Gardening: Hummingbird Gardens

If you have the "gardening bug," but can't seem to make up your mind as to which plants to buy, then why not create a hummingbird garden for your Scotch Plains or Fanwood yard?

Catching a glimpse of these shimmery, colorful birds as they quickly zip this way and that is nothing short of magical. Creating a hummingbird garden is not difficult, and an added bonus to one is that you will most likely attract lovely butterflies as a bonus. Hummingbirds, as well as butterflies, love colorful, tubular flowers that are rich in nectar, especially if they are planted in mass. You should also have a variety of flowers that bloom from May through the September.

During this time of the summer in Scotch Plains and Fanwood, there are many types of perennials, vines, shrubs, and annuals that will provide an excellent feeding ground for these beautiful little creatures. Perennial choices are agastache, monarda, penstemon, butterfly weed, liatris, phlox, crocosmia, hollyhock, delphinium, coral bells, cardinal flower, and hosta. 

If you are thinking about adding a flowering vine to your garden, trumpet creeper, bignonia, and trumpet honeysuckle are excellent choices if you want to attract hummingbirds. 

There are also three larger shrubs that I would heartily recommend: butterfly bush, rose-of-sharon, and weigelia. 

And last, but not least - there are a few essential annuals as well.  Yes, I did say annuals. It is only August and for a small cost, you can still find beautiful annuals that will easily give you eight to ten more weeks of glorious color. Hummingbirds are attracted to the nectar of petunias, lantana, and tubular salvia species.

Another very important aspect to attracting and providing a habitat for hummingbirds is to beware—or better yet—forego the pesticide usage on these plants. Hummingbirds eat small insects for protein (which pesticides will eliminate) and as they drink the nectar from your flowers, they may be ingesting the pesticide as well.

Thinking ahead to next year, you can also plant early season bloomers to get the garden started for the hummingbirds right away. Azaleas and Rhododendrons are good choices, along with Bleeding Hearts and Columbine (Columbine canadensis).

For more gardening information, or to submit our own questions, feel free to email me at tracy@parkerplants.com.

Tracy A. Smith is Scotch Plains-Fanwood Patch's gardening columnist and the general manager at Parker Gardens. Look for her column here every Friday.