Bring the hummingbirds into your garden and keep them happy with a season-long supply of their favorite nectar plants.
Early blooming lungwort is a shade tolerant perennial that provides some of the earliest nectar for these winged beauties.
The bell-shaped flowers of the vigorous Virginia bluebells provide a sea of blue in the spring garden and nectar for both butterflies and hummingbirds.
Our native, non-invasive honeysuckle vines can be used to cover trellis and archways. These repeat blooming vines provide colorful flowers and a source of nectar throughout the season.
Place a pot or two of Black & Blue salvia near your windows, so you can enjoy the frequent visits of your resident hummingbirds.
And include some summer and fall bloomers like bee balm. These plants produce nectar rich flowers, providing late season food to help the hummingbirds on their long fall migration.
A bit more information: Create a hummingbird-friendly environment in your backyard. Include their favorite plants, water, and bugs to eat. Provide sheltered perching spots in shade where they can rest and open sunny areas for flight.
Visit www.melindamyers.com for more gardening tips, videos and more.
About Melinda Myers
Gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has more than 30 years of horticulture experience and is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. She has written over 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening and the Midwest Gardener’s Handbook. She hosts the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment segments which air on over 135 TV and radio stations throughout the U.S. Myers is also the host of the recently released The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series. Melinda writes a regular nationally-syndicated garden column and the “Gardeners’ Questions” newspaper column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Melinda hosted “The Plant Doctor” radio program for over 20 years as well as seven seasons of Great Lakes Gardener on PBS. Melinda has a master’s degree in horticulture, is a certified arborist and was a horticulture instructor with tenure. She’s the recipient of the American Horticultural Society’s B.Y. Morrison Communication Award and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of GWA: The Association for Garden Communicators. Myers’ website, www.MelindaMyers.com, features gardening videos, podcasts, monthly gardening checklists and more.