Thanks Birding Nut! I consider myself a naturalist, and have some botany background, but I never knew about that feature in lilies. That's really an interesting and useful thing to know.

I am glad you found it interesting and useful, Kristin. Hopefully it will help people select the lillies that will be most visited by hummmers, if that is there goal. Of course, the fragrance of Orientals and Trumpets are to die for as cut flowers! So, I would make space for both. LOL!

BN

BN
Great info thanks for sharing that. I new that they used the tiger lilies but wasn't really aware of the Asiatic and I certainly didn't know about the nectar tube.

Penny

BN, thanks for posting that for everyone. I agree on making space for both, though my neighbors often confront me with a suspicious "is it just me or does it seem like our yard is getting smaller and yours a bit bigger." Foiled again! :D

Birding nut --thanks so much , since I was the one who brought this up in the first place. What about the plant I saw at lowes, it was labeled oriental lily, but it had a big flower wide open. I read that orientals dont flower untill later in the summer, is it a hybrid and would it have the nectar tubes?

Hi Hummersteve. Yes, I posted this in response to your previous post/question. I see many of the Oriental type lillies in bloom available for sale in places like Lowes, Home Depot, and even local supermarkets. These plants are forced to bloom indoors in a greenhouse for sale in early spring (usually around Valentine's Day and Easter). The most common ones I see are the Stargazer and Casa Blanca lillies which are Orientals. They don't have nectar tubes, rather the nectar just sort of exudes at the base of the petals and appears as drops. I haven't seen hummers use these at all, but doesn't mean to say they won't. I have seen Sphinx Moths visiting my Casa Blanca lillies in the evenings, probably because they are white and ever so fragrant.

If your main goal is for hummers, stick with the tiger lillies (not day lillies) and Asiatic lily hybrids. These are almost guaranteed to have the nectar tubes the hummers use. In addition, these lily types are rarely fragrant.

Glad people are finding this information useful!

BN

Years ago, I did see a Ruby-throated hummingbird nectaring from a Casa Blanca lily in my garden. The cat was staring out the window, and when I followed his intent gaze, I saw the hummingbird. I don't think I had any hummingbird plants at the time, and definitely no feeders, so I suppose she (or maybe it was an immature male) must have been desperate for nectar. Maybe it was a young and inexperienced bird, but I do remember the bird lingering for awhile, dipping into the lilies, so maybe he/she was getting something.

However, as I mentioned earlier, when I grew mixed orientals last summer, the hummers showed no interest at all. They were growing right under the feeders, so I think I would have noticed if they had shown any serious interest.

Hi BN

Yes it is very helpfull info to many of us still learning and yes it is hummer oriented. Last year I had hostas and purple agastache and they wouldnt touch either that I am aware of. Surprisingly they would ck out my tomato blooms and they love to play and hide in my big tomato plants, not that safe though. This year though I will have a lot in my yard for them to ck out. Salvias and Agastache reds and orange.

They have used the Oriental Tiger Lilies in my yard for 20+ years. While they may not be their number one choice, they do use them. This is that tall orange flowered lily with recurved petals. Other folks whom I trust have seen them at our native Turks Cap Lily and at Canada Lily. Because of the Turks Cap connection a lily group worth exploring are the martegons. I've never seen a hummer at the tubular flower types. It doesn't surprise me that others have though, since hummingbirds are constantly inspecting potential food sources. They also have good memories so you need to be lucky to see them making mistakes.

Those Oriental tiger lilies you speak of Wardda, also contain the nectar tube among the spotted petals. They usually aren't referred to as "Oriental" in my experience, but simply as the classic Tiger Lily. The Oriental lily I was referring to are the types such as Stargazer and Casa Blanca that have wide open outward facing flowers and heavily fragrant. See link below to some pics as an example. Notice that none of these examples of Oriental Lilies have the nectar tubes on the petals and thus aren't visited by hummers very often.

BN

Here is a link that might be useful: Oriental Lilies

Very interesting, BN Thanks for posting this. I never knew any of this, I wondered why they like some relatively small reflexed Asiatics I have and not the gigantic 'Silk Road'.

This means that the new(ish) Orienpets also will not have a tube since they are an interdivision cross of Trumpets and Orientals.

Lime

The only reason I say Oriental is that around here a common name for Daylily is Tiger Lily. You are right about the nectar tubes. There are rather similar to what you see on Abutilons.

Hummersteve,
Not sure if this is even the kind of thing you might be looking for based on the kinds of lilies you were talking about or if you're even looking anymore, but you never know!
We have a bed of Canna Lilies by one of our feeders that our Hummers are very much attracted to. We initally put the feeder by them because we hoped the colors etc. would attract the hummers....little did we know they would spend so much time feeding from them instead of the actual feeders! But that's OK!
We have a mix of Cannas...some look quite gaudy while others are quite delicate. (The link should take you to a pic that shows just one kind - they're not in full bloom in this shot....didn't know how to insert the pic in the text so had to use this image sharing site..guess I am techincally challenged!)
I don't really know much about these plants other than I believe they're technically not lilies -- but what the hec! They're pretty easy to look after and have just started to come up. Should be flowering by early/mid summer and will keep on blooming if you remove the dead flowers before they go to seed.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:981069}}

I'm trying Cannas this year for the first time. It's good to hear that your birds have been enjoying them. I'm planning to put them in front of the 5-6 foot tall heirloom hollyhocks. Both will be next to a metal arch with Lonicera sempervirens. I'm really going to great lengths this year to turn this yard into a hummer haven. I'm also looking for floral inspiration for my hand made hummingbird feeders that I like to pattern after different flowers.

I got curious about what they're related to, and found this wikipedia link. According to this, they're not related to lilies, but have got some interesting "cousins" in the plant world.

Take a look:

Here is a link that might be useful: Canna lily blurb from Wikipedia

Kristin,
Sounds like you really will have a Hummer Haven by the time you are finished. We too have a monstrous trumpet honeysuckle. It is an absolute magnet for the Hummers but our Cardinals also feed on it and this morning we saw a Baltimore Oriole in there feeding away (we assume he popped back down here to get away from the snow etc. up North.)
We also thought about bringing the honeysuckle closer to the Cannas. Right now we have just the one bush in a far corner from the house so it's hard to get a good view of the hummers unless we creep up to the bush and hang out for a while! We want to bring another bush closer to our Cannas and feeder which is close to our screen room.
Talking of feeders -- you make your own? Do you have any pics you can post?
Kristin, it's always interesting to read your posts..... you seem to have a world of knowledge to share! Thanks.

Aw, shucks! Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad to hear the glowing reports from you and everyone on trumpet honeysuckle. Everyone seems to agree that it's a hummingbird magnet. So far, I think their favorite flower in my garden is the Monarda didyma. I have "Gardenview Scarlet," but it did get mildew pretty bad so this year I'm getting some "Jacob Cline." In my garden, they also like Agastache, but I don't think it survived the winter. It did fine until we got a lot of wet, snowy weather. I think that did them in. Also the trumpet vine, Campsis radicans is a good draw, even though it's the yellow-flowered kind. Those three seem to have been their favorites this past year.

It's funny to think of you creeping up to your honeysuckle bush to see the hummers. It sounds like something I would do. The neighbors already know I'm not the conventional suburbanite conformist, so I take comfort in knowing that I have no reputation of normalcy to uphold!

I already posted some pictures of my feeders a while back, but it's slipped down the queue a few pages. You can find it at the link below. There are some at the top of the page, and more if you scroll down.

I can't wait to do my first multiple flower feeder with the Lonicera. I know that they occur in clusters (the flowers, I mean) so it will be fun to do maybe three functioning flowers all coming out of the same bottle. I can't wait to have at it. If only the warm weather would return--and the hummingbirds!

Here is a link that might be useful: My hummingbird feeders