Hummingbirds

By David Alosi, U. C. Master Gardener

Hummingbirds are always welcome visitors to the garden, and many plants encourage them. But as with butterflies, more and more habitat is being removed by human activity.

By planting plants for hummingbirds, we can do our part to contribute to the well being of these birds. Additionally, planting a hummingbird garden is a great experience for children. Hummingbirds eat a lot of insects, their main source of protein.

Napa County has only one full-time native hummingbird: Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna). The male has a red head and throat, and the female has a few patches of red on her throat. A regular summertime resident is Allen's hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin). The males have a red throat and a reddish-brown belly. Other species may be casual visitors to our area in the summer.

Below is a list of some of the hummingbird's favorite plants, including trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and vines.

Agastache (giant hyssop): This plant is a perennial with scented foliage that looks like some salvias. It is available in various colors and is a good addition to a perennial border.

Albizia julibrissin (mimosa, silk tree): Mimosa is a fast-growing tree from Asia. Its pink blossoms are fragrant and filled with nectar, attracting everything from hummingbirds to honeybees to butterflies. Grows best with space for its limbs to reach their full spread.

Aquilegia formosa (Western columbine): Our native columbine has graceful, nodding flowers of red and yellow, blooming in the spring. Its seeds are also attractive to birds. It grows in the shade and is a good addition to a woodland garden.

Buddleia davidii (butterfly bush): Butterfly bush is a woody shrub that comes in several flower colors, including white, pink and purple. It is a staple in both hummingbird and butterfly gardens. The tiny flowers are borne in large spires on arching branches. It needs little water and is best if pruned back hard in late winter.

Campsis (trumpet vine): This old-fashioned vine is a hummingbird favorite with long, orange, tubular flowers. Caution: This vine will take over. Give it room as it can grow to 40 feet, dig under shingles and boards, and send suckers into your flowerbeds. Find a place away from buildings and garden beds, but include this if you can.

Crocosmia crocosmiflora (montbretia): A great bulb for hummingbirds, montbretia will grow in sun or part shade. This bulb with red-orange flowers will spread and naturalize beautifully.

Cuphea ignea (cigar plant): The cigar plant is rather tender, iffy in all but the most southern areas of the United States. It does well in pots that can be kept in a greenhouse all winter, then brought out as container plants after the danger of frost has passed. Alternatively, it can be treated as a summer annual. Its flowers are red and tubular, blooming in summer and fall.

Digitalis purpurea (common foxglove): Foxglove is well known by its genus name, digitalis, because its leaves provide the drug used as a heart stimulant. Nurseries offer hybrids in many colors, such as pink, yellow and purple. Its large flowers make it a favorite of hummingbirds. It is a big and bold biennial, growing to four feet or more and often reseeding.

Fuchsia: There are many, many varieties and colors of fuchsias, in many colors and sizes. Hummingbirds love the flowers.

Heuchera sanguinea (coral bells): This spring-booming evergreen perennial is a favorite in gardens everywhere, and hummingbirds love it, too. It is a neat plant that likes regular water and sun or part shade. The common species is native to Arizona and Mexico.

Hibiscus syriacus (rose of sharon): This deciduous woody shrub has large blossoms that attract hummingbirds. The flowers come in several colors, including white, pink, purple and red.

Ipomoea quamoclit (cypress vine): This summer annual vine has tiny red flowers and delicate, fern-like leaves. It can climb to 20 feet on an arbor. It is a hummingbird favorite that produces hundreds of tubular scarlet flowers.

Justicia brandegeana (shrimp plant): Named for the pinkish or orangeish color of showy bracts that surround its less conspicuous flowers. It often forms a large mass of plants and is usually evergreen in our area. It can suffer in very cold winters.

Kniphofia uvaria (red hot pokers): Common, tough and easy evergreen perennials from South Africa. Flower spikes can range from two to six feet. It will bloom from spring into summer and comes in a variety of colors.

Lantana camara (lantana): Lantana is an excellent evergreen hummingbird shrub that is also attractive to butterflies. It blooms for a long season but is not reliably hardy in our area. The hummingbirds at my house love the variety "Dallas Red," which I recently purchased at a local nursery. Grow lantana in full sun in a large pot that can be moved indoors or into a greenhouse in winter, or grow it as an annual and replace it each spring after frost.

Leonotis leonurus (lion's tail): A big, showy, shrubby perennial with tubular orange flowers that bloom from mid-summer into fall.

Salvia elegans (pineapple sage): One of the last hummingbird plants to bloom each year. It is a major attractant for hummingbirds, as are most of the other salvias, many of which have red flowers.

Salvia guaranitica (giant blue sage): Bearing spikes of blue flowers on stems that reach up to five feet, this salvia, contrary to most, likes some shade and water.

Zauschneria californica (California fuchsia): A very late-blooming California native, this is the end-of season food plant for hummingbirds. It grows in full sun and takes dry conditions. It has gray-green foliage and scarlet flowers and will grow one to two feet tall. Great on sunny hillsides.

Many flowering succulents, such as aloes and echeveria (hen and chicks), are also favored by hummingbirds. You can find a more complete list in Sunset's Western Garden Book and more information at www.hummingbirds.net. Keep in mind that the information on many web sites is not applicable to California.