Design A Garden That Attracts Hummingbirds

8 July 2015
 Categories: Home & Garden, Blog

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Hummingbirds are like flying jewels with their beautiful, bright colors. No wonder home owners love to attract these gems to their yards. While a hummingbird feeder is a nice start, a hummer garden provides beauty on its own. Plan a garden that's as lovely as the hummingbirds it attracts.

Water Feature

Any time you want to attract birds to your garden, starting with a water feature is a good way to go.  Water features also make a natural focal point for a garden. Either a birdbath or a fountain is an easy addition to the garden. Because hummingbirds are high flyers, consider a tall fountain with multiple levels. As a bonus you get the sound of trickling water and the look of light bouncing off the surface.

Plant Centerpiece

In addition to your water feature, a larger plant makes a pleasing focal point. Butterfly bushes grow to eight feet and produce blooms as much as 12 inches long – perfect for hummingbirds as well as butterflies. The butterfly bush also produces a pleasing scent. An alternative to this plant is a hydrangea, which grows to similar dimensions. Place the butterfly bush or hydrangea far enough from the fountain to include several smaller plants in between.

Striking Shapes

While hummingbirds don't necessarily care about the shape of the flowers you plant, creating a garden that's aesthetically pleasing calls for varying shapes as well as colors. According to Home Garden TV, delphinium, cardinal flower and gayflower are especially attractive to hummingbirds.

Delphinium blooms in early summer with cones of blossom clusters. Cardinal flowers are a tall plant with vibrant red blooms. The showy gayflower produces white, purple or lavender plumes at the top. Place these around the fountain and near the plant centerpiece. Play around with the placement while the plants are still in their containers before you commit to planting them.

Filler Plants

Thus far the plants have been pretty big. Your hummer garden needs some smaller flowers for cohesion. Penstemom, bee balm, butterfly weed, purple dome aster and black-eyed Susan are other hummingbird-friendly plants. Depending on the size of your garden, select a variety of these flowers.

For placement, remember to play around with color and texture. For instance, bee balm in bloom resembles a short cross between gayflower and cardinal flower. Place these on the far side of the fountain as a frame. Purple dome aster produces mounds of small, purple blooms. Consider planting one of these off-center from the fountain or butterfly bush.

Provide a landscape filled with nectar-rich flowers, and you'll soon have a garden visited by flying jewels--hummingbirds.

For more help with landscape design, contact a company like Creative Landscape Designs.