How to design a hummingbird garden

I love watching hummingbirds as they fly around my flowers getting nectar.  I have some that perch on the fence behind the red flowers since they are especially fond of red.  I usually pick plants that I know that hummingbirds love. How to design a hummingbird garden?

Here is an article that I found that offers some great ideas

Think vertically when planning your hummingbird garden. Use trellises, trees, garden sheds, or other structures to support climbing vines; add window boxes, wooden tubs, or ceramic pots to create a terraced effect and provide growing places for a variety of plants. Select native plants for your garden.

Designing A Hummingbird Garden

How do you attract hummingbirds to your garden?

Excellent question! I don't do anything to attract them, they just come. To our dry, tree-sparse, deserted spot virtually void of flowers. I'd love to set up a positive habitat for them. Unfortunately many of my flowers are out of bloom since it's been so dry. I'm wondering if they like bougainvillea? But I have 3 and haven't seen them show any special interest there yet.

I'll be interested in hearing more responses from more experienced individuals.

Do hummingbirds like hollyhocks?  Someone mention hollyhocks being edible.  Gee, I never knew that.  We had them when I was a kid and I loved them though I have never grown them.

Some info I found on the internet:

From ourpermaculturelife:

Hollyhock is completely edible – leaves, roots, flowers, seeds – not just an amazing looking flower, common in many cottage gardens. .

From webmd:

Hollyhock is used for pain, stomach ulcers, wound healing, diabetes, and many other conditions

These are the plants that I have that the hummingbirds love:

Blue Sage




Autumn Sage




Turk's Cap

I find that hummingbirds also really love scarlet runner beans. Here is a photo I took maybe thirty minutes ago - there is a hummingbird in there!

Thanks for the native plant demo.  Too often posters on this site, while well meaning, forget native plants are what hummingbirds and bees and butterflies evolved with and are naturally resistant to insect-mold damage and spikes in climate change.

I let nearly everything flower now- the hummingbirds love it. Currently I have coleus flowering to collect the seeds, and they are all over it! I never would have guessed. Thai basil is also a favorite, sage, I even saw them hitting the mint flowers. But the best thing has been the (male) flowering papaya. It is a useless tree to me, since it won't produce any fruit. But the birds prefer it to the feeder, so it stays. Gotta keep them happy and humming!

I notice the hummingbirds around our neck of the woods really like the bee balm (anything Monarda) and the trumpet vine. I just got a coral honeysuckle vine that they're supposed to go after, and I am getting a hardy fuchsia shrub in the mail soon that I'm sure they'll love. The fuchsia isn't native, but I tend toward hardy tropicals in my garden...

They also really love the rose of Sharon...anything in the hibiscus genus and mallow family (while I don't have any holly hock seeds, I am going to plant some rose mallow annuals in the garden). I'm planting a couple of Hibiscus moscheutos around the food forest too, and I hope to catch a glimpse of them there.

I see it!  Lovely and beautiful, thanks.
Gonna plants some of these this summer, if I can.

I've planted heavily for them. The good part is, those same plants are also loved by other pollinators so win-win.

I have natives for them like Monarda spp., etc. but also a good many salvias like 'Black & Bloom', 'Black & Blue', 'Hot Lips', 'Roman Red', as well as Salvia coccinea (Texas red sage, and several other names), cosmos, Tithonia (Mexican sunflower), hanging pot fuschias, Cuphea 'Vermillionaire', an armada of various mint family members, a fair number of succulents (that have to hole up in the cellar for the winters), and even some petunias. They REALLY love those salvias. In late summer, when Tithonia blooms, it attracts EVERYTHING. They also hit the numerous other flower resources.

I winter sowed seeds of Ipomopsis rubra (standing cypress). Fingers crossed they will come up.

I also run several sugar water feeders. However, these are really just supplemental as most of the time they are hitting the flowers...especially those all-season flowering salvias. The feeders are changed frequently...when it's really hot (90F+)...almost daily. Feeders are sterilized and await the next cycling.

I've provided a variety of soft items for nesting...dog hair, wool, down, etc.

I thrifted several table top fountains. They don't need a lot of room and prefer REALLY shallow water especially if it trickles and makes noise.

I drilled holes in a ceramic pie plate and hung it with chains tray-style. I put in bananas, peach skins, whatever will ferment, and a small teaspoon or two of beer and molasses. That is a breeding space for vinegar flies. I've seen hummingbirds hover and fly back and forth over it sucking up flies. You can buy a plastic fly feeder on Amazon for around $30 or so.

I've added extra smaller perches all over the place for hummingbirds. They get used.

After seeing online photos and taking to people who had them build nests on wind chimes and other hanging things on covered porches, I added a good many possibilities under each porch roof. No nests but they are also used as perches.

I've planted plants with hairy/woolly bits in case they are needed for nests. Don't know whether they are used.

Anyway, they figure heavily into our pollinator plantings & habitat  mods here. We're not swamped with hummingbirds like some of you out west, but ours do well.
It's also been great for sparking gardening interest. Some people might not make an effort for bees, but they might for hummingbirds. Whatever works!

And finally, after seeing one too many examples of the non-native Chinese praying mantises preying on hummingbirds, I've started killing every one I see (not Carolina's which are our natives). After the first two years of killing them, I rarely see them any more. Chinese mantises are huge compared to our natives. I've seen them kill and eat small mammals, lizards, birds, toads, frogs, and even each other.

echo minarosa wrote:I've planted heavily for them. The good part is, those same plants are also loved by other pollinators so win-win.

I have natives for them like Monarda spp., etc. but also a good many salvias like 'Black & Bloom', 'Black & Blue', 'Hot Lips', 'Roman Red', as well as Salvia coccinea (Texas red sage, and several other names), cosmos, Tithonia (Mexican sunflower), hanging pot fuschias, Cuphea 'Vermillionaire', an armada of various mint family members, a fair number of succulents (that have to hole up in the cellar for the winters), and even some petunias. They REALLY love those salvias. In late summer, when Tithonia blooms, it attracts EVERYTHING. They also hit the numerous other flower resources.

I winter sowed seeds of Ipomopsis rubra (standing cypress). Fingers crossed they will come up.

I also run several sugar water feeders. However, these are really just supplemental as most of the time they are hitting the flowers...especially those all-season flowering salvias. The feeders are changed frequently...when it's really hot (90F+)...almost daily. Feeders are sterilized and await the next cycling.

I've provided a variety of soft items for nesting...dog hair, wool, down, etc.

I thrifted several table top fountains. They don't need a lot of room and prefer REALLY shallow water especially if it trickles and makes noise.

I drilled holes in a ceramic pie plate and hung it with chains tray-style. I put in bananas, peach skins, whatever will ferment, and a small teaspoon or two of beer and molasses. That is a breeding space for vinegar flies. I've seen hummingbirds hover and fly back and forth over it sucking up flies. You can buy a plastic fly feeder on Amazon for around $30 or so.

I've added extra smaller perches all over the place for hummingbirds. They get used.

After seeing online photos and taking to people who had them build nests on wind chimes and other hanging things on covered porches, I added a good many possibilities under each porch roof. No nests but they are also used as perches.

I've planted plants with hairy/woolly bits in case they are needed for nests. Don't know whether they are used.

Anyway, they figure heavily into our pollinator plantings & habitat  mods here. We're not swamped with hummingbirds like some of you out west, but ours do well.
It's also been great for sparking gardening interest. Some people might not make an effort for bees, but they might for hummingbirds. Whatever works!

And finally, after seeing one too many examples of the non-native Chinese praying mantises preying on hummingbirds, I've started killing every one I see (not Carolina's which are our natives). After the first two years of killing them, I rarely see them any more. Chinese mantises are huge compared to our natives. I've seen them kill and eat small mammals, lizards, birds, toads, frogs, and even each other.

Excellent ideas for attracting those amazing little guys...I'm going to try your ceramic pie plate idea or some variation of it. And I'm definitely going to try and incorporate more perches and water opportunities in the food forest and garden!

Also, glad you mentioned the Chinese praying mantids--I had no idea they preyed on hummingbirds--they are all over my garden.

There are several papers in primary literature about Chinese mantis hummingbird predation. Additionally, there is a European paper dealing with the documentation of MANY species of birds being predated by Chinese mantises. I think I also remember they've been documented in literature preying on birds on all continents except Antarctica. In the three years I've been killing them, Carolina mantises have rebounded within my yard in a huge way.

It's probably a no-no, since they're considered an invasive plant, but they love my butterfly bushes. The bushes bloom all spring and summer.

There is a bush that I think is a lilac bush that blooms from early spring til late fall, and they love that as well. Practically everybody in this end of town has at least one lilac bush.

The neighbors have a small tree (smoke tree?) And that thing was literally swarming with hummingbirds last year. Was awesome.

At one time I provided feeders for them, which they took advantage of, but I'm too busy lately to want to mess with those.

I would dearly love to find a hummingbird nest someday, so I'd know where to look to be able to watch them raise their young. What a cool experience that would be!

Good luck on your hummingbird garden and I hope you attract a whole bunch!

I have left the hyacinth bean (lablab) up, even though it attracts bean beetles, since the bees and hummingbirds are still feeding on it constantly (we are now well into fall and there aren't so many flowers around right now). Highly recommended if you need a crazy climber and pollinator plant!

I love hummingbirds.  We have always had lots of them hang out in our yard.  There favorite seem to be a very old huge trumpet vine, but I would say they like most cup shape flowers, I even saw one check out the zinnias. Last year I had a neat experience. I was weeding my veggie garden. I heard a hummingbird so I stood up and there it was hovering about three feet in front of me. We watched each other for a bit. It seemed just as interested in me as I was in it.  Then it zoomed about its business.  It was a strange and cool experience.

Leonotis leonorus is a native bush around here. When it's flowering (now) there are always a couple of Double-collared Hummingbirds flitting around. This occurrence is recognized in the isiZulu word for the bush: utshwala-bezinyoni. Translation: beer of the birds.

There are a number of other uses for the plant. The leaves can be smoked as a mild sedative or as rolling mix for your cannabis. They can also be brewed into a tea, among other things.

It's an ancient plant, almost sacred to the indigenous folk in South Africa. So if you choose to cultivate it, please be respectful of it's status.