Do hummingbird uses the petunias?????

Eldon,

It's not that hummingbirds "won't" use petunias, but it's more that there are so many other flowers which contain more, sweeter nectar and thus are more attractive.

Thirty-some years ago, when I first started feeding and watching birds, very little was known about the nectar content of flowers, at least within the birding world. Petunias were widely assumed to be a good plant for attracting hummingbirds because they look like they're the perfect shape for a hummingbird bill and tongue to go into. And they are, usually, but there's precious little reward in them for the work. I can remember planting dozens of red petunias around our patio and then having them ignored once the birds discovered the feeders I also had up.

That's one reason, many years back, that hummingbird enthusiasts and researchers in North America began looking at what sorts of plants the birds used natively. After all, if petunias weren't as attractive as feeders, what sorts of plants did the birds use when there were no feeders? And why? Not surprisingly, the plants they favor in the wild (trumpet creeper, red buckeye, some of the native salvias and honeysuckles, and so forth were found to have much higher sugar content in the nectar than petunias, and much more of it, as well. Nancy Newfield, one of the regular contributors here, has done a lot of work in this area recently. (Regular readers know this but in the interest of full disclosure I'm also one of her assistants in her banding research.)

One view, of course, is that one should have as many "good" nectar-producing plants as possible in one's yard, with staggered blooming periods, to maximize attractiveness to hummingbirds. I won't say that you can go too far with that - it's really a personal choice how much of the yard you devote to hummer plants - but there's nothing inherently wrong, either, with setting aside some of your growing area, pots, etc. for plants you like but which aren't attractive to hummingbirds.

The more space you have, of course, the more likely you can explore lots of options. Those of us with tiny yards have to make every square foot count, so aside from a few hanging baskets on my porch, I wouldn't put petunias in my yard. There are better things I can put in the ground to appeal to birds, hummer and otherwise.

Kevin Morgan
Baton Rouge, LA

Eldon,
I agree with everything that Kevin wrote. I started out years ago planting lots of red petunias only to have them ignored for feeders. Occasionally if I have a basket of petunias hanging up I will have a young juvenile or two check them out and then move on to the salvias or the honeysuckle.

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

Yep, Kevin sets the right tone to this discussion. It is fortunate that so many high quality hummingbirds plants also happen to be beautiful. I grow plenty of other plants myself, but my own choices are based around the bones of the hummingbird garden.

THanks every one for the response.




eldon v