lol Also - How long is it in bloom?
I want to add some hummingbird plants outside my bay window now that our rabbit is finally gone and I can put plants in my back yard again. She ate just about anything.

I found agastache 'Apricot Sprite' seeds at Lowe's this week. I haven't tried to grow agastache from seed before. Any tips? Hope they grow quick enough to bloom this summer. Pretty sure the hummingbirds will like it.
This has been such a cold and muddy winter. I'm worried that it's going to take out some of my zone-iffy salvias and those are the ones the hummingbirds love best, especially salvia guaranitica. Keep your tissue handy for me this spring. If they don't come back I'll need some. I got salvia darcyii at the Master Gardeners sale last year and I'm worried about that one too.

I still haven't found coral honeysuckle (sempervirens) locally. I should've asked one of you to save some seeds for me. Darn! Lowe's has honeysuckle now in their bulb section indoors, but I couldn't find the variety labeled on it anywhere, only the color and I was afraid it would be something invasive. It's only labeled white, pink or red. I hate when they do that.

Does anyone else have hummingbird favorites?

I have a book on perennial gardening that has a couple of pages on hummingbird gardens.Trumpet vine(Campsis radicans) is the classic favorite for hummers also clematis and honeysuckle.Dropmore Scarlet honeysuckle(Lonicera x brownii Dropmore Scarlet)ranks with trumpet vine. Hummers love vines and planting flowers around vines attracks them more.
Flowers include flowering tobacca(Nicotinia alata),larkspur,nasturtiams,petunias,red flowered salvias,snapdragons,Red cardinal flower,Great blue lobelia,bee balm,delphinium,Garden phlox,torch lilly,obediant plant and comman beardtongue(Pentstemon barbatus'prairie fire')
Hope this helps,
vickie

Annual salvia red of course is a cheap easy way to bring in hummers. I plant them under my low windows so I can watch them. My all time favorite is pineapple sage. it blooms for a long time, drought resistant and the hummers flock to it. They are around $2 a piece at walmart and lowes. The do get big kinda the size of russian sage.
As for perrienials trumpet vine is all I have right now for them and honeysuckle. I guess most of my annuals are for the birds.
you can find the coral honeysuckle at most nurseries around here. Lowes will have it in another moneth or so.

Christie, I forgot to thank you for the offer on the rose campion; since I ordered the seed, I will just try that, but thanks.

I don't recall the agastache seed being difficult and I only had one return. They are rather weedy looking and I might have pulled some seedlings; they are not very spectacular to look at.

My honeysuckle is the Dropmore Scarlet. It didn't bloom much last season. I am afraid it doesn't get enough full sun. Of course, the ice storm topped the elm that shades it so this year may be better. If not, I will transplant it.
I think I bought it at Wal-Mart or a local greenhouse called Dorothy's Digs off Highway 13. The tag says it just gets 12 feet tall. I read in my AHS Plant Propagation book that you should take cuttings. I will give that a shot (if I can remember) It says take softwood and semi-ripe internodal stem-tip or stem cuttings and they will root in 4 weeks.

gldno1- I read you member page. Seems we have alot in common. I also love to read, and I read garden books like novels too. lol
You should check out the seed and plant exchange forum. They are very nice and it's fun to trade seeds and plants around. I think you would enjoy it.

Amazon, Is pineapple sage a sage? Would anyone at walmarts know what i was asking for?
thanks
vickie

The employees may not know what your asking for but the always get it at Walmart in the herb sections. Seems like Walmart dosn't really care to have informed "plant" people most of the time.

Thanks, i'll keep an eye out for it.
vickie

Vicki.. yes.. pineapple sage is a sage. I checked my herb book. It is "S. elegans". It grows 2-3 ft. tall Habit= Pineapple scent, brilliant red flowers. Comments= Use for drinks, chicken, cheese, and in jams and jellies, grow indoors in good lights. I see a picture of it. It is pretty. I would love to have it for hummer feed. I don't think I ever see it sells at Walmart at my home local. Maybe we can find it at nursery or grow seed ourselves at home then!

I have seen it in Springfield, branson and Harrison Walmart. Also lowes. They come in and go quickly. i will try to remember to post were and when I see it since i wind up going to everyplace that sells plants in the Spring anyways. ha!

I think you can find pineapple sage locally if you check the herb section. They won't be blooming yet when they sell them in the spring so that makes them a little harder to spot. I've only planted it once and it was huge by the end of the summer. It bloomed much later than I expected it to though. Did yours get any afternoon shade Amazon? I wonder if mine was getting too much sun.
Vickie - Thanks for list. I looked up Dropmore Scarlet and it's a cross with sempervirens. Maybe I can find that one locally.
Gld - How far north is Dorothy's Digs? I always like to check out a new nursery.

Mine were full sun. They do get much bigger then you'd think to look at that little guy in the herb section. And yes they bloom later in the season when most everything else has fried. They have the same bloom time and size as russian sage.
A little shade probably would slow it down, i don't think it would mind to much. May not bloom as well, I will try that this year with a couple.

Amazon, you are so lucky that you found pineapple sage plants at Harrison Walmart, and Lowes. Is it perennial plant? LMK if you see pineapple at your local, holler us and check ours at our locals! Maybe...I will have to drive down to Searcy Lowes?? It is about one hour and fifteen mins! from my hometown. LOL.... Kat

Christie, her address is 12050 N. Farm Road 119, Brighton, Mo. 65671, Dorothy Maserang, owner/operator. 417-742-2149. I don't know how to tell you exactly how to find it. She has a sign out on 13. She is west of 13 and north of BB highway.
Or, better yet, give me a call and come by and I will take you over. Any excuse to go to a greenhouse is my motto. You turn west at her sign and go to Farm Rd 119 and she is on the right, you can't miss it.

Thanks for offering to post about the pineapple sage. I can drive up to Harrison. It,s not any farther than Ft. Smith but no interstate to there. LOL
Thanks too Kat for the info. I bet i'd love it to season chicken. I love to cook porkchops with orange slices and brown sugar and my family thinks i'm nuts.
vickie

Gld - We should plan a trip there this spring. I think it would only be about a twenty minute drive for me. I think I spend the most money at Hilltop and not really a lot there since I get most of my plants through trades and things I start myself. But if I drive all the way out there, I gotta buy SOMETHING. lol

Is Yvonne's salvia a hummingbird plant that any of you have tried? People have recently offered it on the seed exchange and there is mention of it on winter sowing.

Christie, I just now revisited this post. Anytime you would like to go to Dorothy's give me a call or email. Sorry I didn't see it last year!

She lost her mother last summer....so I would need to check and be sure she is still open. Her mother helped her a lot at the greenhouse.

Glenda

Hi Christie. Kind of late in responding here as Feb was a busy month...kind of been back to lurking on the boards once again....Anyways....hummingbird plants. I did a mass planting of zinnias and mexican sunflowers last year and the hummers just loved them. I collected more seeds than I'll ever been able to plant. Email me your address (again)and I'll be more than happy to put some in the mail to you.

Only 15 days and a wake up until Spring!
Pam

I agree with Amazon, pineapple sage is fantastic. But one that works even better I've found is Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia).

When I grew it, I didn't know it was so good. I found it to be phenomenal as a hummingbird attractor. Make sure you have plenty of room for it. It's an annual but it gets tall and wide and full of blooms by the end of the summer.

Beautiful pictures! Especially the last. What kind of camera do you use? Mexican sunflower is great for butterflies. I hadn't noticed the hummers on mine, but they all fell over in a storm. They kept growing and side branches shot up so they covered a large area.

So glad you brought this thread back to the top Helen. I plant a little more every year for the hummingbirds and last summer was the first year that I've had a LOT of hummingbirds around my yard. It wasn't unusual to see a dozen at a time and in past summers, I would just see one or two at a time.

I have planted Yvonne's Salvia. I believe it's salvia splendens, the bright red annual type like you see at Wal-Mart every year but Yvonne's gets much taller. I read in another forum that Yvonne passed away recently. She was 94. The story alone makes them a joy to grow. They even had an article in Birds and Blooms about Yvonne and her salvia. I started mine late and they didn't get as tall as they should have.

Last year I bought lonicera sempervirens 'Alabama Crimson' at the farmers market in Springfield and also got the species in a trade. The arbor I'm going to plant them on is still a pile of boards though so I just stuck them in the ground and will have to move them. I planted a Dropmore Scarlet in full sun on our chainlink fence and it bloomed a long time last summer but l. sempervirens is supposed to bloom even longer.

Mexican Sunflowers (tithonia) are great for attracting hummingbirds and swallowtails. It gets pretty tall though. Helen - was it you that posted a photo of your tithonia last summer after they fell over and kept blooming so well? I'm a bit tempted to knock mine over on purpose. lol

Pam - I should have plenty of zinnias and tithonia but thanks for the offer. I expect some volunteers and have seed packets too.

Glenda - I never got out to Dorothy's last summer. No need to apologize though since I'm typically behind and really have no business buying more plants anyway. lol

violet - Your photos are wonderful!

Good morning -- I just read this thread. If I could add my 2 cents, I always plant 3 pineapple sages in my sunny south bed and have even wintered one over inground, covered with leaves. But that's the exception. You can root cuttings easily in both water and soil mix. The foilage smells heavenly.

I have worlds of red/yellow honeysuckle around here. What I have is Red Flame Heckrotti -- I've only seen it once at Lowe's, potted. You can order it from most mail order nurseries. It does pretty well in semi-shade, attacts hummers, and if you cut it back each year, really gets full and thick. Stays green all winter. This is not the invasive-type honeysuckle, but needs to be tied up on a fence or woven in a trellis.

I would be happy to send cuttings of Heckrotti to anyone who would like to have them. Send me an e-mail, okay?

Sunny

Christie, I think it was Pam with the pictures of tipped over tithonia. I have winter honeysuckle blooming now no hummers but a good smell. My black and blue salvia is on my window sill still alive so far.

Yeah, it was me and I couldn't believe how much better I liked them that way....made more of a bed of flowers that grew to be about a foot tall. I think this year I might knock them over on purpose. (Poor hubby still thinks he's in the dog house for watering them so much that they got so heavy that they fell)

Sunny - Now you've got me wondering if I need to cut back my honeysuckle so it will branch out more. My Dropmore Scarlet just had two long vines coming up from the base last summer. It was sort of sprawly looking. When do you cut yours back?

I was using bowling ball sized rocks to prop up my biggest tithonia and it still leaned. I should've just pushed it the rest of the way over and will next time. Pam - a little guilt can be a good thing. lol

I am glad to hear about pruning the honeysuckle. Once again, I planted mine too close to the steps and we had to duck under it. I got fed up last year and cut it down to about 3 feet. I already see some clumps of leaves. I still would like to move it, but also like sitting on the porch swing and watching the hummers on it.

Christie, I asked the shrub forum a couple of years ago about the honeysuckle and they told me I could cut it 'way back. So I did and I was glad, because it just had a new lease on life. I think it's one of those laid-back plants that doesn't know when it's moved or sheared. It never gets bugs, never has any problems, blooms its head off, even if I don't water it as much as the others. It would be the perfect shrub if it just smelled like the invasive kind of honeysuckle!

Funny about the tithonia -- you may have started a trend.

Try making some tip cuttings from your cut-back -- I think they will root pretty easily.
Sunny