Creating a garden attractive to hummingbirds is a delightful endeavor for any gardening enthusiast. Hummingbirds are not only mesmerizing to watch with their rapid wingbeats and iridescent feathers, but they also play a crucial role in pollination. One of the best ways to invite these charming birds into your garden is by planting a variety of perennials that offer a consistent and reliable source of nectar.
Perennials are particularly advantageous as they return year after year, providing a sustainable habitat for hummingbirds. Planting Hummingbird Mint, gardeners create wildlife refuges in their backyards.
Its aroma deters deer, while its presence attracts beneficial insects, crafting a harmonious garden. In this guide, we will explore a landscape with attractive hummingbird plants, ensuring your garden with tubular-shaped flowers becomes a vibrant, hummingbird-friendly sanctuary this summer.
Best Perennials for Hummingbirds
1. Phlox
All varieties of phlox attract butterflies of different colors, hummingbirds, and other pollinators to the garden. Bumble bees, along with honey bees, butterflies. This easy-to-grow plant has large, captivating bundles of colorful blooms and the loveliest fragrance. The purple flowers that attract hummingbirds grow upright in clumps and look especially pretty in a mixed border. Phlox can look attractive in larger baskets or containers and appeal to a hummingbird’s appetite.
They are sensitive to drought, so them keep well watered in hot, dry weather. They need little care, although deadheading promptly may result in more phlox flowers later in the season, and dividing every few years will keep the plant healthy and flowering well. Alpine phlox need plenty of sun and well drained soil.
The tea made from dried Phlox leaves is thought to purify blood and to treat skin conditions such as boils or eczema.
2. Native honeysuckle
Hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees love native honeysuckle. Planting it in full sun or partial shade and moist soil will encourage the best flowering. The orange-red, trumpet-shaped flowers appear in clusters amongst the blue-green leaves, which persist through winter in southern states.
Most varieties of honeysuckle, both climbing and shrub, need some light. However, their favorite conditions are where their roots stay in the shady cool, and their foliage and flowers enjoy some sunlight.
Rain is often enough to support healthy growth; an established shrub may not even need to be watered at all, while Honeysuckle is drought tolerant. They will do best in an acid to moderately alkaline soil.
People use honeysuckle for indigestion, bacterial or viral infections, memory, diabetes, common cold.
3. Chuparosa
The tubular flowers of this plant advertise nectar that hummingbirds will enjoy. Chuparosa in the fall or spring in fast-draining soil. This shrub is drought tolerant. During the summer, drier soil causes the plant to stop blooming and drop its leaves. Chuparosa needs 0.8 cups of water every 9 days.
Chuparosa Oil, also called Hummingbird Oil, is a gentle yet effective love drawing oil. It has a sweet, seductive energy, which makes its user utterly irresistible.
4. Goldenrod
Goldenrod’s nectar is an important food source for pollinators. If found near crops, it invites bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to visit the garden.
Goldenrod is easy to grow in full sun and average, dry to medium, well-drained soil. It is a very forgiving plant and tolerates poor, dry soils, clay, and drought. Water new goldenrod plants weekly to maintain damp but not soggy soil. Mature goldenrod plants are drought tolerant and rarely need supplemental watering except when rainfall is scarce.
Studies suggest goldenrod may help reduce inflammation, relieve muscle spasms, fight infections, and lower blood pressure.
5. Beard Tongue
Beardtongue derives its common name from the hairs that line the protruding lower petals of these tubular plants. These hairs serve an interesting function, forcing bees deeper into the flower.
Beardtongue has everything that makes an ideal hummingbird flower: long, tubular blooms (the shape is hard for insects to sip nectar from but easy for hummingbirds), sweet nectar, and a flower spike filled with lots of little blossoms.
This beard tongue tolerates occasional drought and flooding. Allow the soil to dry out between waterings. Over-watering or wet soils can lead to root rot. Beardtongue plants generally do not require heavy fertilization and can thrive in relatively lean soil conditions.
A wet dressing of pounded leaves of large beardtongue to rattlesnake bites is applied.
6. Butterfly Weed
Goldenrods support more butterflies and moths than any other perennial . This plant needs full sun to bloom. Although it prefers sandy soil, butterflyweed grows in almost any type of soil, including gravel or clay, as long as it is well-drained. It is very drought tolerant once established.
You should maintain a moist soil environment for butterfly weed, giving it about one inch of water per week through combined rainfall and irrigation.
It is useful for pleurisy and mild pulmonary edema, as well as for increasing fluid circulation, cilia function, and lymphatic drainage.
7. Cardinal Flower
The Cardinal Flower is named for its thrillingly cardinal-red flowers. The Cardinal Flower gets our bird-friendly seal of approval for attracting hummingbirds because it is an excellent source of nectar for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds from mid-August through October. There is no floral scent. Cardinal flower blooms from July into early fall. They usually flower in the first year.
Cardinal flowers can be grown in full sun or very light shade but probably grow best in filtered light. They need constant moisture and will even tolerate brief flooding. However, Soil should never be allowed to dry out since it occurs naturally in wetlands. Cardinal Flowers grow best in full sun or light shade in hotter climates.
The mashed roots, stems, leaves, and blossoms were made into a decoction and drank for cramps.
8. Columbine
These welcoming plants serve as the first of the wildflowers to provide a meal to our native hummingbirds. The nectar of the red-flowered columbines provides a hummingbird with high sugar content and necessary amino acids.
Columbine flowers grow in full sun to partial shade and need afternoon shade in hotter climates. They grow in shaded woodlands or sunnier rock gardens in moist, well-drained soil and can tolerate a variety of soils like clay, loamy, and sandy. Apply water when the top 1 to 2 inches of soil dries out.
Columbine is an herb. The leaves and stems are used to make medicine. People take columbine for gallbladder disorders, general stomach and intestinal problems, for a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency (scurvy), and rashes, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.
9. Salvia
Salvias are a favorite of hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Their drought-resistant nature and low maintenance make them a perfect choice for an easy-care garden for late summer.
Black & Blue, Black & Bloom, and Amistad salvia are where hummingbirds come to feast in ecstasy and seem to stay until cold weather moves them to the tropics. These are large salvias, 4- to 5-foot tall, with a clump almost as wide.
Most salvias prefer full sun and well-drained soils, but some will bloom well in part shade. Once established, most salvia species are quite drought-tolerant and require little care. Excessive water and fertilizer can increase fungal disease problems for salvias. Most salvias prefer slightly acidic soils.
Traditionally used for the treatment of a range of problems, including digestive and circulation disturbances, bronchitis, coughs, asthma, memory problems, angina, mouth and throat inflammation, depression, and excessive sweating.
Conclusion
Incorporating plants that attract hummingbirds and hoverflies, which are beneficial insects. They are considered the second most important pollinator next to bees. In your garden, it is a rewarding way to support these enchanting creatures while adding vibrant beauty and color to your outdoor space.
By choosing a variety of nectar-rich plants, you ensure a continuous food source throughout the growing season, encouraging hummingbirds to visit and linger in your garden. From the striking blooms of Bee Balm to the towering spikes of Salvia, each plant offers unique benefits and visual appeal.
With proper planting and care, your garden can become a thriving haven for hummingbirds, providing endless enjoyment and contributing to the health of local ecosystems. So, plant these perennials, sit back, and relish the performance of sight of these delightful birds as they bring your garden to life.
