Maltese Cross

17 years ago

Hi All

I have Maltese Cross growing in the garden.I didn't see any hummers feeding at the Maltese Cross. Course I didn't have many birds this year (probably due to the bitter cold 'summer that almost wasn't'.

I'm thinking of seeding the Maltese Cross in another garden but was wondering if the Hummers (Ruby-Throat is the only type we get) will actually feed at them. Has anyone had good luck with the birds feeding at these plants? I want to mix them with my lilies (which the birds love) so I have some blooming flowers through out the summer. My Tiger Lilies are only blooming now, though the Asiatic lilies have finished.

Thanks in advance

Regards

Barb

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Comments (4)

birding_nut
17 years ago
I had pretty good success with Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visiting Maltese Cross in my garden when I lived in NY. They reliably visited the plant probing each flower in a cluster.

BN
tracey_nj6
17 years ago
I've been growing it for years. I don't see alot of activity, just occasional. It's still enough to keep the plant around. FWIW, mine looked SPECTACULAR this year. So much rain early on and barely any flopping. That was a welcome change from the norm ;)
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fritzmom
Original Author
17 years ago
Further to my posting....YES the plants that I have were wonderful this year. And they self-seeded and popped up all over my naturalized garden and didn't need any staking. We live in a rural area so I have a fairly large area that I've just let go natural, and the wild flowers that sprouted this year were great. Course we had rain, rain, and more rain. I have decided that even if the hummers don't really care for this plant, I'll put seed with my lilies just because I love the red blooms.
Thanks for the comments!
Barb
penny1947
17 years ago
I have had Maltese Cross for at least 3 or 4 years now and this year my plants got more hummer use than previous years. I keep it around because it does start to bloom earier than many of my other hummer plants and if I take time to remove the spent blooms and it gets plenty of water it will bloom non stop all season. We too had more than our share of water this year so I didn't even need to remove the spent blooms. They just kept blooming all season.

Penny