Create a Hummingbird Garden
Part 2
Plants to Attract and Feed Hummingbirds
Flowers, Perennials
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Bee Balm (Monarda)
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Canna
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Cardinal Flower
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Columbine
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Four-O-Clocks
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Hosta
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Little Cigar
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Lupine
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Penstemon
- Yucca
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Flowers, Annuals
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Beard Tongue (and other penstemons)
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Fire Spike
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Fuchsia
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Impatiens
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Jacobiana
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Jewelweed
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Petunia
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Red Salvia
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Scarlet Sage
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Shrimp Plant
NOTE: Japanese Honeysuckle attracts hummingbirds,
too, but it's an invasive and troublesome exotic species that's no longer
recommended. |
Trees and Shrubs
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Azalea
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Flowering Quince
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Lantana
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Manzanita
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Mimosa
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Red Buckeye (these are large trees, and feed dozens of birds at
once in early spring.)
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Turk's Cap
- Weigela
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Vines
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Coral Honeysuckle
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Cypress Vine
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Morning Glory
- Trumpet Creeper
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| In addition to food sources, convenient perching opportunities
will make your yard more hospitable to hummingbirds, since they spend around
80% of their time sitting on twigs, leaf stems, clotheslines, etc., between
feeding forays and sorties against trespassing rivals. Hummingbirds like
to nest in lilac bushes also. If you locate a feeder near a lilac bush,
they will nest in the lilacs and feed regularly at the feeder.
It is thought that hummers are sensitive to ultraviolet
light. Regardless of that, if you hang a feeder, sooner or later a hummingbird
will come to investigate; it has been conjectured that, in a given year,
not a square meter of the U.S. or southern Canada goes unchecked by hummers
in their relentless quest for food. |
| Here, just for fun, is some human "nectar" for you to
enjoy as you sit and watch your hummingbird friends. Fresh out of the garden!:
Melon Coolers
1-2 cups chunks of frozen, seeded watermelon (muskmelons
and/or honeydew melons will work also, or why not mix all or some of the
above?)
1/2-1 cup of water (enough to thin consistency to milk
shake) Blend.
Melons freeze very well and are ideal for summer shakes.
Melons can be stored easily by cutting them into chunks and freezing them
in zip-lock bags or other freezer containers. If you don't want to seed
watermelons, you don't have to - the seeds will float to the bottom of
the glass.
If you have a juicer, you can juice watermelons, rind
and all, then add the juice to crushed ice instead of water to make it
shake consistency. You can also freeze melon juice. If you juice honeydew
melons or cantaloupe, though, don't add the rinds or seeds to the juicer.
It doesn't matter with watermelons, but other types of melons are better
without rinds or seeds when juiced. |
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