Hi Becky,

The hummingbirds swoop in on my garden as I am tending it, and sometimes hover a foot away from my face, as if to say get out of here! It must be just poor timing that you have missed them. I usually hear them before I see them; they either squeak at me or I hear the wings beating in the air. Do you have shrubs or other places structures close by that will serve as perching spaces for the hummingbirds? I had strung up some twine on spiral tomato stakes to serve as morning glory trellis, and the hummingbirds tended to perch on the twine near where I was growing the salvias.

The only other pollinators I see on my salvias are the bumblebees and Carpenter bees. They tear the heck out of the smaller flowers. The smaller bumblebee workers will work the Chinese salvias, although it is a snug fit sometimes inside the flower.

Joseph

Becky, you know the saying - the birds and the bees- and of course the bumblebees would be attracted to anything blue or purple or scented. So far I havent had much in my yard for the hummers, mostly just my feeders and I had a lot of hummers over the summer. I had a purple agastache plant , korean mint I guess, but the hummers wouldnt touch it but b. bees loved it. This year I have lot of different salvia seeds ready to go, agastache apricot sprite seeds plus my feeders which the hummers seemed to spend a lot of time at. My pc room is set up so I have good view of my front yard and I have window feeders as I sit not 2ft away from them. They dont seem to be bothered by me or they get used to it. I have been up at my pc at daylight and watched them come in for their first drink of the day, pretty amazing.

The back part of my "yard" is a wooded hill with a creek at the bottom. There are quite a few azaleas at the edge of the woods. Most of last year's salvia are just in front of this wooded area. I plan to spread them out more as I have extended the beds in the front yard - otherwise I wouldn't have anywhere to plant all my new seeds. But the B&Bs, coccineas and elegans were extremely happy where they were last summer, so some of my new ones will end up back there, too. All I ever saw on the flowers were bumblebees and butterflies but somehow everything got pollinated.

I had Purple Rain in the front yard, and it also produced some seed - but the bunnies ate most of the flowers. That is one concern I have with putting my new seedlings out there - I know the bunnies are watching for anything tasty.

I am thinking the best way to see the hummingbirds is to put some of the salvias in large pots on the deck.

Looking forward to all of those new blooms . . .

Becky

Plant the S. guaranitica in clustered plantings, that will make the nectar patch more noticeable to the hummingbirds. Good luck!

I've been told that we have 9 different kinds of bees pollinating everything; AND 3 kinds of Hummers Spring thru' Fall. We have one pair that stays all winter -- I guess to guard the territory. I put out a feeder for them when it gets cold , and they need it when I do the major pruning in February -- or they'd starve.

Hummers will visit any good nectar source, not necessarily red to orange and tubular. The smaller lavender to purple to blue ones are visited by bumblebees and honeybees, as well as numerous local members of the bee family. The smaller the flower, the smaller the pollinator.

Chinese sages like S. hians have evolved like American penstemons to allow small bumblebees to enter entirely into the tube.

Bumblebees cheat by poking holes into the corolla near the calyx to get to the nectary without pollinating the flower. Worse, the flower loses its ability to be pollinated by the correct pollinator, probably because pollen grains don't germinate and form complete sperm tubes to the unfertilized ovaries.

Moths, butterflies, and Old World sunbirds (who hover somewhat like hummingbirds, but are found around the Indian Ocean basin) also will work Salvias. Some of the more intersting moths that work Salvias include bumblbee and hummingbird moths, and hawkmoths, all who have transparent wings that they beat rapidly and allow them to hover. Hawkmoths are the adult forms of tomato and tobacco hornmorms. At dusk, they can be found visiting Datura and Brugmansia blossoms and can startle one as much as hummingbirds.

I have three varieties of hummingbirds frequent my gardens. There are several varieties of honeybees, bumbles and the tiny "tree bees". There are Blue wasps and Hummingbirds moths (Sphinx moths and etc.). Certain kinds of flies (yes flies) visit them and of course, gobs and gobs of butterflies, adding their animated colors to my gardens.
And many tiny ones that most people don't ever pay much attention to.

~ Annie