apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

fuschias! they are so colorful and the cuttings will even survive a winter if placed in a vase on your kitchen windowsill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchsia

Rani, you're in luck. San Francisco is great for growing just about anything. Make sure your window is not north facing, and you can grow tons of flowering plants that attract hummingbirds. Mix it up with both annuals and perennials and you'll have year round color. Assuming you only have room for annuals though (perennials need more space than annuals) here a starter list:

Mountain garland - Clarkia elegans
Four-o'-clock - Mirabilis jalapa
Touch-me-not - Impatiens sp.
Flowering tobacco - Nicotiana alata
Nasturtium - Tropaeolum majus
Petunia - Petunia hybrida
Spider flower - Cleome hasslerana
Zinnia - Zinnia sp.

If you have room for a vine, a trumpet vine or honey suckle is also an excellent option.

Note that hummingbirds are migrating to south america about now, so don't expect many until they come back.

My mother has tons of them each year. She's found that they're not really fussy...they're attracted to any flower; especially anything you'd put in a hanging or balcony basket...but what they really love is what you put in the hummingbird feeders. The feeder is a must. If you don't have a place to hang it you can always stick a stake in your window box and hang it there. It's 3 parts water and 1 part sugar with red food colouring so they can see it. If we don't put it out or it goes rancid they fly around our heads or windows and make dreadful drumming noises with their wings until we replenish it. I live in an urban area and will be hanging one from my balcony this year. Good luck...they're truly beautiful birds.

This summer here in Richmond, VA the hummingbirds went crazy for my Lantana hanging baskets. The flowers are tiny but they seemed to love them and I would see the little birds feeding several times a day.

The thing that really works for us is firecracker bush (Hamelia patens, coccinea, or erecta). It will do well in your climate but will get pretty large for a window box. You'd have to trim it back (tops and roots) every few years to keep it from getting humungo.

Also:
Columbine
Jewel weed
Bee balm
Lobelia
Salvias. Lots of them.
Christmas cacti
Trumpet vine, cross vine (if you can trellis it or maybe wrap it around your window)
Scarlet runner beans (ditto)
Honeysuckle

Anything that has a tube-shaped blossom is probably meant to feed hummers. If it's red, pink or orange, so much the better.

Also worth trying: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/hummingbird/

My mother uses agasthe, and that works really well. Every afternoon in the summer a hummingbird will buzz around our yard

the hummers seems to enjoy my pineapple sage (salvia elegans) flowers. it's a perennial here in the PNW and comes back each year. they don't bloom till sep/oct here but the pretty red flowers attract the birds. good luck :)

Red ones. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red. One got trapped in my house once (open window), and I lured it outside with a red shirt.

The ones my hummingbirds go crazy for is Salvia clevelandii, which is also a native and does well here. When it's blooming, I have three hummingbirds on that bush from dawn to sunset. And it's right by my stairs, but they love it so much they will stay there when we come and go. I almost hate to prune it.

Even though everybody says hummingbirds are most attracted to red, I've found they will only go to my red salvias when the clevelandii is totally occupied with humminbirds or not in bloom (Salvia clevelandii has a purple flower).

bee balm, a red variety...also butterfly bush, which may be too large for a window planter...

When I moved into my house I thought it was charming that the garden was full of humming birds. After they swooped by my head like a speeding bullet a couple of times I found it less charming.

I would LOVE to live somewhere with hummingbirds, good luck!

Yours from rainy England!

The hummingbirds loved my Lantana this year as well, it also attracted a lot of butterflies.

I have quit a few right now just from my feeder, but I am surrounded by four yards with lots of flower. This is a great post. I want to add more flowers, good suggestions.

There is one hummingbird that comes right up to me in the morning not sure if he/she likes the smell of coffee or is attracted to my deep blue Caftan.

I just love them so much.

Kangaroo Paw! They are great plants - and grow pretty much anywhere. My mother (down in San Mateo) has a bunch of hummingbirds and they are still sticking around. Also, a feeder does great as well (you can get a hook that you can stick into a planter if you don't have a place to hang from a overhang).