May 5, 2025
Grow Your Own Hummingbird Feeder – FLOWERS!
Did you know that hummingbirds are habitual feeders AND can remember food routes year after year? The fact that hummingbirds can recall all of last year’s buffet locations is incredible! And you can invite these tiny, feathered friends to your home by growing your own hummingbird feeders – FLOWERS!
It takes a lot of energy to flap those tiny wings over 70 times per second – that’s more than 4,000 reps for every minute in flight! With that level of energy output, these tiny fliers need to consume as many calories as possible in a timely manner every single day. So, it makes sense that they prefer travelling the same route to find the same flowers rather than spend precious wingbeats searching the city for breakfast. However, if a nearby garden happens to provide a reliable source of food (and water) they’ll gladly add a stopover to their GPS!
Attracting hummingbirds with plants is easy, once you know their preferences. The shape of the bloom is incredibly important – tubular flowers are a perfect fit for their long beaks! Bright colours (especially red), textures, and scents are all very effective methods to bring these humming friends to your home, not to mention the beauty it creates for your own enjoyment!
It is best to choose a sunny location for your homegrown (plant) feeders; if your location is partly shady, try to find a spot that gets the afternoon sun rather than the weaker morning light. Shade that is created from a tree is suitable (we call it “dappled shade” in our industry, as light and energy from the sun can still get through the tree’s canopy) so long as you always have more sun than shade in that area. Remember that hummingbirds are attracted to the flowers, so make sure that you are watering and fertilizing properly.
Annuals (planted every year) will flower all summer long into the fall, which provides food and shelter for our visiting friends. Perennials, hardy vines, and perennial herbs will offer tasty flowers typically for 3 to 6 weeks (depending on the variety) but come back year after year, meaning they’ll quickly become a staple in the hummingbirds’ diets. With perennial types it is best to plant ones with different flowering times – from spring bloomers to summer colour, all the way into fall flowers – to offer delicious meals for as long as possible.
It’s easy to fill your gardens and containers with hummingbird food sources! Some of our favourites are:
Annual: Salvia (especially “Black and Bloom”), Lantana, Cuphea, Petunia, Mini Trailing Petunia (Calibrachoa), Canna Lily, Fuchsia, Snapdragon, Nasturtium, Lophospermum.
Perennial: Anise-Hyssop (Agastache), Columbine (Aquilegia), Butterfly Bush (Buddleia), Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra), Plantain Lily (Hosta), Lupine (Lupinus), Beebalm (Monarda), Beardtongue (Penstemon), Obedient Plant (Physostegia), Perennial Sage (Salvia), Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa)
Perennial Vines: Honeysuckle (Lonicera), Trumpet Vine (Campsis)
Providing your new tiny visitors with a bird bath will also help entice them to your garden – their wings can get sticky with all that pollen and nectar! Also, consider placing a hummingbird feeder or two around your outdoor sitting area or near a window – a great way to catch an even closer glimpse of these fast fliers as they stop by for a meal!
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