... in the yard, earlier in the week, I was approached by a humming bird. Trimming the blooms on the butterfly bush, to encourage it to make more flowers, long draping blooms with lots of tiny individual flowers on the end of each stem. Something that would obviously be attractive to pollinators with lots of opportunities for a tiny little probe to be inserted, to draw out nectar. Bees, butterflies and hummers with needle-like beak all love it. I was cutting lots of spent blooms off to encourage the plants to make more and continue to invite the wildlife until frost.
I've seen photos of people who hold hummingbird feeders and the birds come up and literally eat out of their hands. But I had never been so close to one of the birds, except on the opposite side of a window. I was out there with my clippers, trimming every other lavender bloom, and a hummer came whizzing up. Hovering about two feet away from me. It was an amazing encounter. Me, barely breathing, and the wee little bird with wings beating so fast you could hear the 'hum', waiting for my next move.
So I immediately went to the garden shop and bought a dozen red salvia plants. I have been planting them around the house for years, and know the hummers find them Very Attractive. But I was trying to not buy/plant annuals, making my investment/focus on things that would re-bloom once established and come back year after year. But when that little bird stared me down: I knew I was remiss in not planting salvia for them to enjoy until cold weather. So I am going out, right now, to plant the salvia, along the edge of the driveway. Putting them in the ground near the butterfly bush and wait for the hummingbirds to find it and squeak out a 'thank you'.
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