I don’t know what it is about gardening, but I can’t help but get excited when I see a big flower bed bursting in bloom. I recently stopped by my local community garden and found that the hummingbird beds were absolutely alive! Of course, I had to grab my camera and take some pictures.
Most of this garden consists of low-maintenance perennials, but there are also a few annuals that are known to attractive hummingbirds.
At the center of the garden was a very large planting of rudbeckia. I’m not entirely certain which variety this is, but thought it was interesting that each petal was more quill-like. This type is also much taller than many of the other rudbeckia species that I’ve seen available in seed catalogues.
The garden also had a very large planting of this deep purple salvia. Each plant was easily over 3ft. tall. I would absolutely love to know which cultivar this is, but unfortunately, there’s no way to contact someone about it. At one time, I could easily count as many as ten hummingbirds jumping about the plants.
What do you think? Have you ever grown a hummingbird garden before? What did you plant? I’d love to hear all about your experiences down in the comment section below. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit the blog! I hope that you’re having a great day!
The rudbeckia looks like Henry Eilers. I’m growing it for the first time this year. It definitely seems like a good one so far. Would love to know the type of salvia. It looks beautiful.
Henry Eilers Rudbeckia! I’ve always wanted to try that one. Your pictures are so magical. I adore when a garden is bursting like this! I could sit and watch for hours.
Ah I almost forgot! I have grown a hummingbird garden and still have it although it always evolves. So I sort of grew it by accident in terms of the hummingbirds. But what happened was I had started a fairly lengthy red strawberry border (about 16 feet long along a split rail fence. It’s only about 3 feet wide.) And the plants I started with were really strawberries and an itea shrub but then I quickly realized my dog liked to relieve herself there so blah on the strawberries. She just had her preferences for going number 2! So I left the strawberry groundcover (talk about a cheap groundcover) and at the midway point in the border I added into the ground my dark leaved, red blooming canna lilies. I decided no more lugging them in and out (zone 6b) I was letting them take their chance. So that’s a hummingbird magnet! They love the nectar so much on these cannas (“Australia” maybe?) Then I added a couple of clearance lobelia cardinalis and it was the “Queen Victoria” with the dark red leaves I think and BRIGHT red little blooms. So this border was HEATING UP. I started calling it my tropical border of South American border… Then I added some seed annual zinnias. Omg the hummingbirds and butterflies LOVE ❤️ those. This border turned out HOT!!