Create a Hummingbird Garden

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Attract hummingbirds to your garden and enjoy their captivating aerial show

It is fascinating to watch hummingbirds dart from one nectar rich plant to another, hovering at each bloom as they feed. It is even more fun to watch several hummingbirds flitting around your garden. If you want to encourage regular visits you will need to supply them with a steady supply of nourishment all season long. And to encourage several of them to stay you need to give them a safe place to live.

Provide Nourishment

Hummingbirds need an enormous amount of nourishment to support constant motion and wings that beat so fast they hum, about 80 times per second! They need to eat half their body weight every day, visiting as many as a thousand to two thousand flowers each day. So you will want to provide as many nectar rich blooms as you can.

  • Tubular flowers hold the most nectar, and when brightly colored will be the most attractive to hummingbirds. Their long slim beaks and tongues with grooved tips are ideally suited to reaching nectar in tubular blooms.

  • Red and orange are most attractive to hummingbirds.

  • Provide a variety of blooms for food.

  • Native plants provide more nectar than hybrids.

  • Include late season blooms to keep hummingbirds and their fledgling fed all year.

  • Find out when hummingbirds typically arrive and leave your area. Hang your feeders a couple of weeks prior and leave them out a couple of weeks after you see the last hummingbird feed. Feeders are important during these early and late periods when blooms are scarce and birds are migrating.

  • Always only use boiled white sugar water in feeders. Hang it in the shade so it doesn’t ferment. Clean the feeders out with vinegar water every week and fill with fresh sugar water.

  • Hummingbirds add to their protein intake with insects. They are skilled aerial hunters, snatching insects on the fly. So don’t use pesticides in your habitat. They will also snatch insects from spider webs. Young birds still in the nest are fed insects almost exclusively.

Create a Habitat

There are specific things that hummingbirds need and enjoy, but none of it is difficult to provide for them. In addition to blooms to attract them, certain things will make them feel safe and secure and happy to stay.

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  • Hummingbirds will enjoy perching and nesting in layers of vegetation up to about ten feet off the ground. Offer tiers of herbs, shrubs and small trees. Some hummingbirds will prefer to be hidden in protective spaces, some more territorial hummingbirds will want to perch in the open to keep an eye on their territory.

  • Shrubs and trees around the outer areas of your property are ideal for nesting.

  • Hummingbirds love a gentle spray of water always available. They enjoy being able to fly though a water spritz to bathe. You may have noticed what seem to be decorative little garden fountain sprinklers. These are ideal for hummingbirds.

  • If you install hummingbird feeders, remember that bright colors, especially red, will attract them. If your feeders do not have red on them, never dye the water red, which may be harmful to the birds. Just hang a red tag or affix a red label to attract them.

  • Feeders should be hung far enough apart so that the hummingbirds cannot see each other. This will help prevent a territorial bird from dominating.

  • Plant your nectar rich flowers spaced out enough to allow the hummingbirds to hover without interference and flit easily from flower to flower.

  • Include insect pollinated plants to attract additional insect food supply.

  • Encourage neighbors to provide food and habitat. A large area of habitat is more inviting.

Best Plants to Attract Hummingbirds

As already mentioned, be sure to provide a variety of plants not only for food but for shade, shelter, perching and secure nesting. Shrubs and small trees, especially natives and flowering will be most attractive to hummingbirds. Think “tiers” for several options. But most of our focus should be on filling the enormous need for nourishment. And that means nectar rich flowers.

Perennials

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  • Beard Tongue, Penstemon

  • Bee balm, Monarda

  • Cardinal Flower, Lobelia cardinalis

  • Catmint, Nepata

  • Columbine, Aquilegia

  • Daylily

  • Delphinium

  • Foxglove, Digitalis

  • Hollyhock

  • Lupine

  • Sages

  • Trumpet Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens

  • Verbena

Annuals

  • Cleome

  • Impatiens

  • Petunia

Shrubs

  • Azalea

  • Butterfly Bush, Buddleia

  • Rhododendron

  • Weigela

And of course, Butterflies, pollinators and other birds will also be attracted to your gardens! Enjoy the show.

Sharon Dwyer