Flower boxes enhance home landscapes and say welcome to visitors. Through careful planning and planting, they can also attract hummingbirds. What do hummingbirds like?
The couple who are designing a new landscape near Charlottesville, VA (plant hardiness zone 7) enjoy bird watching. The third week in April, they noticed ruby-throated hummingbirds in their yard. Because of this presence of "hummers," they decided to hang flower boxes filled with flowers that are attractive to humans and "hummers" alike from their front porch rails.
Finding out what attracts "hummers" is the first step in this project. The Hummingbird Society provides these fundamental starting points for creating a hummingbird-friendly yard or garden. These points also apply to container plantings.
Choose flowering plants for their ability to:
- produce nectar,
- grow well in your particular region, and
- be in bloom when the hummingbirds need them.
Here are other factors to consider:
- Color: Hummingbirds are attracted to red, orange and yellow flowers, with blue as a weak fourth. There are several possible explanations for this color preference in flowers, but there doesn't seem to be one that is clear and definitive.
- Blossom shape: Hummingbirds are partial to nectar contained in long, tubular blossoms. Their long bills reach into these long flowers, and their tongues extend a distance a little longer than beak length. Interestingly, they don't "sip" the nectar using their beaks like straws, but lap it up with their tongues. Most insects cannot reach as far into flowers as hummers can, so tubular flowers are their reliable food sources.
- Nectar volume: The common red-to-orange-flowered Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) produces one of the highest volumes of nectar per blossom known. Some flat flowers like red roses will attract hummers, but they soon leave them because no nectar is present.
- Choosing flower species: Select species and varieties of perennials that grow well in your area and have a history of success in attracting hummingbirds. Supplement these with hummingbird-friendly annuals or tender perennials. Planning container and window boxes takes more research, but results are worthwhile.
- Seeking advice: Ask other gardeners and homeowners in your area who have attracted hummers what tactics they used for success.
These are some of my favorite resources:
- A good book resource is "Hummingbird Gardens" Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbook #163.
- Operation Ruby Throat, accessed through the Hilton Pond Center, is the best source for great pictures, migration tracking, and banding information.
- The Gardener's Idea Book from Proven Winners supplies reliable "plant recipes" for containers that can be adjusted to attract hummingbirds.
©
Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, May 2006. Reproduction without permission prohibited.
