Looks like my Silene regia, and 'Profusion' zinnias will be next to bloom. Both have buds ready to pop open.

I'm in southwestern PA, zone 6A.

Happy July Krisin. It is hard to believe that our temps are in the low 70's this morning in southeast Alabama. I rode around the yard earlier looking at the flowers. I have just been too lazy to post all the flowers that are blooming. Even one of my cross vines has blooms. The rain we have had lately has done wonders for the flowers. Not to mention the WEEDS and grass. Hubby is fussing about the grass growing. He says he will not mow twice a week.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

My 'Dropmore Scarlet' honeysuckle that I planted last year is reblooming! I deadheaded it after the first flush of blooms and it has as many flowers on it now as it had earlier this spring.
Other hummingbird plants blooming are Cape fuchsia, salvia greggii, and s. darcyi, cuphea 'David Verity' and monarda 'Jacob Cline'.

My salvia guaranitica isn't blooming yet but a mystery salvia I bought at a Master Gardener's sale is about to bloom.

Scant blooms but blooms none the less on
Salvia greggii Sallyg Pink
Salvia greggii Cherry Chief
Cuphea ignea 'David Verity'
Salvia guaranitica B&B
Salvia coccinea Lady in Red
Salvia coccinea Forest Fire
Lantana 'Dallas Red'
Lantana 'Bandana Red'
Salvia guaranitica 'Van Remsen'
Petunia intergritfolia
Iris Fulva starting to wind down
Maltese Cross still going strong
Fucshia Gartenmeister Bonstedt going nuts
Monarda 'Jacob's Cline' (some stems are 5ft. tall this year!)
perennial geranium still going stong
one Bleeding heart is still loaded with blooms
Penstemon digitalis
Agastache 'Acapulco Orange'
Justicia brandegeana just starting to bloom
One snapdragon that comes back every year has just started blooming and it is HUGE!
I just pruned my Dropmore scarlet honeysuckle back in hopes of getting it to rebloom. Also cutting back my species hoenysuckle after the aphid invasion in hopes of revitalizing it

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

It's in the mid seventies here in southwestern PA, humidity very low, sun shining between fluffy white clouds. It's gorgeous. I couldn't ask for more beautiful weather! Numerous trumpet vine flowers are finally blooming in soft golden peach tones. I'm still waiting on the 'Profusion' zinnias that I started from seed indoors in the early spring, and also my Silene regia.

Amazing that it is so relatively cool in the south, too. I'd take subzero temps in the winter any day over oppressive heat and humidity in the summer, but thank goodness there are people who fit into all sorts of climates. I think my plants are enjoying the weather, too, and all the blossoms look so fresh and vibrant, not faded as they so often do in the heat.

Interesting that your 'Jacob Kline' Monardas are also doing well, Penny. I guess this must be a good year for them. I think my tallest ones are more like 4 feet tall.

Hey Birdnerd, what's your zone and approximate location? I should remember, but I don't. I'm hoping, some day, to compile this blooming data, and it doesn't make much sense if I don't know what zone flowers are blooming in.

Kristen my silene regia is blooming now also and of my three trumpet vines only one has one bloom on it. But there's tons of popup trumpet vines everywhere.



sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

Some Pictures.

DianneSoutheast AlabamaHeat Zone 8Sunset Zone 31

Dianne your pictures are great and that Shrimp plant looks awsome! I wish I could grow mine that big.


Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

A picture is worth a thousand words!

sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

Here is a picture of the silene regia

[IMG][/IMG]

sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

Sarah what a beauty !

Zone 6b New Jersey

visit my hummer garden at http://www.picturetrail.com/stephennj

Thangs Penny. (Sorry about the size I posted it using my laptop and did not realize it was so big. I will re-size it later today.) I am so proud of that shrimp plant. I have three growing now. I didn't think they would ever get any size.

Sarah is the Silene Regia also an Indiam pink?

Dianne
Indian Pink is the Spigelia marilandica

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Sorry Kristen - If I had remembered to log in, it would've shown my zone. I'm in Southwest Missouri zone 6.
It's been cooler and much rainier than normal here though. I think my salvia guaranitica needs more sun. It seems like it's usually bigger by now and blooming. I don't keep track of those things but wish I did. It would be very helpful for you to compile all the data. : ) I use the Mobot website sometimes because it charts when plants are in bloom.
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/pib.asp
You can look up bloom time by individual plants or look at what's in bloom for a specific week.

Christie
Missouri
zone 6

Christie, I thought I remembered knowing where you were from, but then I couldn't remember. I guess it must have been your auto signature with zone that I saw in the past. Thanks for the link. That is, indeed, a very useful site, and it's pretty close to my zone. I've looked at it before and it is very helpful, although it doesn't always have the exact species or cultivar that I need. It might be 6B (I'm 6A) or maybe it IS 6A, I forget.

I think it would be really cool to have a Hummingbird Forum chart of all of the bloom times. Nice to hear that you think it's a good idea. There would be plants listed on the left, a range of zones, and a little block to color in for each week of the year. I've got the format worked out, but it would be a tremendous amount of work to go through all the old posts starting from July of last year. I might have to enlist some help to have any hope of getting it done for a year's span of time. If a lot of us did it, it would be more manageable. (Hint, hint!) We could do only certain periods of time and cover everything, or maybe just stick to a few key plants at first and do them for the entire year. That might make more sense from a usefulness standpoint.

I haven't been keeping track of when my plants start flowering but will try to do better. I thought of a couple more that I didn't mention. My 'Pink Delight' butterfly bush has been blooming for a couple of days and I have seen hummingbirds use it a few times (not this year yet). I also have LOTS of verbena bonariensis blooming. I haven't watched it for hummingbirds but have read that they will use it.
I have some cosmos starting to bloom too. I haven't seen them use that in the past but have some new colors for me this year so maybe they'll check it out.

Christie
Missouri
zone 6

Blooming gets so congested at the first of July. Even in slow dry years like this the first of the volunteer Salvia coccinea have opened up. It is just a few even among the seedlings that began their life indoors. So it is pretty much a waiting game still on this main crop plant. The Zinnias growing among them are no further with few of the happiest and earliest planted showing their first buds. Maybe by August the bed will have filled out. The plants were spaced further apart than usual, about two feet and at the moment they look sparse.

If a walker were to leave the Palmyra Nature Center and walk the divided road this is what she would see. After passing a cleaned out bed that some group planted and abandoned five years ago you would encounter the first of the hummingbird plants - Salvia microphylla San Carlos Festival. There are 7 of them in heavy bloom and between them Golden Tropical Milkweed. A watcher wouldn't have to wait too long for a hummingbird to arrive. Next in the row is microphylla Neurepia, much taller with large leaves and short flower stalks covered with lots of pinkish flowers. Taller yet is the Agastache Tutti Frutti interplanted among it - up to five feet tall and blooming well. Two cultivars of Salvia greggii Stampede follow, six plants who's bloom has slowed to a crawl. The mycrophylla Hot Lips follow, a dozen of them that will eventually form a tight hedge. Their flowers have gone for red to "hot lips" to white. Among their hundreds of flowers is often a hummingbird. A single gray-leafed Salvia pachyphylla is happily not blooming next and then five greggii Bright Red.
For the next hundred and fifty feet or so there are young sages, planted this spring. Most of them have been flowering lightly - Raspberry Delight, California Sunset, greggii Lipstick, microphylla Orange Door. There are three one year old greggii White and a fifty foot line of greggii Wild Thing. And at the far end there are more plants of the year, a row of microphylla 18th of March, micrphylla La Trinidad Pink and finally a yet to bloom 40 row of Mexican Sunflowers. There are other plants in the hedge not mentioned, other Agastaches, Lavender, some other odd sages, a lot more milkweed and some Globe Amaranth to name some.
Now that the hedge has had a year to grow it is beginning to take shape and the hummingbirds are responding. I find myself drawn there, stopping most mornings on the way to work. It makes a nice beginning to the day.

Ward what a pretty picture you have painted for my mind.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

These little plants are really full of blooms and the hummingbirds are loving them. I am also rooting some. I messed up on the first ones I tried to root and had to start over. The second batch is doing great. I hope to send them to several hummer lovers in a couple of weeks.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

Yes Ward, thanks for your vivid description. Sometimes what you picture in your mind can be even prettier than what you see in person. I'm sure both are beautiful.

Joan Garvey - Metairie, LA Zone 9

That is a nice David Verity, once they get rolling they are something.

That is often true Joan. As a forum member who doesn't even own a camera it is mostly a hopeless task to get the gardens into words. You don't want to say too much and whatever gets said is never enough. Pictures often aren't much better either since time is always running through the garden and cameras have no shutter speed for that.

Same things are blooming as last month nothing new Im afraid. One of my greggi stampede series looks like it is two different plants it has spread that much with plenty of blooms , a fact that hasnt been lost on my hummers. Also they use every plant in bloom, except I have not seen them on my monarda. I am a bit dissatisfied with most of regular salvia, bloom wise , but it is still early. For example I only have 10 or less blooms on 3 black and blue , but I have to say my subrotunda are doing very well. Jap beetles have not hit as yet, knock on wood. Also I hope everyone that has stans cherry chief plants are doing as well as mine, loads of blooms on each plant. Also the tutti fruitti stems are now 3ft tall and I assume will go taller the small buds turning into larger flowers, still no blooms yet on my wintersowed b and b seeds, but they look lush and healthy so far.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

Yesterday, July 4th, my first Silene regia 'Prairie Fire' flower opened. I'm in zone 6A, southwestern PA. Looks like I'm just slightly behind Sarah, who's also in Pennsylvania, but in a slightly warmer Zone, 6B. I also have some other unnamed Silene regia plants that are not yet in bloom, but are elongating in growth from their basal rosettes of leaves. I'm hoping they too will be blooming before the end of the month.

I also noticed today that I have my first purple bud on one of my 3 Salvia guaraniticas--not Black and Blue, but the regular species. I'm calling it 'Green and Blue.' I got them this spring as mail order plants from Select Seed.

The Lonicera sempervirens 'Alabama Crimson' looks fantastic, in full bloom, and much nicer than last year, when it was in its first year. I did have that horrible aphid infestation this spring, which ruined all of the early blooms, but it is reblooming now normally, with a vengeance.

Ipomoea luteola is also blooming lightly, but I think it will be a week or two before it starts to really put on a display. The closely related red morning glories that I got as seeds from forum members are still not blooming. The vines look healthy, but they are definitely slower to come into bloom than the I. luteola. For that reason, I would definitely recommend the I. luteola for northern gardeners, if they want to get blooms as early as possible. I'm still looking forward to those other small-flowered morning glories. One of them is supposed to have yellow flowers, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in bloom with the others. I'm also still waiting for my Cypress Vines, and Cardinal Climbers, but not expecting much from them until early August.

Monarda didyma 'Jacob Kline,' a bit past peak, but still quite nice this year.

My 'Profusion' Zinnias are blooming lightly now, and should get better in the next few weeks. My other zinnias weren't planted as seeds until well into June, but I hope they'll be blooming by mid August. They're an old fashioned, taller, single-flowered, mixed color type that I have seen hummingbirds use in the past.

Other flowers in bloom are:
Cuphea micropetala--several blooms
Cuphea llavea 'Flamenco Samba'
Hollyhocks--Reseeders taking over my garden--one in bloom, the rest coming soon
Manettia bicolor--Has been blooming non stop since this spring
Torenia fournierii--Blooming non stop
Impatiens walleriana
Daylilies
Salvia coccinea--pausing, but poised for a heavy flush of blooms
Salvia 'Black and Rouge'
Campsis radicans--sold as 'Flava' but more peachy golden than yellow
Heuchera sanguinea--still sending up fresh flower spikes. I saw a hummingbird briefly sample one.

One lone spike of Kniphofia 'Flamenco' remains, but will soon be gone.
Four O'Clocks are just little seedlings because I planted them so late.
Hostas in bloom--pale lavender flowers, don't know what kind
Mimulus cardinalis--sulked in the 90 degree June heatwave, but starting to recover and put on some green leafy growth.
Passiflora incarnata starting to put on some height up my trellis, but not blooming yet.

Crocosmea Lucifer started up on July 4th. Silene regia is still a week ago. We finally received some rain yesterday followed by damp cloudy weather. All those annuals and tender perennials that had lurked during June are starting their inflationary stage. Stan's Dreamsicle is late as usual, even later. The plants are mostly less than a foot tall, but they finally look poised to jump and evenually they will fill in amoung the Zinnias. I could almost say, "would that the subrotunda and coccinea were as early as the greggii and microphylla". But maybe not, they get to dominate the early garden. They provide a sweet spot for males to lurk in wait for hasty rendezvous.

A couple others I left out, my mimosa tree started blooming a week or so ago and trumpet vine that's growing wild in my fence row along the edge of the field.
Now I don't have any hummingbirds again. Sometimes I wonder if wild plants like trumpet vine draw them away from my yard. Maybe when that quits blooming, they'll come back.
One of my cosmos this year is almost true red with some streaks of orange in it and I have a few red zinnias. I have plenty of red to attract them and plenty of nectar plants to keep them here but no hummingbirds.

Here's my cosmos:

Gorgeous cosmos!

I'm excited to report that my seed grown Canna is starting to form a flowering stalk. So, it is definitely possible to start your cannas from seed and get blooms the same year--even in this northern zone 6A climate. Yippeeeeee!

Silene regia is starting to really come into bloom.

Also, pleased to report that both of my Asarina vines are getting buds. One is Asarina wislizensis, the other I forget the name, but it's one of the more conventional hybrid types--scandens, maybe (?). I'm really looking forward to seeing the A. wislizensis, and will be curious to see if the hummers will use it. It's supposed to form bulbous roots, which can be stored indoors for the winter. If I get enough, I may even share some--but that's counting my bulbs before they're grown!

-Salvia greggii (about 5 different varieties)
-Cuphea 'David Verity'
-Phygelius
-Cuphea micropetala
-Cuphea schumannii
-Cuphea laevis 'Starbrite'
-Penstemon barbatus
-Penstemon mexicale
-Malva sylvestris
-Alcea (Hollyhock)
-Asclepias Silky Gold and Red (our perennial Asclepias did not come back this year!)
-Begonia
-Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' (hummers like this right before Bee Balm blooms)
-Perennial Sweet Pea
-Salvia praeclara (just starting)
-Maltese Cross
-Tecoma
-Lantana
-Nicotiana langsdorffi
-Justicia spicigera (Mexican Honeysuckle)
-Monarda 'Jacob Kline', 'Cambridge Scarlet' & Raspberry Wine
-Salvia guarantica 'Argentine Skies'
-Kniphofia
-Impatiens capensis
-Cuphea schumannii
-Shrimp plant
-Asarina vine
-Salvia 'Hot Lips'
-Stachys coccinea
-Salvia 'California Sunset'
-Stachytarpheta 'Red Compacta'
-Stachytarpheta jamaicensis
-Fuchsia 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt'
-Nicotiana glauca (overwintered)
-Salvia guarantica (species)
-Salvia guarantica 'Black and Blue'
-Salvia urica
-Salvia coccinea (overwintered & purchased)
-Salvia miniata
-Clematis 'Nellie Moser'
-Clematis texensis
-Bouvardia ternifolia (overwintered)
-Pentas
-Sinningia 'Towering Inferno'
-Campanula (several varieties)
-Hosta
-Dicentra formosa
-Heuchera sanguineum
-Digitalis (Foxglove)---several varieties
-Lonicera sempervirens
-Salvia 'Black Cherry'
-Salvia darcyi
-Salvia 'Scarlet Spires'
-Wiegela (several varieties)---variegated with pink flowers always best for hummers
-Silene virginica
-White Silene
-Agastache 'Summer Raspberry'
-Agastache 'Tutti Fruitti'
-Agastache rupestris
-Rodgersia
-Impatiens glandulifera (Policeman's Helmet)





Kathi and Michael Rock
Madison, Wisconsin
Zone 4/5

The first flower has opened on one of my seed grown Cannas. The seeds were collected last year from some 'Species Red' plants in my garden, and planted indoors in late winter/early spring. I had ordered the parent plants from Karchesky Cannas last year, and I did see and even videotaped a hummer on them. I have to say, though, that the Cannas were not their favorite plants. They're still fun, though, and well worth growing.

The flower is not open all the way yet, but it seems a little different from the parent plant. Like the parent, it is small flowered, but something seems different about it--maybe more of a solid red with little or no yellow streaking. It's also not as tall, but maybe it will continue to get taller as the season goes on. There is also a second plant that I hope will soon be blooming. Cool!

So, in case anyone was doubting it, you really can grow your own Cannas from seed in a northern climate and get blooms before frost.