The flowers that my hummers go to the most are the Cuphea Vermillionaire and Wendy's Wish Salvia. Those are grown in containers as annuals in my zone, surrounded by petunias, million bells, and shorter salvias. They are also 2 plants I'd never be without each summer because of how much the hummers love them.

I've never found Wendy's Wish sold locally anywhere near me, so I've been ordering it online from White Flower Farm ( https://www.whiteflowerfarm.co... ), and I've been very pleased with the quality. Covid delays sometimes has messed up orders the last few years, but they've issued full refunds if not completely satisfied, so I've been very happy with their customer service as well. I've also ordered Cuphea from them before I found it locally and it did very well, they were good healthy plants. You might try to get it online if that's your only choice, it really is one of the best hummingbird magnets.

I do know that Kermit at FBTS has Wendy's wish, that's where I first saw it. I've recently seen it somewhere else, Almost Eden I think.
Thanks for telling me which cuphea that was, I thought it might be the one.
Almost anything different that I want I have to purchase online, because all the stores here carry the exact same thing except for Atwood's.
Hummers here nearly always go for cypress vine, so I have it every year. And last year I saw hummers on my calibrochoa, something I've never seen before, but the one I had was holy moly, which has red in it. The hummingbird moths loved it, too.

I usually have Cardinal Climber for the hummers too, I start either it or Cypress Vine from seeds each year indoors. I have them in one large container with a tall support mixed with a few moonflowers, and they usually hit those red flowers too when working through the containers and the perennials along the fence. I haven't noticed the hummers having any preference between those 2 vines at all.

I've had hummingbirds go for calibrachoa also, but oddly they only go for the bright yellow ones for me and leave the red ones or the multi-colored ones alone. I put up a bright yellow feeder once attached to my window for nyjer seeds for goldfinches, and within 15 minutes there was a hummingbird there at the window checking it out. Either I have weird hummingbirds around me or they really go for any bright color. But then I've also seen them feeding on pure white Nicotiana Alba flowers, and the Lime Green variety, which isn't a very bright color, and Lemon Swirl Four O'Clocks. So I make sure that I plant the deep yellow calibrachoas too along with anything else I see them feeding from each year. The yellow calibrachoas I can find locally at least, the rest I have to start from seed each year.

Since all I have locally for a nursery is Home Depot and Walmart, I start almost everything from seed. Some of the plants from HD have warning labels on them, so they buy from vendors that use neonicitinoids on their plants. I have to shop carefully. I have no desire to harm my bees or butterflies...but yellowjackets, yes!

Are they still doing that? I didn't see any of those labels last year. Doesn't mean they weren't on some of the plants, but I didn't see any.

evelyninthegarden said: Since all I have locally for a nursery is Home Depot and Walmart, I start almost everything from seed. Some of the plants from HD have warning labels on them, so they buy from vendors that use neonicitinoids on their plants. I have to shop carefully. I have no desire to harm my bees or butterflies...but yellowjackets, yes!

Really had no idea there was even such a thing… I had to look it up…
How long has.this been implemented in nursery plants?

Bea, it's been going on for years. I think 5 at least.

When you go to plant some bedding plants and the label says you have a chance of getting cancer...I didn't think that was very nice.

flaflwrgrl said: Bea, it's been going on for years. I think 5 at least.

Bea, the 1st post I can find on it here. From March 2015.

https://garden.org/thread/repl...

The hummers really went for the nicotiana perfume mix last summer, all 4 colors, which were lime green, red, pink and purple.
I think the shape of the bloom is important, as it seems they prefer a trumpet shape flower. They also really liked another nicotiana I grew. They also go for the tall plow, when they can get to it, as it's usually covered with butterflies!

gardenfish said: The hummers really also go for the tall plow, when they can get to it, as it's usually covered with butterflies!

What is the tall plow?

Sorry, Phlox! Spell check really messed that word up. I swear I typed phlox!

gardenfish said: Sorry, Phlox! Spell check really messed that word up. I swear I typed phlox!

Lynda,
If I had a dime for every time spellcheck or talk to text screwed up what I said even when I changed the spelling to the correct spelling, then I would be one rich person!

Me, too! At least most of the time you can kind of guess what I was trying to say. Not this time!

gardenfish said: Sorry, Phlox! Spell check really messed that word up. I swear I typed phlox!

Lynda ~ Your phlox is just lovely! It is too hot and dry here in the summer. I ended up giving mine away to a friend in PA.

That is beautiful, Lynda!

Spell check is a nightmare at times. The words it comes up with...

@Murkey Nancy great pictures, I need to get me an smaller camera, I do a lot of trail hiking and just don't want to lug the SLR camera around, and I too don't like always switching lens. Glad you posted what your using, takes nice pictures.

I haven't seen my male Ruby throats since we had our 8 hour freeze, 3 weeks ago. I saw a female last week, so hopefully they are here, they stay a couple months. They sip mostly on my purple salvia and red and purple fire spikes. Unfortunately the firebush, bleeding heart, porterweed plants all frosted. Did you know they sip on bromeliad blooms, one day I'll get a picture of that.

I remember reading about HD plants, luckily we have a couple nurseries that sell pesticide free plants.

I think the labels are required if the plants have been treated with 'cides. I hope so since I've been operating under the assumption that they are not treated if they are not labeled.

Evelyn, this particular phlox is very drought tolerable. I've been trying to find out the exact variety; I call it old barnyard because you see it everywhere on old homesteads and old houses. It's made a nice clump and gets larger every year. It has a really long bloom time.

These hummers over winter here.