It's a banner year for hummingbirds in the garden. They visit multiple times a day and feast on all the tubular orange and red flowers they can find at Longview Ranch.
Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is a favorite.
It's also one of my favorite flowers this time of year, as it mixes beautifully with the gray-green foliage of the Eucalyptus pauciflora ssp. debeuzevilli.
Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is a favorite.
The hummers are hard to capture with my point-and-shoot camera, but I keep trying.
Other hummingbird magnets include the hardy Fuchsia hatchbachii.
Phygelius x rectus 'Passionate' gets sampled regularly.
As does the Agastache 'Acapulco Orange'.
I have even seen the little hummers check out the Hesperaloe parviflora on the deck.
They are not interested in some of my other exciting flower developments, however. Not interested in my three Eucomis pole-evansii, one of which is finally going to flower this year.
Also not interested, at least so far, in my Clivia minata 'Belgian Hybrid Orange', also just coming into bloom. I think those bright orange trumpets may attract them once they begin to open.
The hummers may be uninterested, so far, but I'm pretty happy about these flowering developments in the gardens at Longview Ranch.
Yay for your Eucomis!
ReplyDeleteFunny you, Ryan and Scott all did posts today about bees and other pollinators and hummingbirds...a theme of sorts.
it was all part of an intricately coordinated plan that was months in the making! okay, not really.
ReplyDeleteMy Phygelius 'Passionate has just a few flowers opened right now and they are pointed inward towards the stem so much the hummers will have to perch on the stem to take a drink. I've seen pictures of them doing them on that style of Phygelius, have you seen them do that on yours? I didn't think they would, but they took to my white Phygelius readily.
Hahaha...we must have some special form of telephathy...one with extremely limited usefullness ;-) I've never had luck photographing the hummers...they are very wary of me...although I blame the army of roving cats in the neighborhood. It always seems that they go especially crazy for the Agastache and the Salvia 'Black & Blue'. Once that Salvia starts blooming, the cats wait nearby, ready to pounce...luckily, the hummers are too fast for them...but it results in lots of broken Salvia stems :-(
ReplyDeleteI have a similar challenge trying to get photos of the hummers with just my point and shoot. I can't get close enough without scaring them away. So frustrating. They do seem to like my monkey flowers, Agastache and my Jacob Kline Monarda, which is in full bloom.
ReplyDeleteYour Crocosmia is gorgeous. Such a pretty flower.
Yes, the hummers are all the rage this time of year. I can see why they love your garden so much, Jane. What fabulous blooms!
ReplyDeleteHave you any of the hardy Cal. Fuchisa -Zauschneria septentrionale 'Select Mattole' ( had to look that up !) NIce ground cover and big favorite of my Humming B.
ReplyDeleteI love all the Orange/Red flowers ...
We have decided that the hummers were the inspiration for the fighter planes in Star Wars. They buzz us mercilessly as we sit on our front deck in the evenings. They also have battles at the feeder, though not so much now that the whole garden has much to offer.
ReplyDeleteGreat collection of hummingbird magnet plants you have there! I'm kinda obsessed with them this year, too - I think you're right, there seem to be more of them in my and my clients' gardens than I've ever seen!
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