Hummingbird Plants
Hummingbird feeders are easy to fill and maintain, but it’s also fascinating to observe the small creatures’ feeding behavior around nectar plants. Salvias are irresistible to hummers: Try pineapple sage, with red blooms in early fall, and black-and-blue salvia, with flowers of rich dark-blue throughout summer.
An ideal native hummingbird plant is cardinal flower, a lobelia that flourishes in moist soil in shade or sun and is easily grown statewide. Coral honeysuckle is another outstanding native for hummingbirds.
Small insects and spiders make up at least 50 percent of a hummer’s diet. Put out rotting fruit on a tray and watch hummers hover above to feast on fruit flies.
Unlike butterflies, hummingbirds will dine in the shade on annuals like impatiens. They especially like the orange-flowered native impatiens known as jewelweed or spotted touch-me-not.