We discuss whether bonsais should be encouraged to have flowers.

I have several fall blooming azaleas, which have decided it is fall so they have been coming out with lots of bright red flowers. When I go out to water them every day there are two or three hummingbirds eating away.

If I were to cut the flower buds off before blooming I wouldn't have to put up with the hummingbirds.

Wow!, hummingbirds. I would change them for the magpies we have to deal with here.

I learned in school that hummingbirds drink nectar and polinate flowers. Dont sounds like a problem to me. But for natural reasons, no personal experience. What harm do they do to the trees?

In the rest of the world there are no polinating birds at all. Bonsai enthusiasts around here let all the flowering trees flower.

There is discussion about flowers taking strength away from the growth of the tree so you should not let them flower more than once in three years. Well, maybe. I let them flower and every day cut off the blooms that are finished blooming. I think the tree then doesn't put any energy into seeds, etc., and maybe gets frustrated that it can't produce seeds, so has more flowers to try again. I may be anthropomorphizing a little too much.

The hummingbird sticks its beak way down into the flower and sometimes the branch seems to shake a little, maybe from the hummingbird, maybe from the wind. I don't see anything else it does. If it harms the flower, that would just encourage the tree to produce more flowers. A good thing.