I’m talking Beau into giving me an outside south-facing wall of the barn where I can run string from the ground UP to the roof to grow Morning Glories. ‘Grandpa Ott’s’ is my favorite! I would imagine they’d be doing great by you after a super-wet spring - it takes a while for the hard seed shell to break down and germinate, so ‘wet’ speeds up the process, for sure!
I don’t plant for the Hummers here, because our growing season is too short, but I have Hummers because I put up feeders and go broke all summer making them sugar water, LOL! They are SO worth it! (1 cup sugar, 4 cups water - heat in a pan until it’s dissolved; cool and fill the feeders. Repeat Daily, all Summer long!)
Pretty sure these people know what to do as far as nectar-producing plants go:
http://www.hummingbirdsociety.org/hummingbird-flowers/
Bees are after dusty, yellow Pollen, versus the Hummers who are after liquid Nectar, so no, they don’t compete for food.
Thanks Diana. Now I know what I did wrong with last year’s Hummingbird Feeder. I didn’t heat up the mixture, so it probably just all settled on the bottom, not becoming the Kool-Aid like nectar that hummingbirds really like.
Some untended Morning Glorys grow near busy streets over here, twining and braiding around Telephone Wires or Date Palms. The result can resemble a long, sheer curtain of flowery growth.
I would have thought a piece of M.Glory vine would be easy to sprout, but I have not had any luck doing that so far.
Bees are after dusty, yellow Pollen, versus the Hummers who are after liquid Nectar, so no, they don’t compete for food."
Thank you for posting that hummingbird flower source link, and the recipe for making 'home brew' nectar.
Both bees and hummingbirds are after the same nectar, but the bees also collect pollen; in the bee hive, the nectar and pollen are fed to the larva until they leave the brood cell,
and emerge as an 'adult' to either be 'workers', drones, or a queen bee(Queen larva are fed 'royal jelly' from the current reigning queen- that's the only distinction).
The hummingbird is looking only for nectar (as a food source), yet I have never seen the hummingbirds compete with bees for the nectar; they seem to give each other 'space'.
Generally, the hummingbird long proboscis and tongue allow it to work the longer, deeper, trumpet-like flowers for nectar, while the pollen remains more accessible to the bees.
I have seen hummingbirds work fuchsia and monarda mostly in hanging baskets; they seem to like height,
and I have never seen them lower than 3-4 feet off the ground.
Hummers seem to be attracted to fluorescent/ ultra-violet color blooms of red, fuchsia, orange, blue, purple and deep blue.
There are perennial flowering vines , 'campsis radicans' and wisteria that draw in the 'hummers'.
Last summer, right after a long rain fall, I saw hummers and bees working 'Roses of Sharon' blooms together, and each seemed to give each other 'space'.
Planting Morning Glories!???
Why don’t you try a little kudzu while you’re at it?
To each his/her own I guess.
I hated trying to keep the morning glories out of the garden, corn and tobacco fields every year.
Dang stuff just as bad as kudzu.
I never will forgive that stuff for existing.