I don't use bird feeders even though I enjoy watching birds. For one thing, they sound like way too much trouble for me—keeping them stocked, cleaning them, cleaning up around them, and so on. For another thing, I keep hearing warnings about feeders spreading diseases among birds. But the main reason I don't use them is we have plenty of birds without them (such as the mourning doves nesting on our front porch at the moment).

Who needs a red plastic feeder filled with sugar water when you have flowers? Hummingbirds love my crocosmia.



This one has its back to me and its beak buried in a crocosmia blossom. They also love honeysuckle and will sample other flowers when these aren't in bloom.

Crocosmias are easy to grow from bulbs and are drought tolerant. Mine is Crocosmia crocosmiiflora, or montbretia, and I've had it for many years. It naturalizes, but it doesn't spread obnoxiously. I see in the Sunset Western Garden Book that you're supposed to provide "a sheltered location and winter mulch" in colder climates, but I never have.