Nicotiana glauca (tree tobacco) is a wonderful hummingbird plant in Calif. It's not native, and it's ugly as sin, but the birds love it.

That brings a question to mind for me... I wintersowed Nicotiana this year...not the tree kind. I have it everywhere cuz every seed grew two plants, I swear! I have not seen a hummer on it yet. I do like it, but not to the extent of having it take up room that other plants could have. Does regular Nicotiana Sylvestris (I think) attract hummers? If not, I'm yanking some of it out. TIA

glo

I've never had a hummingbird visit sylvestris, but I bet others will tell you different. I've always suspected that the flowers were too long, but again, maybe not.

Ward,
I tend to agree with you...I looked sylvestris up and it says it attracts butterflys and hummers, but I have my doubts.

Ruth,
What colors/types of flowers are already in your border? What height are you looking for? Are you wanting annuals or perenials?
When Penny gets back, I'll bet she can help with this!
glo

When I lived in NY, I did have Ruby-throateds visit the annual flowering Nicotania. They even visited the green flowered variety, but liked the pink, white, and red flowered ones best. It wasn't their favorite plant by far, but they did visit the flowers more than sporadically.

BN

I can't give you any advice on flower decorating. But I can tell you they use the red and white flowering nicotiana the white one is very tall the red one is shorter and while it's not their favorite plant they do use both. Sarah

The tall one sounds like sylvestis to me. That's interesting to know, since it tends to reseed around in the garden. I'll have to give it more respect.

Thanks all! I think I will try the red flowering annual nicotiana, not glauca.

Glo,

I have purchased Phygelius 'New Sensation' and 'Devil's Tears'; 3 salvia guaranitica B & B; 6 Lady in Red Salvia; a couple of pineapple sage and one called tangerine sage;a couple of Agastache 'Firebird'; Crocosmia 'Lucifer'; Kniphofia 'Mango Tango' and 'Firebird' penstomen and a couple of hardy fuschias, one pink and 2 reds.

The problem is my backyard is a cottage garden, mostly pinks, blues, yellows and peach colors. I grow mainly shrubs, roses and perennials and clematis.

I am most concerned with incorporating reds and oranges into the scheme. I am afraid they will look garish. Do any of you just grow the plants in pots in the back patio?

lol! Ruth, if I put one more pot on the patio or the front porch, my poor dh will most likely hang a hook and put me on it! I've got everything from petunias, vinca, lavender, nicotiana, gartenmeister fuschia, regular old fuschia, cleome, butterfly weed, torenia, tropical bleeding heart, million bells and several different salvias, to name just a few in pots ...I've got plant poles in the yard and plant stands and beds where I can get away with them...thanks to wintersowing and Penny, I have so many plants and nothing is "organized" it's all where ever I felt like having a bit of color!!! My oldest daughter is not really into gardening and plants. She has a black thumb but she was impressed with what Rick and I have done with a yard that had nothing in it last Feb. when we moved in. I have mostly reds, white, pinks, blues and purples in our back yard and patio. In the front, I planted some marigolds in among things and as much as I'm not real fond of yellows/oranges they really do add zip and makes the other stuff just pop out so I don't see where adding bright colors to your existing flowers should hurt. The nice thing would be that if you just DO NOT like them, you could move them and put them on your patio or where ever else you'd want them!
Let us know what you decide! One of these days, I'm going to take some pics of some of mine and I'll try to share on here! I've seen so many pics on here that would put my meager efforts to shame, tho. Sorry to get so windy here.

glo

I had the same problem with the reds and orange-reds. What I did this spring was pull them all into one section of the garden. There's a stump covered with coral honeysuckle, and next to it I add the cuphea ignea and other oranges and orange-reds. It works. I then used some pale yellow osteospermums "spelling" to create a transition to the pinks and blue/purple of plants such as salvia san carlos festival and wild watermelon and a small purple flowered sage. Then a patch of pink zinnia behind which I can hide a patch of lady in red and stachys coccinea. And finally at the end of the bed an 8 foot pink brugmasia and a pinkish lavender lantana. Naturally there are other things mixed in that aren't mentioned; established plants at the back like rudbeckia herbshonne and a patch of helenium and on and on and on. Overall planting is very pleasing. By gathering large patches of similar colors together I avoided that nasty clash between oranges and pinks. There are also a few gray plants like artemesia and snow-in-summer.

The other side of the issue is, who cares. As long as things are happy and well grown, it is usually all right. And why not be 'over the top' and have a garden that shouts at the top of it's lungs. Your normal favorite colors are at the top of my list of colors too, but it is possible to be too conservative.

And yes I grow some hummingbird plants in pots: Salvia Rasperry Delight and Royal, Indigo Spires, a yellow and pink greggii, and a yellow annual butterfly weed. I love big pots of bright colors, which for me are kept by the front steps since I don't have a patio. There are also a few big pots with fall blooming plants like Pineapple Sage and Mexican Bush Sage. They are sitting in the front of the garage, and will be set in a prominent place or in garden gaps when the tiger lilies are cut down in August. Enjoy those plants. What can possibly happen? I make mistakes every year, and many of those mistake end up kind of fantastic. In other words, some mistakes are keepers.

My backyard has turned into a hodgepodge of color. No organization whatsoever anymore.

You guys rock!

Glo - I would love to see pictures. It is great to hear from people who appreciate and love flowers. My dh is pretty patient and even helped me to dig out the front lawn so I could have more flowers. Yes, I am sure the neighbors think me quite insane.

Ward - I like the idea of designating one area to the reds and oranges and using the linking colors to blend in. I never realized I had such a color bias. It is time to step out of the box. Interesting you grow brugmansia. I saw some at the nursery where I work the other day. The one I almost bought was dark purple, almost like the color of eggplant.

Mimidi - I am working on hodgepodge! I think that will be my goal.

Hello Everyone, I'm just getting my hummingbird garden started this season. I was just planning on starting small, and my husband tilled up the entire length of the back of the house!!
It's just a typical ranch, but he also made this hummer garden bed about 4 feet wide at least. I've ended up with a huge hummer garden =) I did get some seeds from Helena and some from Stephen, which I planted and carefully made a nice little chart. Then I hit the local nursery that always has the best plants and took my list of hummer plants...I was so excited.Unfortunately the nursery had never heard of most of the plants on my list =( I walked around and found several labeled as attracting hummers and most were marked $9-12 each. I ended up spending more that I really wanted and now my "lovely little hummers" only seem to use the feeders anyway. Somehow the seeds my husband and I so carefully planted didn't all come up or got transported to where we didn't put them! I don't know what anything Helena and Stephen sent look like so we weren't sure when plants started coming up what were weeds and what were the ones we had planted. Now I have a few flowering plants and no idea what it what and what to try and plant next year. Any suggestions would be appereciated. My garden is definitely a hodgepodge of color, and various sized plants. I'm actually just a bit overwhelmed and have such a large area that it would take more money than we can afford to make all the tilled area into a hummer garden. Are there any ground cover plants that attract hummers, that aren't real expensive to help fill the area,or should we make the garden smaller?
Sorry this has gotten so long, but I really do want a hummer friendly and hummer user garden and don't know where to go with what we have already done.Thanks in advance for any help anyone of my hummer friends can give.
Verna (hummer garden hopeless)

Verna I wish you lived near me because you could have as many plants as you wanted since mine have all spread when I first started this hummer garden it was empty in 2000 but I bought most of plants on sale in August of 2000 and 2001 and those plants have taken over since then I just add annuals Wait until August when the nurseries have big sales and buy beebalm phlox obedient flower and they will fill in your empty flower bed in no time I would also suggest Agastache foeniculum since it fills up alot but that attracts butterflies and goldfinches more than hummers I will see if I can show you a before and after picture. Sarah

Verna - make a few paths into the garden so that you can reach things and make a visible break in the areas - put one or two big pots right in the middle of the beds - and then use annuals this year to fill in until you see how big your plants get - you have years to play with it - it doesn't have to be perfect yet!
As for colors, the only one I really don't like is orange - I keep the reds separated as well, and every thing sort of blends in - it's nice to have hot spots and cool spots and places your eye lingers - (sounds like I have an English border instead of lots of pots!)
Ellery

I agree with Ellery completely about annuals. Everyone gets so taken with perennials that they forget about them. In my own gardens I like to keep maybe 30% of the space available for annuals. They always put on a big show, and because you can grow different ones each year, the garden isn't likely to become static. Most of them grow so easily and cheeply from seed that it's possible to make a big statement for almost no cost. As an example I grew out about 75 Lady in Red Salvia Coccineas this spring. I used maybe 40 in my gardens and the rest went into a nature center garden and to several friends. A big batch also allows you to experiment with siting. I now know there are several places in the yard where I should not be growing this plant, and because I had so many, nothing was really lost by my error. And if you are looking for something more muted you might try S. Coccinea Coral Nymph. Hummers love it just as much and it's a fantastic white and pale pink.

And Sarah is right with her selection of plants, they will fill in quickly and are always happy. I have all three, although I wish I could keep them under better control. I only have so much garden out there and they want it all.

Verna,
Have you heard of Winter sowing? You'll have more plants, both annual and perennial than you'll know what to do with and then you'll be making your dh dig bigger beds cuz yours won't be big enough!!! Now, before you go to the link below, please be advised that w/s is addictive! The good thing is all the people who will share seeds, advice, and joys and sorrows with you! Penny talked about it on here when I first found this site, so I went, I tried, I'm hooked!

glo

Here is a link that might be useful: W/S FAQs

Sarah, Ellery , wardw and glok,
Thank all of you for your suggestions. I will print them and put them in my hummer garden folder. It is getting so full, that I may have to start a second one, LOL. If only my garden was so full =)
Thanks again, this forum and all of you are great...
Verna

Vera you sound like a true hummingbird person.