Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden
- • Garlic should be harvested when the leafy tops turn yellow and fall over; air-dry bulbs, remove tops and store bulbs in a cool place.
- • Roses need water and fertilizer to keep blooming through the summer. Watch for pests and diseases and treat as soon as you see trouble.
- • Birdbaths will attract our feathered friends to your backyard so you can enjoy them close-up. Place them a few feet from a bushy shrub to give the birds protection.
- • Zinnias love the heat and will add a rainbow of color to your garden and the deer don’t like them.
- • Fragrant star jasmine is in full bloom right now. Plant one in a semi-shaded spot where you can enjoy its lovely perfume.
Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden
Hummingbirds are some of the most interesting and colorful birds that visit our gardens. The best way to attract hummingbirds to your backyard is by adding a combination of things: feeders, nectar rich flowers and plants and even water misters that hummingbirds love.
It’s fun to watch them drinking from hummingbird feeders, but there’s nothing like seeing them sipping from the flowers in your own garden. They are extremely active birds and will visit hundreds of flowers each day to meet their nutrition requirements.
Many flowers are dependent upon hummingbirds for pollination. Red, a color which is invisible to bees, attracts hummingbirds attention, but they also visit orange and pink flowers. The flowers which they pollinate are tubular, rich in nectar and usually lacking in fragrance.
Some of the annual flowers that hummingbirds like the most are red salvia, snapdragons, petunias and nicotiana. They love fuchsias whose drooping flowers they can reach while hovering beneath them. They also enjoy the flowers of morning glory vines, impatiens and zinnias.
There are many perennials that attract them. In spring they feed on columbines and lupines. In summer there are many good nectar sources for them: lilies, penstemon, summer phlox, cardinal flower, bee balm, hollyhocks, coral bells and day lilies. In late summer they will visit the California fuchsia and Rose of Sharon.
The orange trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, which blooms most of the summer is very popular with hummingbirds. Honeysuckle vines are also well-liked as are red hot poker plants, which send up tall spikes of tubular orange flowers, and the unusual red or pink flowers of Grevillea.
The silk tree or mimosa with its fuzzy pink blossoms is a regular stop on the hummingbirds flight. Butterfly bush and Lavatera also favorites.
The hummingbird garden should have enough open space for hummingbirds to put on their aerial displays. About one fourth of the yard should be shaded, one fourth partially shaded and the rest open to the sun. Choose plants that will provide blossoms throughout the season. Hummingbirds do not use traditional types of birdbaths, but prefer ones that spray a mist or a fountain so they can fly in and out of the spray of water.
Hummingbirds have good memories and will return year after year to an attractive garden. The more plants you have that the hummingbirds like, the more you will be able to enjoy them all season.
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