Four flowers visited by a hummingbird

While I was sitting in our yard just a little while ago, a green hummingbird visited four plants in bloom in our yard. Earlier I had seen a hummingbird — the same bird? — making loops, flying nearly straight up into the air, higher than a nearby three story building, then diving down, making a sharp “bark”-ing sound (like a squeaky door or a dog yelping in pain?) I don’t think I’ve heard before.

First it visited some seep monkey flowers (Erythranthe guttata) growing in one of our wet pots:

I had thought these were done blooming for the year, but after I started being better about keeping the wet pot wet, they’ve burst back into bloom. We got this plant at Oaktown in Berkeley, now with others growing from seed popping up here and there.

Then it visited a sticky monkey flower (Diplacus aurantiacus).

I had also thought this plant was done for the year when a second crop of flowers started appearing. We got this at Heron’s Head Nursery in San Francisco, next to Bay Natives. Here’s a talk on the bacteria and yeast living in monkey flower nectar: Flowers as Islands, a talk by Tadashi Fukami. (If you look very carefully, you may see me in the back.)

Then it visited some California fuchsia (Epilobium canum).

This plant has gotten quite leggy, but I heard somewhere or other that it’s not a good idea to cut it back in the first year after planting. I’ll probably trim it later this year though. We got it at SummerWinds in Palo Alto. I rooted a couple of chunks from it earlier this year just by shoving them into a pot. I think the plants growing from those will have a few flowers soon.

Finally, it visited Hooker’s evening primrose (Oenothera elata ssp. hookeri).

I was surprised to see the hummer visit this one, but it lingered with it a bit so it seemed like it really was getting a drink. (The new “Gradient Canopy” building at Google has some really nice specimens of these primroses.)

This plant is a biennial so I guess it will be dying this year — ephemeral like the flowers that open at night and wilt the next day — but it’s leaving plenty of seeds behind. We got this one from Watershed Nursery in Richmond.

We have another one of these in a different area, also from Watershed, but it got weed wacked by the gardeners so it doesn’t seem set to bloom this year. I wonder if that means it’ll also live an extra year; is it the blooming that kills the plant?

Watching the hummer at work put me into a nice mellow meditative mood. And then I spent a little more time reading a gardening book, “The landscaping ideas of jays” by Judith Larner Lowry of Larner Seeds. A good way to start the day.