Best Plants for Designing a Hummingbird Garden

Designing a hummingbird garden requires more than a few plants and a nectar feeder, but once you know what you need, it is not that hard. The best plants for designing a hummingbird garden include those that produce flowers that hummingbirds are both attracted to and can feed from, but also plants that work for your garden.

The following are some of the best plants for designing a hummingbird garden because they are easy to grow in many hardiness zones and can survive a wide range of growing conditions.

Foxglove
Foxglove is well suited to a hummingbird garden because of the long tubular shape that the many flowers of the foxglove plant has on each stalk. This shape makes it easy for the hummingbird to float between each flower and feed on the nectar. Foxglove is best suited to prairie and woodland habitats as it grows easily in full or partial shade.

Salvias
Even a single salvia plant is able to attract a hummingbird that may be flying through the neighborhood. This popular plant should be planted in full sun, in a pot or near a source of water which we keep any hummingbirds around for longer and attract more than one. Because salvias are very hardy and full of countless flowers on each stem, make sure to plant them in the mid or foreground of any garden and give them plenty of space to spread out.

Cleome
Cleome has experienced an increase in popularity lately due to both its beautiful and unique bloom, but also its hardiness. I have included it in this guide partly because of this, but also because it is one of the few flowers that hummingbirds love, that is able to grow well across so many hardy zones. Cleome can be planted in zones two to ten and survive in either full sun or partial shade. Like Columbine, the flowers are showy and delicate, but the large blooms are exactly what the hummingbird is attracted to.

Geranium

Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, so flowers that are a shade of red are great for attracting the birds to your garden. Certain species of geranium are great to add to your garden, especially when they have a red flower, because they add a nice compact border to what my be an otherwise high growing garden, but also because geraniums have several and season lasting blooms.

Penstemon

Penstemon is a flower that most gardeners are not familiar with, but do well in full sun where other plants might have a hard time growing. Like salvia, penstemon has long tubular flowers on broad spikes, only penstemon creeps across the ground in addition to growing up. The color and growth adds a whole new dimension to any garden and hummingbirds love the color and shape of the flowers.

Other Flowers

There are countless flowers that hummingbirds find attractive and are able to extract nectar from, but the ones I already mentioned are among my favorite and some of the easiest to grow in most zones and conditions. Depending on your own garden and the hardiness zone you are located in, the following are some flowers that you might want to also consider adding to your garden.

Trumpet vine and fuchsia are two flowers that hummingbirds are known to enjoy, but don't do as well in every garden because of the conditions they require. If you want to add either of these plants make sure you educate yourself on what each plant needs to grow successfully and provide the room for them to spread. I have also found that adding bee balm, calamint and snapdragons every year is a great way to attract the hummingbirds to my garden even though they do not always hang around these plants for as long as they do others.

Happy gardening!