wildflowers said: Really nice shots of such a cute hummingbird!

Absolutely!!!! Loving the colors in each individual feather. Awesome Cecilia!

A female glittering-bellied emerald visiting the feeder

The name really fits such a beautiful creature!

Enjoying your pics Ceci, I've not seen a hummer since December here, but keeping my eye out, lots of firespike is blooming for them.

I did see a hummer yesterday...

Hummingbirds visiting my feeder

More hummingbirds feeding on the salvia guaranitica

Ceci, what an adorable feeder, nice to see your pics.

Does anyone have any firsthand experience with the newer Petchoa flowers attracting hummingbirds? I've been thinking about trying them instead of my usual Wave Petunias this coming season (I hate the sticky feeling of petunia foliage and stems). The hummers I've had always seem to prefer the yellow calibrachoa flowers than anything else, so if the Petchoa has enough nectar, it might be a better fit for my containers.

I grew the Callie's last summer, and I love them. I had a yellow and white and a dusty orange one. I never saw any hummers on them, but we all know how hummers are ! They went nuts for my blue anise sage last year, and they had never touched it before. If the plants are pretty why not grow them anyway and find out if hummers like them? Personally. I don't care for regular petunias for the things you described about them. I am so busy these days I seem to go the lazy ways and select very tough, long blooming plants I don't have to do very much to. No time for extensive deadheading, staking or spraying. I gave up coreopsis because it took so long to deadhead and the butterflies liked the cosmos just as well, and cosmos are easier to deadhead!

I'm with you, I don't want flowers that require much more than watering, I try to avoid most everything that needs deadheading. And this year I'm determined to put in a drip system on timers so I don't even have to struggle with the hose every day.

I'm definitely going to try Petchoa, I think entirely in place of petunias in the containers. I'm not sure if I've ever seen them locally though, and I really don't like to buy annuals online.

Do you have a Lowe's? If you do, they will likely show up there.

I will try Lowe's as a last resort if my regular greenhouses don't have them. I'd rather give that business to the greenhouses and nurseries rather than the big box stores. But now that I think about it, when researching Petchoa, I do remember several links going back to Lowe's, so they must carry them even here in the summer.

I mostly buy from nurseries, too. I have had some bad experiences with Lowe's, and the Monrovia plants they now carry are outrageously expensive, too much for me. I do go there to look around though, and on occasion buy from them if I like the plants and they are a good price. This is what I purchased from them last year: the two Callie's, two pots of basils that had three different basils in them, and a very cool Portulaca that had yellow and red striped blooms.

One of the visitors that usually come to my garden

So beautiful!

ceci said:One of the visitors that usually come to my garden

Gorgeous!

Absolutely gorgeous!
I can only dream of a beauty like that showing up here!
That little guy is awesome!

I could take a photo of a male today.