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Hummingbirds are a joy to watch and I never tire of seeing them. In the past few years, hummingbirds are becoming more and more of a common sight in our garden, to the point where we see the same two hummingbirds almost every time we spend a little time in the garden.

The tiny birds are magical to watch, and I delight in every hummingbird sighting. My husband, Ron, even spotted a hummingbird nest in the branches of our ash tree this summer. These amazing birds' wings can flap from 15-80 times a second, and their little hearts can beat as many as 1,260 times per minute. Their metabolism is so high that they must consume their own weight in nectar every day.

When it didn't rain for a time, we ran a sprinkler for several hours. Part of this time was spent sitting outside. We were amazed and happy to see our two local hummers flitting in and out of the water spray as if they were playing. After getting wet, they would perch on a nearby shrub or our metal gazebo and shake their tiny wings vigorously. They kept this up for nearly a half hour — making a show better than anything I've seen on TV. Sometimes they "fight" and chase each other away — which also is quite amusing to watch. My husband and I have both been "buzzed" by them and had them hover within a couple of feet of us. Unfortunately I never have a camera ready at the time.

We don't hang hummingbird feeders, as I don't have the patience to mix up solution and clean hummingbird feeders — it is enough to keep up with our own dishes! All we do is plant lots of plants that hummingbirds are attracted to, which is not too difficult as they are all readily available and easy to grow. This makes attracting hummingbirds almost effortless.

What sort of plants attract hummingbirds? Most people know that they are attracted to red flowers, but their palette is quite broad and they can dine on a number of different flowers. We are quite lucky because one of their favorite flowers are the flowers on the trumpet vine — Campsis radicans. We don't grow them personally, but two of our nearby neighbors have huge trumpet vines that bloom profusely (Thanks Rick and Barb!). This of course helps to attract them, and of course, we also grow all sorts of plants they love. Hummingbirds cannot obtain all of their nutritional needs from nectar so they also eat insects and spiders to provide proteins, vitamins and minerals. So please do not spray insecticides and garden organically to have lots of food for the hummers to eat!

The following are lists of plants that will attract hummingbirds. This is not an all-inclusive list, but will be a great beginning. If you plant most of these, you are virtually guaranteed to attract hummingbirds to your yard.

Ildiko Sherman is a local gardener and columnist. Contact her with gardening questions at Ildiko5@earthlink.net or write c/o The Journal, 52 S. Broad St., Middletown, OH 45044.