Designing a hummingbird garden really isn’t rocket science. But over the years, my gardens have evolved as I’ve learned how to draw in more regular patrons to the buffet I set out for our local hummingbirds. I’ve come to recognize some critical components that every hummingbird garden should include to create a space attractive to both hummingbirds and humans.
How We got Started..
When my boys were little tykes, I would drag them around to all of my favorite nurseries each spring. To try to keep the trips more exciting, I began having them pick annuals that we would take home to plant in pots. It was great seeing them get excited about picking out their own plants. It was also really interesting to see what they would choose!
Three Year Olds Really can Teach you a Thing or Two!
My youngest son was really drawn to red, a color I rarely used in my garden or pots. He filled his pots with plants that I never would have chosen myself. But as it turned out, I ended up favoring his vivacious, brightly colored pots over my own comparatively boring ones. He actually changed my taste and preference in plants! And he and his brother also ended up changing my main goal of gardening!
The Plant that Started it All!
One year my youngest son picked a small plant that was just foliage. It wasn’t blooming, and had just a few stems around 6 inches tall with thin bluish green leaves. There was nothing about it that seemed very special to me, but my son really liked it, so we bought it. We went ahead and planted it in a large pot with some of the other plants he had picked.
As spring turned to summer, that plant grew quite a bit taller and grew many more stems which began developing flower buds. By the end of July we were thrilled with the beautiful, tall spikes of tubular blooms – and we weren’t the only ones who loved it. As soon as its peach colored flowers began to bloom, a shiny, green hummingbird began stopping by several times each day to sip from all of its flowers. The plant continued to grow more and more flowers and bloomed through fall. And the hummingbird came around more and more often and stayed for longer each time!
I had never had much luck attracting hummingbirds to my garden before, but this plant changed all that! It turned out to be an Agastache (also known as a Hyssop) – a perennial hardy in our zone – and hummingbirds LOVE it!
Our First Garden Bed Dedicated to Wildlife!
We enjoyed having that little hummingbird around so much that we decided to build a large flower bed dedicated to hummingbirds – the start of our “gardening for wildlife” craze! That fall, I moved the hyssop out of the pot and planted it in the ground where I planned to build the hummingbird garden the following spring.
In late winter, I began building the hummingbird garden. In spring, I filled it with plants that I had read were hummingbird favorites. That summer, it became a big hit with our local hummingbirds and we have reliably had hummingbirds as regular visitors in our garden ever since.
What I have Learned about Hummingbird Garden Design
That garden, as well as the rest of the yard, has evolved over the years. I’m constantly trying to make it more inviting to a larger number of hummingbirds. Here are some things I’ve learned about designing a garden that hummingbirds can’t resist:
1. Pick Plants that YOUR Hummingbirds love
This may sound obvious, but just because an article from Texas says hummingbirds love a certain plant, don’t assume that OUR hummingbirds will. You may need to test a number of plants to find the ones that YOUR hummingbirds love. But if you live along the eastern foothills of the Colorado Rockies, your birds will likely prefer the same plants mine do. I added several more Agastaches to my garden, which have proven to be irresistible to the hummingbirds in my area. If you have room for just one plant, that is the one you should choose! This ability to draw in hummingbirds is the main reason Agastache was selected as August’s Practically Perfect Plant! In addition to Agastache, I planted Monarda, Echincacea, Orange Carpet Hummingbird Trumpet, Penstemons, Torch Lilies and a Butterfly Bush. The hummingbirds love them all, but none as much as the Agastache.
2. A Coral Bells, is not a Coral Bells, is not a Coral Bells.
I don’t know why, but color really does make a difference to hummingbirds. I like to use coral bells to provide some nectar for hummingbirds in my shade gardens. But sadly, my all-time favorite coral bells, Citronelle, has white flowers. Hummingbirds show no interest in them, even when they are loaded with flowers. However, Firefly coral bells, with their red flowers, are a completely different story! Talk about picky eaters! When selecting plants for hummingbirds, choose plants with flowers in shades of red, orange or pink.
3. Add Plants YOU love!
To create a garden attractive to hummingbirds, not every plant needs to be a hummingbird favorite. If you want to throw in some plants that they may not love, but you do, go for it! Here’s why you don’t need to pack the garden with nothing but their favorites – hummingbirds are fiercely territorial! You won’t end up having five hummingbirds happily sipping nectar side by side in your garden! Once a hummingbird finds your garden and realizes you have a delicious selection of plants (or even one) it will chase off every other hummingbird that it spots in its territory.
If you have never seen hummingbirds battle over territory, it is pretty wild. They face off high up in the air, then suddenly both nose dive toward the ground sounding like prop planes, then swoop up toward each other. They’ll keep it up until one of them leaves. So you will generally only have one hummingbird in each area of your garden at a time. This leads me to the next recommendation..
4. Spread Out the Hummingbird Garden
If you have room, create several smaller hummingbird gardens spaced apart from each other. This way, you CAN host more than one hummingbird at a time. So rather than build a specific “hummingbird garden” like I originally did, disperse their favorite plants here and there throughout your entire yard. Over the years, my one large hummingbird garden has become less of just a hummingbird garden and instead, the hummingbird favorites have been added all throughout my yard. I feel like this makes it more enjoyable for both the birds and me. This way, I feel free to add plants that I love, such as roses, in the gardens too, yet I know the hummingbirds have more than enough of “their” plants to be happy. Our garden can now host half a dozen hummingbirds at once without their being able to see and feel threatened by the other diners.
5. Pay Attention to Foliage
Remember, these gardens will please the hummingbirds, but they should also please you. To create an aesthetically pleasing design, be careful which plants are placed next to which, because many hummingbird favorites have somewhat similar foliage. A garden can look messy if plants with similar foliage, especially with fine foliage, are planted next to each other. Now, a cluster of the same plant, for example three Agastaches clumped together, can look gorgeous. But a Sunset Agastache with its fine leaves next to something like a Pineleaf Penstemon doesn’t look good in my opinion. To avoid this, plant torch lilies or something with broad leaves next to a fine foliage plant to get nice contrast. I have found that Echinacea next to Agastache makes a beautiful combination both with flowers and foliage.
Enjoy your Hummingbird Garden and the Visitors it Attracts!
In order to draw hummingbirds to your garden, remember: hummingbirds are picky eaters that don’t like to share. Select known plants that they love, in colors that they are attracted to, and spread them out throughout your yard, mixing them up with your own favorite plants! I hope you enjoy gardening for hummingbirds as much as I do, and I hope it ends up motivating you to garden for more types of wildlife that you would like to see in your garden! Let me know what wildlife YOU garden for, and how you draw it in!
– With winter on its way, consider making the season more entertaining by attracting winter wildlife to your garden! Learn more –