Dear Jim: Thanks for your e-mail. We have several different species of Humming Birds here, all so lovely and they are apparently not afraid of humans, or my dog either. I have not seen any go after Lilies, despite having various trumpets in my garden, and despite the flowers having good nectar glands, I do not know why this is, could it be too sweet for them? My 'Lucifer' are young plants, a few minor spikes, but they were planted this year and not that many flowers, so perhaps that is why they are ignored. Cheers, John E. Bryan Jim McKenney wrote: > > The replies posted so-far are interesting, if only because it seems that the > west-coast hummers are either much pickier than those here on the east coast > - or maybe it's that they have so much more to pick from on the west coast. > > The hummer we have here is the ruby-throated hummingbird. They arrive in > late April, just when the native Aquilegia canadensis starts to bloom. There > are hummers in the area until well into October, although these late season > birds may be birds migrating through from farther north. In the same way, > the first ones to arrive in April may really be the ones headed for Canada. > > On rare occasions (but almost every year) rufous hummingbirds are reported > form somewhere on the east coast. These are evidently birds which became > disoriented during migration. > > The ruby throat seems to check out everything in the garden. I'm surprised > that no one has mentioned how much attention hummers pay to lilies, > especially trumpet lilies. Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is also a favorite. So too > glads, Tigridia, Gloriosa, Zephyranthes, Habranthus, Polianthes - really, > they seem to check out just about anything in bloom. > > Forget what you may have read about hummers going mainly to red flowers. > >From what I can see, flower color makes no difference. > > Jim McKenney > Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where although we have > hummers every year from sometime in April till sometime in October, we never > seem to have more than one or two at a time. > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php