Hummingbirds are a joy to watch in any garden
My wife, Pam, and my brother-in-law, Eddie, love to feed and watch hummingbirds. I like to watch them, too as they visit flowers and the seven feeders in my garden. So many hummers are buzzing in and out to visit the feeders that it is impossible to get a count, but sometimes there are four on one feeder despite their territorial tendencies to chase each other away.
The hummingbirds we see most often are Anna’s which have a distinctive green back and are hard to miss. These birds hang around all year, unlike many others who may be just visiting while on their way through. We have also observed black-chinned hummers both male and female and they do differ quite a bit in appearance. The male has a distinctive black head, while the female is pretty much all gray.
More recently we had visits by Rufous hummingbirds. The male is somewhat orange in appearance whereas the female has some orange feathers but is more gray than orange. For information to help identify hummingbirds in California see: https://birdwatchinghq.com/hummingbirds-in-california/
I have not been gardening specifically to attract hummingbirds, but some of the flowers I have do attract them. One plant they like is trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), which I planted to shade our lanai on the deck where we enjoy outdoor dinners. I trained it to spread across a redwood lath wall on the west side of the lanai by tying shoots to the lath.
Planting trumpet vine is not for the faint-hearted gardener. It has a reputation as an invasive and aggressive plant. It covered the west side of the lanai in one year and was over the top as well. It has a reputation for growing to 40 or 50 feet. A better choice for my garden would have been the Chinese trumpet vine (Campsis grandiflora), which is a little less vigorous at 30 feet maximum height and easier to keep in bounds. Other choices would have been ‘Crimson Trumpet’ which is a cross between the Chinese and American species or ‘Flamenco’. Both are good choices if you want a less aggressive plant.
Each winter I have to get on a ladder and cut it back which encourages new shoots and blooms the following spring. Trumpet vine only blooms on new wood so pruning is essential to promote flowering. You can’t hurt it by pruning and if you should want to get rid of it, be prepared to dig out all the roots. The one I planted I brought from my old homestead by digging up a shoot that came up from the mother plant. Shoots of this plant will occur in the lawn and areas nearby as the roots are quite invasive. I have shoots coming up in a bed of peonies that is 12 feet away from the mother plant.
I have three perennial red salvias that attract hummingbirds and black and blue salvia (Salvia guaranitica) that they also flock to. There are hundreds of species of Salvia and many are native plants and many will attract insects and hummingbirds. Another plant they like is the Rose of Sharon which has lots of nectar for bees, butterflies and hummers. Even though the flower is not funnel-shaped its openness is easy for insects and hummers to access. Bee Balm (Monarda) is another plant I have grown and it is certain to attract bees and hummers. Azaleas also attract hummingbirds.
Another plant attracting hummers is California Fuschia, Zauschneria califorinica, a heat-loving native Southwestern plant that has gray-green leaves and grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Orangey red, tubular blossoms cover the plant in late summer and early fall and it will attract butterflies and hummingbirds. The previous owner of my home planted a lot of it in my front yard and it just started to bloom in mid-August and will bloom through the fall. Recently I saw a hummingbird feeding on the early blooms.
A flower list for gardening for hummingbirds can be found here: birdwatchinghq.com/hummingbird-flowers. Happy hummingbird gardening.
If you have a gardening-related question you can contact the UC Master Gardeners at 209-953-6112. More information can be found on our website: sjmastergardeners.ucanr.edu/CONTACT_US