Want To Attract Hummingbirds To Your Garden This Summer?
If you want hummingbirds to feel at home in your garden this summer, you need to start now. The seed and garden catalogs have been arriving in the mail, browse through them to find these great hummingbird attracters:
1. . Bee Balm (Monarda Didyma, Oswego Tea)- You can find Bee Balm with red, pink, purple, or white blooms. Hummers love the long narrow tube blooms.
2. Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera Sempervirens)- Not invasive like it’s close cousin the Japanese Honeysuckle, this sun loving plant grows in a rambling vine. Hummingbirds love the mid-spring, long tubular blooms.
3.. Trumpet Creeper (Canpsis Radicans)- Another vining hummingbird favorite.
4. Columbine- One of my favorite shade loving bloomers.
6. Lilies- Produce abundant hummingbird friendly blooms in midsummer. They love full sun, but also do well in partial shade.
7. Gladiolas- Have a great early summer bloom, hummers love to tip their beaks into these beautiful flowers. They’re great in border gardens, and as a bonus they’re beautiful in a flower bouquet.
8. Thistle-Hummingbirds love the blooms on thistle, so let a little corner of your yard go natural to make it more hummingbird friendly.
One great secret to attracting hummingbirds to your garden is to have a constant supply of food. Even though hummingbirds are tiny creatures, they use a huge amount of energy twittering about.
Hummingbirds need to eat almost constantly, find flower varieties to provide blooms all summer long. You may also want to make sure you have a hummingbird feeder tucked in your garden as a backup food source if your hummingbird friends cannot find enough flower nectar.
We have a couple hummingbirds in our garden every summer. They are so fun to watch, when I hear their humming wings my heart stops. I stand very still, and look around to catch a glimpse. They always bring a smile to my face.
Tags: attract-hummingbirds, flowers-to-attract-hummingbirds, hummingbird-garden, hummingbirds, hummingbirds-in-the-garden, planning-a-hummingbird-gardenRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Birds
4 opinions for Want To Attract Hummingbirds To Your Garden This Summer?
Cindy
Jan 17, 2008 at 5:53 am
What a great list. I’d like to add a couple of these to a seating area. We had Hummingbirds outside our rental in Japan. They were tiny. They looked like oversized bumblebees.
Bev Schweigert
Jan 24, 2008 at 3:41 am
I’m definitely going to look into getting a few of these. We have a couple of hummingbirds that visit occasionally but none that stay around for very long…
Bev
Lindy
May 9, 2008 at 3:43 pm
If you’re just beginning your hummingbird garden, you’ve got to include a butterfly bush (zones 5-9)! Don’t let the name fool you. The hummers love it every bit as much as the butterflies!
I planted a Cape Mallow (zones 8-11) a few years ago and discovered that the hummingbirds love that as well. I often see butterflies resting on the branches of this shrub, but I’m not quite sure if they’re attracted to its nectar or they’re just resting. It blooms late Spring through early Winter so it’s just perfect for producing the nectar that the hummers need while they’re visiting! (Although in Southern California we get the hummingbirds all year long, but some do fly through here on their migratory path).
I also supplement their diet with homemade nectar (4 parts water to 1 part white table sugar) and place feeders throughout my garden. The feeders with the perches are great. The perches allow the birds to take their time and “dine” at their leisure.
If you’re interested in adding hand-blown glass hummingbird feeders to your garden, visit the site A1GlassHummingbirdFeeders.com.
The hummingbirds also love running water. So, you might want to include a fountain or birdbath in your hummingbird sanctuary. I’ve installed a birdbath in my garden that has a water spout on top. The hummies love to hover over it to get their drink. They also love to fly through misters. I even have one little guy that enjoys flying through my lawn sprinklers!
Now, go outside and enjoy the sunshine and wildlife!!
debi1344
Jun 24, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I just love my hummingbirds. I use the sugar and water mixture in feeders all over the yard. What amazes me, is how they are not scared of people. They come within inches of me as I sit and watch their beauty. I found that the red colored feeders get most of the attention. I do have problems with ants though. Does anyone have solutions for that?
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: