Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 09:53:35 -0700
From: ron <ron@NVWETLANDS.COM>
Reply-To: BB for Hummingbirds and Gardening for them in
the Southeast
<HUMNET-L@listserv.lsu.edu>
To: HUMNET-L@listserv.lsu.edu
Subject: Re: Questions about Lilies as Hummingbird Flowers

I haven't heard of any species of lily that is grown in gardens
being much used by
hummingbirds, although some wild species in the west are
considered
hummingbird-pollinated plants. (I say considered because it is
hard to prove that
a flower is NORMALLY pollinated by hummingbirds. In fact
it is hard to prove that
anything NORMALLY happens - you can prove it happens
once or twice, but who knows
what happens the rest of the time) However, I think planting
lilium hybrids in
your garden probably isn't a productive way to attract
hummingbirds.

While I'm on the subject, I think that an excellent hummingbird
garden could be
planted with only a few species of flowers - it is not necessary
to have dozens of
species of flowers. I find that hummingbirds prefer to feed on
the flowers that
are in good numbers in a garden. I have not often seen
hummingbirds visit a series
of flowers consisting of single or a couple of flowers of many
different types,
but I have seen them travel through a garden visiting each
clump of a certain
species of flower or switch between one or two of the most
abundant hummingbird
flower. Additionally, in wild settings, there are typically not 25
species of
flower in bloom simultaneously, at least not in North America.
There are more
typically one or two flowers that are most abundant in any
location, and the
hummingbirds focus on the abundant ones. This all leads me to
think that
hummingbirds are adapted to identify the best nectar resources
(defined by volume
and sugar sontent of nectar as well as number of blossoms
present) and focus in on
them. This means that a garden with only a few types of the
best hummingbird
flowers woud make an excellent hummingbird garden, I think.
In order to have
flowers throughout the summer (or all year, in some regions) it
is necessary to
have many varieties of plants, but I don't think any of us
should feel that unless
we collect 100 varieties of salvia we won't have hummingbirds
in the garden.

Ron Rovansek
Looking for salvia species #99 in Reno, NV