I have had them visit pretty much any of the purple flowered varieties where the flowers hang downward on a tall spike. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visited them very regularly when I lived in NY. However, the western hummers such as Calliope, Rufous and Black-chinned seem less interested in them here where I live now.

BN

I have some that flower light purple and one that flowers white and they visit both. i have mine planted around a maple tree where not much else will grow so they serve a dual purpose.

Penny

They are visited here. Primarily because there are coral bells and gartenmeister fuschia right next to it. I have a large blue-leafed variety which produces light purple/blue blooms.

They would go to mine while on the way to the other bluming plants, just passing by. They weren't a favorite by any means but they were used. I have the ones with the varigated leaves and the purple flowers. I have no idea of the name of them.

The green & white variegated ones (at least the old fashioned ones) are usually H. albomarginata (although I noticed it now being called Hosta sieboldii 'Variegata').

I never checked to see if my hummers nectared out of my hosta blooms, although the shape is right. Mine was within 2ft of a honeysuckle, some cannas, and (at that time) an agastache when it was in bloom, so the hummers were over in that area alot - mostly going to the agastache that I could tell.

But then again, if you were a hummer and had to select between a hosta and an agastache, which would you pick??? LOL!

Jenny,
Do you even have to aske that question LOL!

Penny

Thanks everyone. I saw a hosta 'fujibotin' even though I think I spelled it wrong. It looks pretty cool. I think I'll give that a try. I am planting plenty other hummingbird plants. But I have a barren, shady, north wall, that I want to make look nice. So I figure something the hummers might visit, is better than something, I know they won't visit.

I have found that the purple flowered hostas attract hummers and I did see many of them on the plants last year. The variety is called ventricosa, they are shiny heart shaped green leaves and should be cheap. You can find them on ebay for a steal too.

The hostas that I have that the hummers have been attracted to, have large flowers. They also attract carpenter bees, which drill holes in the neck of the flower because they cannot reach up into it. The hummers then go and poke their beaks into the holes created by the bees. At first I thought the hummers were poking the holes, but I watched and saw what happened. The hummers also reach up into the flowers. These hostas are close to my feeder. The young hummers seemed to be most interested in them. It was mostly the young males in the fall that used these flowers.

Deb in PA

I had about 12 hostas at my other house in Johnston County -- I have no idea what kind they were because I bought them from a nursery that was getting rid of all their plants and they weren't marked. (This was before I caught my hosta fever, by the way!) Anyway, the flowers were all pale lavendar. October before last, I was sitting on the patio at dusk and a couple hummingbirds were feeding off of some seed pods. I also had agastache, red salvia and a feeder. I didn't realize they liked hostas and I was surprised to see them so late in the year.

I had two hostas that had yellow and white flowers and an agastache plant within 8ft of a yard light which I had two feeders hanging on and they totally ignored the flowers and would rather take turns standing guard on the feeders, but they would occasionally ck out my tomato plant blooms. Actually they like to hide and play in among the huge plant and liked to prene themselves on the cage before the plant got so big.