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WIHTBY FREE PRESS, OUTDOOR LIVING, MAY 25, 1988, PAGE A3 The nectarâ.riceh plants will attract hummingbirds By VERONICA COLANGELO One of the special delights of the summer garden is the visitors it brings. For the last few years we have been enjoying the visits of ruby-throated hummingbirds. Feeders are available commercially and hold a sugar-water solution that will attract the hummers. They do like the taste of the liquid offered to them, but this alone is dangerous for the tiny birds. The solution doesn't provide sufficient nourishxnent for them and it has been said that too steady a diet of this could cause a fungus in the hummer's mouth. The other problem with these feeders is that, not only will you get hummingbirds, but you'1l find every wasp in the neighborhood there for dinner as well. The best way te attract hummingbirds is te, plant a garden filled with nectar-rich plants that will keep them coming back. The ruby-throated is the only species of hummingbird that is seen in our part of the country. The aduit male has bright red throat, and bis mate's throat is white. Hummingbirds feed every 10 to 15 minutes from dawn to sunset and consuime more than haîf their 'weight in food and eight finies their weight in water. They have big appetites! The ideal plant has red, orange or pink blooms. The flowers are either large single flowers or Ioosely clustered blossoms that droop. They most often are tubular ones that hold generous reservoirs of nectar. Scent is unimportant to these birds. They depend on sight rather than on smell. Red flowers contrast boldly with green vegetafion and are a. beacon to the hummingbird. The little fledglings soon learn by trial and error to, seek out tubular flowers and te link the color red with food. These littie birds are, in fact, attracted te anything redI. If you're in the garden with a red shirt or hat, it's not uncommon te have a hummer investigate your potential for food! Hummingbirds are territorial and will defend what they perceive to be their area. It is wise te, have several plantings, not necessarily within siglit of one another, in order to encourage a number birds. If you plant only one section for the hummingbirds, the dominant one will likely drive ail the others away. When choosing plant material, try to work it so that there is always something in bloomi for them. The early season favorites of the hummers seeni to be bleeding heart and columbines (equilegia). Petunias and red salvias are good bets a little later on. From early July onward, there are an abundance of flowers that will satisfy hummingbirds. Last year in my garden, several clumps of the perennial lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower) finally matured sufficiently to provide a good show of bright red color and seemed to always have a hummingbird searching for nectar at its blooms. If you want te have the hummingbirds corne a littie cdoser te, you, try hanging baskets of ivy geraniums in the hot pink shade on a deck or under the eaves of the house. These have been a sure bet. Bee balm (monarda), coralbeils, mauve foxgloVe, fuschia, snapdragons and sweet william will ail bring the hummingbirds, too.. Honeysuckle vine, as its name suggests, is a favorite, and if it neyer attracts a hummingbird, no garden should be without one just for the lovely scent! Weigela is a shrub that sports clusters of tubular flowers in late May and early June that you niight want to try. Itfs available in red, maroon and pink. In late summner the orange/red trumpet creeper will also keep the birds *coming. While it's true that hummingbirds seem to.be most frequently attracted to flowers in the red family, they will also visit flowers of other colors if the bloom's shape is right. In My garden, blue delphinium seemed a popular alternative last year when there were few reds in bloom. "1SWEETEST SPRING,"1 was the tulip named May 10 in Ottawa by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, part of the ceremony at the War Museum to commemorate the Canadian liberation of Holland in World War IL. The tulip is the product of cross-hybridization of the single early tulip "Yokohama"' and the triumph "Prominen- ce." It was introdueed by the International Flowerbulb Centre in Hillegom, Holland. .WOODEN PI.'CNIC TABLESi 5 models to choose from: * pressure treated lumber or solid #1 select cedar * standard & folding * 4 or 6 inch boards plus *custom buit models to your specs Bulit to Last!1 " handmade " pre assembled " zinc-plated screws MV RT LE PRODUCT FIREE DELIVERY UNTIL JUNE i «ii . 55-5lt 1