Henry wrote:

I am looking for suggestions on flowers that I can start from seed for my
kid's garden that will do a good job of attracting Hummingbirds. I live in
Central NY and I know we have them here as we have seen them at a neighbors
feeder and I think my kid would get a kick out of seeing them in his
garden. I have seen a number of flowers listed in catalogs that say they
will attract Hummingbirds but almost all are being sold as plants and after
last years dismal experience of buying plants by mail I won't make that
mistake again. Strangely enough the last good experience I had with ordering
flowering plants was from Michigan Bulb before they went under -guess I was
one of the lucky ones with them. Of course I had the best experience with
Stark Bros. and Raintree Nurseries for apple tree and blueberry bushes but
they don't do flowers Any info on flowers and the sources for there seed
would be greatly appreciated as this would make an ideal addition since his
garden is right next to our Butterfly Bush which lives up to it's name. Also
any GOOD websites with info on this would be appreciated as I did searches
on Google and Lycos was not impressed.

Henry

Plants with tubular flowers, particularly in bright colors, tend to be the most
attractive to hummers. Annual and perennial salvias, agastache, phygelius,
veronica, fuchsias, nasturtiums, monarda, foxgloves, lupines and perennial
lobelia all will appeal. Mina lobata (dead easy from seed), cardinal flower and
other morning glory relatives will work, as will trumpet vine and honeysuckle. I
have also seen hummers feed at deutzia, wiegela and abelia and they love ribes
(flowering currant) which is native and in bloom right now. Ditto winter
blooming mahonias.

Not all are easily or quickly grown from seed but all will be readily available
by mail order, specially the shrubs and perennials. This link may help:
http://www.omniplex.org/html/hummingbird_plants.html

You can always checkout the Hummingbird Gardening forum on the gardenweb - lots
of great info there, too

pam - gardengal