I can't believe it!!! I stepped outside briefly to take a picture of the little flower cluster that is forming on my Stephanotis and I saw what I thought was either a big moth or circada, since this past week, I have been host to one of those Dog Day circadas (the big guys), who first appeared on one of my tomato plants and then took up residence in my James McFarlane lilac.

And last evening, I had seen this big "bug" or something flit off the balcony. But this morning, I had camera in hand and saw it buzzing around my rail where I have my Hyacinth Bean vine forming pods and a bunch of "volunteer" seedling "Scarlet O'Hara" MGs blooming (no, I didn't plant ANY MGs this year, yet I have a BILLION volunteers that are blooming all over). And it was flitting around those hot pink blooms that are blooming along the rail. Plus my 2 weigelas are doing a rebloom (the "Red Prince" and the "Wine and Roses") and those flowers are supposedly attractants), plus my "Pink Lemonade" honeysuckle has been blooming on and off non-stop and has a bunch of flower clusters on it... PLUS, my "Brandy" wax begonias, with their pink flowers are looking lush... AND my tropical hibiscus (which is hot pink and orange), as well as one of my Oleanders (the "Hardy Red"), have been blooming in full force - all of this along the rail.

So OMG!!!! I really looked at it and saw its little beak!!! It was small (smaller than the ones I had seen when I was in Colorado almost 20 years ago) - maybe about 3.5" tall, and mostly all brown.

I can't believe it!!! All the way up here on the 18th floor - it FOUND my flowers!!!!! I have a bunch of "hummingbird attractants" but never in my life expected ANY hummingbird to get up here. Not THIS far up. And I've never in my life seen any hummingbirds around here in my neighborhood EVER (we're talking >40 years)... although I know they were supposedly here because people around the area (I'm right on the city line to the 'burbs) claim that they've seen them.

But there it was and I stood there like a deer in the headlights and didn't get chance to get a picture before it flew away. But I figure it will be back if it found this.

I know what I'll be planting next year along the rail. Heh.

I mean, I do get interesting things up here like this circada (my place must be an interesting oasis in the middle of the concrete..lol):

But I would think that I would be out of the normal beaten path of hummingbirds. LOL

I could see if it had been windy and it blew up here and took advantage. But we haven't had any wind today and very little over the past week or so.

I hope you don't get too much damage from Charley, I so enjoy your pics.

The one over at my sister's place is a bit too big for the spot where I would put it here, assuming I keep it where I saw the little bugger (which would make sense to do).

And yeah, I hope it isn't too bad here when Charley comes through. We have had so much rain and flooding already since the end of July and the ground is saturated.

Anyway, just HAD to respond to this one...we have hummingbirds out here in sunny socal pretty frequently, but I've just put out a hummingbird feeder about a month ago. I now have a small family of them (4 at last count) who practically live on my balcony. I see them multiple times per day and have learned that--once they get comfy around you--they're actually really chatty. I'd never in my life heard such noises out of those little guys! They are a daily joy (and daily frustration for my cats, who can't get over my plants to get anywhere near them, thank goodness!). So CONGRATS on your new visitor...ENJOY!

(I had read, and seems to be true for me, that hummingbirds especially like the color red...my feeder is red, and they seemed to find it right away. 1/4 c. sugar dissolved in 1 c. of very hot tap water--don't use filtered, they like the minerals, etc.--and they'll eat several times per day!)

Now that I've broken the ice and actually posted, I'm sure you'll hear from me again ;-)...I have a few burning questions...esp. about those lilacs that you seem to grow so well...

I am just up the road from you about 15 miles.
I just wanted to say in our heat here in CA, you really should boil the water, especially if your feeder is facing south.
Welcome!

And as an update, late yesterday afternoon I saw my little hummer AGAIN!!!!!!! Whooooooo hoooooooo!!! And I still didn't get chance to pull out the camera fast enough before it flitted away.

BUT.... I saw what caught its attention - my honeysuckle!! I have a "Pink Lemonade" (one of the "Gold Flame" ones - L. heckrotti) and right when I was about to step outside to put a little feeder out, I saw it hovered right next to one of the honeysuckle side-shoots that has a flower opening on it.

The flowers look like this (I need to upload more recent pictures):

and it has been continuously blooming on all of its new growth since I bought it in May. It has reached the top of its trellis and hit my balcony ceiling, where there are some foot long sideshoots with flowers on the ends, sticking out away from the trellis. And there the little one hovered next to a big flower that is on the end of one of the shoots about 6ft up from the floor.

I know that this honeysuckle is one of the "hummingbird attractants" but I NEVER EVER thought I'd get ANY because I AM up on the 18th floor. I mean, I can see if I was down on lower floors but up in the sky like that????? LOL!!!!

I think it's fair to say that its presence isn't a fluke and it has now started exploring my place and maybe it'll tell its friends. ;-) I expect that my "jungle" is like an oasis in the middle of the concrete desert of my building. But trust me that this is better than pidgeons (and my balcony ended up inadvertantly as a pidgeon nursery with 2 babies who grew up and finally flew away 2 summers ago)!!!!

The very first time I had seen a hummingbird was on a 2-week training course that I took about 20 years ago out in Colorado. The place was one of those retreat facilities and they had a bunch of feeders up and the hummers were swarmed around them all day long - many of them very aggressive, attacking anyone (including we who sat near them for lunch) who came close to the feeders. LOL

But this is the first time in my life seeing them around my neighborhood. I know my sisters think I'm nuts - now that both are in the 'burbs, they have seen them normally.

And if you are interested in my lilacs, just ask away. They have been setting their buds for next year and one of them is starting to get its fall colors (a bit early I might add).

I have a 5 year old honeysuckle that hasn't bloomed since its first year. I moved it to a sunnier spot this year; it grows profusely, still no blooms :~(. I also added a new one to the pot this year, hoping it would stimulate the old one ... it didn't grow either :-( Any clues?

My lilac ... as I think I've mentioned, it got severly stressed last summer, so I really didn't expect it to bloom this year, just survive. However, it has not set buds ... does that mean no lilacs next year, too?

Which brings me to my lilacs. I know a lot of people say it's probably too warm out here for them to thrive, but in a JIC (jump in cart) moment, I took one home from Lowes about a year and a half ago, right after I got my new balcony (Since it was Lowes, I'm not sure what kind of lilac it is). It looked like a sad little stick with just a couple of leaves and one lilac bloom on it when I first got it, and it pretty much stayed that way (sans bloom, once that ran its course) for almost a year, but I didn't have the heart to dig it up...Well, my persistence paid off, I guess, because suddenly this past spring, it grew about 6 inches and leafed out all over the place. I got pretty excited thinking I'd have blooms all over pretty soon. Not so fast. It stayed all green and lush for a couple of months...looked to me like it had budded pretty well, too...but no flowers. Okay...maybe it's too young still and all the energy this season went into the growing and leafing?? But then all the leaves started turning crispy brown just on the tips. That slowly spread to brown all around the edge of almost every leaf. And that slowly turned to yellowed leaf edges along with the brown. It's not dropping any leaves, although some of the leaves seem to be 'cupping'...I can't find any evidence of scale or other bugs...I figure it must have something to do with either watering or fertilizing, but I'm not sure what to do. I had been watering it pretty evenly whenever the soil was dry to the touch, and I fertilized when I first started seeing the yellow creeping in (I think with just a generic Miracle Grow one, but I can't remember for sure)...Also bought some greensand from Gardener's Supply recently and tried sprinkling a little of that around the base. It doesn't seem to be dying, exactly, but it's obviously not healthy...and I'm not sure what to expect in terms of it ever blooming for me.

I also bought another one from Gardener's Supply...A Josee lilac, I believe. A dwarf lilac only expected to grow 3 1/2 to 4ft tall. It's doing much better so far...just a tiny little thing, but MANY blooms all over it right now (and it smells heavenly!) But I'm just starting to see some of the brown tips and leaf cupping on it. I'd like to nip it in the bud (no pun intended!) before it becomes widespread on it. Obviously I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what...

And finally...if and when I do get those issues solved with these guys, what's the deal with pruning them each season? The Josee is supposed to bloom several times throughout the spring/summer, so how do I tell when it's finally done? And out here in CA, what exactly constitutes a 'season'? (I have that same pruning/season question for my roses, if anyone out there has any info there...I should probably check out the Roses Forum for that)

Anyway...thanks in advance for anyone's help with the lilacs...they are one of my very favorites from childhood, so I'm hopeful I can get them happy and healthy here with me. And Jenny, keep the pics coming! You must have the same green thumb my grandma had...she could touch anything with leaves and roots, stick it in dirt, and end up with the most beautiful, lush, healthy plants. Wish it had rubbed off on me!!

Meg - I have another honeysuckle - a "Mandarin" (with orange and yellow blooms) that hasn't bloomed this year. I bought it last year and it overwintered okay this past winter. It actually wasn't blooming when I bought it last year (a PJIC where there was this sale... lol). I'm not sure if it's because it was a baby. Could be and it's still trying to adjust. I don't really have it in the best of spots for sun, but I'll see what it does next year.

Also, my James McFarlane has set buds but my Miss Kim is just now slowly starting to do such, so it might be that you have some time before it'll do that. If anything, they do set some leaf buds as you go into fall.

jflo - good luck with your feeder. It'll probably require patience. LOL I know I've been in this apt. for 10 years and this was a surprise although I had secretly wished for some hummer to blow up here somehow. :-P

Ottersteel - What you describe regarding your leaves is what is happening to my Miss Kim lilac right now. Except that my Missy has been out there for almost 7 years so I've pretty much seen all the extremes that she can go through. For example, the horrid drought summer that we had in 2002 resulted in my Miss Kim completely defoliating by this time that summer.

Ie., it ended up looking like this the summer of 2002:

And later like this:

almost completely leafless by the end of August (it's the shrub on the far right of the picture that looks like a pile of twigs...LOL). By the end of September, it had started leafing out again but by November, we finally got a first frost and it dropped those leaves, which would have been normal for that time of year.

I believe it is heat/water-related as where this is happening on mine is right on the leaves that are just above the aluminum balcony rail and hanging out just over it. The leaves in the back are fine. So I think that despite my watering, there are times when it is just too sunny and hot on them (in this case this year, since we've had a cool summer believe it or not, reflective heat seems to be my problem) and they can't get that water fast enough, especially if they're in containers. And I know mine is pot bound but then I thinned it out last year to compensate. I have noticed that if you look at anti-dessicants like Wilt Pruf, they are often recommended for summer for problems like this as much as for those of us in dry winter climates (and I know California is a dry climate, pretty much year round except during the brief winter rainy season).

There are a few lilacs that they are selling now that can bud with low chill hours. You have to look around for which ones. Chill hours generally mean temps that can range from like 35° F - ~43° F. So if you get some temps in the low or even mid-40s (and I expect you do since pretty much everywhere in the continental U.S. does except maybe the Keys), then there's a chance to get a low-chill hour lilac to set flower buds.