The Hummingbird Garden

Garden Oracle / Drought and Heat Tolerant Gardening / Tucson - Phoenix - Arizona - California

The Hummingbird Garden

Plant List

FOOD PLANTS
Culinary Herbs
Fruit, Berries, Nuts
Peppers, Chilies
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Vegetable Calendar Zone 9

ORNAMENTALS
Grasses
Ground Cover
Perennials
Shrubs
Succulents
Trees and Palms
Vines

SPECIALTY GARDENS
Butterfly Garden
Erosion Control
Fragrance Garden
Hedges, Barriers, Screens
Hummingbird Garden
Long Blooming
Winter-Blooming

GARDENING TIPS
Dealing with Critters
Digging Holes for Plants
Fruit: Selection, Cultivation
Garden Bed: Sterilizing
Landscaping
Microclimates
Parasitic Plants
Plant Placement
Selecting Plants
Soil Prep for Vegetables
USDA Hardiness Zones
Planting, Watering, Shrubs, Trees

NURSERIES / SUPPLIES
Online
Phoenix
Tucson

MEETINGS
Phoenix Meetings
Tucson Meetings

Tips for a Successful Hummingbird Garden

Select a combination of garden perennials, shrubs, bushes and trees with hummingbird flowers that bloom throughout the year.

Situate evergreen shrubs and small trees, with horizontal branches, in the garden that create a resting hummingbird hideaway. These should be 25 to 50 feet away from flowering plants with a clear view of the flowers.

Include garden plants that tend to attract many small insects from which hummingbirds can get their daily protein, vitamins and minerals. Small insects and spiders comprise up to half of a hummingbird's diet. These include aphids, whiteflies, ants, mosquitoes and fruit flies.

Avoid spraying pesticides and herbicides in the garden. These will poison hummingbirds. Systemic herbicides show up in flower nectar.

If you feel a pesticide is necessary, grind up two Habanero chili peppers and two garlic bulbs in a blender with one-third cup of water. Strain out the solids and you have a concentrate. Add one-quarter of the concentrate to one gallon of water and spray the plant. This mixture will not harm any bird.

Hummingbirds make their nests using alternating layers of spider webs and cottony plant material. Leave spider webs in the garden for hummingbirds between February 1 and June 1. Kill only very poisonous spiders such as the black window and desert (brown) recluse.

Hummingbirds like misters even more than birdbaths. Clip a mister nozzle on the top of a tall garden shrub pointing straight up. Hummingbirds will fly through the mist, perch on leaves in falling mist, and drink from the water droplets on leaves formed by the mist. To save water, put the mister on a timer that turns on for one hour twice a day. Keep the mister at least six feet off the ground to avoid cats.

See Hummingbird Feeders / Critter Problems

Picture of Bats at a Feeder

Hummingbird Flowers – Hummingbird Plants

Agastache rupestris: Licorice Mint Hyssop
Orange-red, tubular flowers arrayed on spikes, edible.

Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii: Flame Acanthus
Reddish-orange, tubular flowers.

Anisacanthus thurberi: Thurber's Desert Honeysuckle
Orange to red, tubular flowers.

Bignonia capreolata: Crossvine
A climbing vine with showy, colorful flowers.

Chilopsis linearis: Desert Willow
Large, fragrant flowers, purple, pink or white.

Epilobium canum: California Fuchsia
Reddish-orange flowers 1.5" long in clusters.

Eremophila glabra: Emu Bush
Red tubular flowers.

Eremophila hygrophana: Blue Bells / Blue Emu Bush
Blue tubular flowers. Blooms most of year.

Eremophila maculata var maculata: Spotted Emu Bush
Tubular flowers in red and other colors.

Erythrina flabelliformis: Coralbean
Red, tubular flowers, 3" long, in clusters.

Blue Throated Hummingbird: Juvenile Male

Euphorbia lomelii (Pedilanthus macrocarpus): Slipper Plant
Long succulent green stems with slipper-shaped red bracts containing flowers.

Fouquieria splendens: Ocotillo
Very spiny green canes. Orange to red flowers 1" long in clusters at top of canes.

Hesperaloe parviflora: Red Yucca
Reddish tubular flowers, with yellow throats, hang from narrow spikes on stalks up to 6' high.

Justicia californica: Chuparosa
Reddish tubular flowers. Blue-green, succulent-like stems.

Justicia spicigera: Mexican honeysuckle
Clusters of orange, tubular flowers.

Lobelia laxiflora: Mexican Lobelia
Orange-red tubular flowers with yellow throats, 2" long.

Penstemon baccharifolius: Rock Penstemon
Tubular red flowers. One of the easiest Penstemons to grow. Longer blooming.

Penstemon barbatus: Beardlip Penstemon
Red to red-orange tubular flowers arrayed on spikes.

Penstemon eatonii: Firecracker Penstemon
Bright red tubular flowers, 1" long. Blooms on and off from spring into fall, depending on rain. Easy to grow.

Penstemon palmeri: Palmer's Penstemon
Fragrant, light pink to white flowers in clusters.

Penstemon parryi: Parry's Penstemon
Dark pink to magenta tubular flowers with flared lobes.

Penstemon pseudospectabilis: Desert Penstemon
Magenta flowers, 0.75" long in spikes.

Penstemon superbus: Coral Penstemon
Dark pink, red or orange-red flowers, 0.75" long on spikes.

Salvia coccinea: Scarlet Sage
Bright red flowers, repeat blooms most of year.

Salvia elegans: Pineapple Sage
Red or reddish-orange flowers, repeat blooms in alternate years.

Salvia farinacea: Mealycup Sage
Blue flowers arrayed on spikes bloom all year.

Salvia greggii: Autumn Sage
Red flowers, 1" long, repeat blooms most of year.

Tecoma stans: Yellow Bells
Yellow bell-like flowers 2" long.