How to Design a Hummingbird Garden: Best Plants and Expert Tips

A broad-tailed hummingbird perches on a wire trellis. These fast fliers have long, thin, curved bills suited to sipping nectar from tubular flowers. Credit: Hanna Bradburn/USFWS/Public Domain

Tips for Being a Good Host to Hummingbirds

Simply put, hummingbirds are amazing. Their wings flap up to 70 times per second. Their hearts can beat more than 1,200 times per minute when they fly.

When I started gardening, hummingbirds were not on my mind. In fact, I had never seen a hummingbird on our property, which featured mainly hostas and a few struggling potentillas. Over several seasons, I planted a mixture of perennials, including bleeding hearts and nepeta, with a goal of creating a deer-resistant garden in part shade. Within two years of adding new plants, a pair of hummingbirds were regular visitors to the garden.

They would go back and forth between nearby pine trees and my garden plants, taking moments to rest on the trees before feeding on the blooms around the house. Soon we added feeders by the window to give them extra food and provide us with entertainment.

Whether you garden on a patio or in a yard, there are ways to lure these unique birds to your space. Like other birds, hummingbirds look for three things in a potential home: shelter, food and water.

Hummingbirds build their nests from soft garden debris and spiderwebs, and they feed their chicks insects, so don't be too neat in your garden! Credit: Hannah Schwalbe/NPS/Public Domain

Provide a habitat for hummingbirds in your garden

For shelter, you only need a few nearby shrubs or trees for them to build a nest or to perch. Hummingbirds have tiny nests, about the size of a quarter, which they build using spiderwebs and plant debris like dandelion fluff. Being less tidy around the garden can support their efforts!

Hummingbirds use water to clean sticky nectar and dust from their feathers. They especially love flitting through a fine spray, so adding a fountain to a birdbath can benefit them.

Why hummingbirds need water

Hummingbirds depend on a water source less for hydration — which they achieve through drinking nectar — than for keeping clean. A birdbath with a mister or a fountain can benefit them. You may even see hummingbirds darting through the spray of a sprinkler or your watering wand.

Hummingbirds’ favorite foods

These tips can help make your garden a consistent food source that fuels high-energy hummingbirds:

Use a mixture of flowers and feeders.

Even the best gardens can have a lull in blooms, so adding a couple of hummingbird feeders helps your space remain a constant food source. For my feeders, I use a 4:1 ratio of water to sugar. For many years, it was advised to add red dye to catch the birds’ attention, but this material has not been proven safe for them, and anecdotes from hummingbird rehabbers suggest it has negative effects. So, red dye is best left out. It's not necessary, anyway: Most hummingbird feeders are designed to include red details.

A ruby-throated hummingbird visits a cardinal flower. Credit: Courtney Celley/USFWS/Public Domain

Focus on bright flowers to attract hummingbirds

As implied above, it’s hard for hummingbirds to resist red, as well as orange and hot pink blooms. But while they prefer bright colors, they will also feed on darker flowers. And they’re especially drawn to blooms with tubular shapes, which match their physicality. In return, hummingbirds serve as pollinators for such-flowered plants; pollen sticks to their bills and feathers as they sip nectar from deep within the flower.

Stagger the blooms through time.

Hummers need constant food to maintain their fast-moving lifestyle. As you think about plants to grow, consider their bloom times and look for combinations that will keep the nectar flowing all season long.

Bring hummingbirds up close.

Watching the hummingbirds is half the fun, so add a few annuals and feeders to attract them to the patio or porch. If possible, put the feeders where you can see them from inside. It may take a while for hummingbirds to find your space, but once they do, they will become frequent visitors.

Include plants they can't resist.

A wide range of annuals and perennials will attract hummingbirds, but read on to learn about some of their absolute favorites. Some of these plants are also native species, which support the insect population. Why is this important? Well, hummingbirds don’t just drink nectar; they also rely on protein-rich spiders, flies, ants, caterpillars and other insects for their own survival and to feed to their young.

Watch: Behind the Beneficial Border at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill

Red Velvet bee balm Photo by Jack Coyier

Hummingbird plants for sun

Beebalm (Monarda): These come in many colors, but the red ones are especially popular with hummingbirds. Originating in the lower Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, Monarda didyma is a choice for native gardens. There are many compact varieties with mildew resistance, like Red Velvet beebalm.
Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis): A good perennial with bright red blooms. Like beebalm, which spreads by its roots, cardinal flower can fill a large space after a few years, but through reseeding. It depends on hummingbirds to pollinate its oddly structured flowers, which confound most insects. Cardinal flowers also grow well in part shade. It’s native across much of eastern North America as well as Southern California.
Catmint (Nepeta): From bees to hummingbirds, these low-care plants seem to attract everything. Plus, many catmints have a long bloom time. Classic varieties persist, but recent years have also brought new cultivars like Purple Prelude catmint to garden centers, offering compact size or brighter foliage.
Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens): This woody vine offers long tubular flowers that hummingbirds love. Native to the Eastern United States, this species is not overly aggressive, and it will bloom in part shade. Several cultivars are available.
Sage (Salvia): Science has shown that salvias are true hummingbird magnets. Some are perennial only in certain areas but can be grown as annuals elsewhere. Here are a few top choices:
- Blue sage (Salvia azurea): Although native to the Southern United States, this plant is hardy to USDA Zone 5. It fits well in naturalistic plantings with companions that can support its stems, like tall grasses.
- Anise sage (Salvia guaranitica): This long-blooming South American salvia is hardy to Zone 8. It has various cultivars, like 'Black and Blue', 'Argentina Skies' and 'Amistad' (a hybrid), that have made it a mainstay even in colder climates where it’s treated as an annual.
- Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans): These scarlet red blooms stand out in the late-summer to autumn garden, especially for hummingbirds. Be aware that in colder climates, pineapple sage might not bloom until after the hummingbirds have left for their southern wintering grounds. It’s native to Mexico and Guatemala.

'Pink Diamonds' bleeding heart is a longer-blooming option among this shade-garden favorite. Credit: Walters Gardens

Hummingbird plants for shade

Bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos and Dicentra): Hummingbirds love this group of plants in my shade garden. While the most common species don't bloom for long in spring, the fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia), an Appalachian native, offers an extended bloom period, especially in cool climates. Other good dicentras to grow include 'Luxuriant', 'Pink Diamonds' and 'King of Hearts'.
Hosta: While not the first plant that comes to mind for hummingbirds, some gardeners have reported seeing hummingbirds on their hosta blooms, which possess their preferred tubular shape.
Eastern columbine (Aquilegia canadensis): It's no surprise that hummingbirds like these unique spring flowers, with their cherry red color and hover-friendly posture. This species is native to much of eastern North America. It can reach three feet tall, but there are dwarf forms standing half that size, such as 'Little Lanterns' and 'Corbett'.

Hummingbirds utilize the tiny tubular florets that make up the center of a zinnia flower.

Sunny container plants that hummingbirds love

Zinnia (Zinnia elegans): These annuals come in a range of sizes and colors. The smaller zinnias, like the Profusion series, are perfect for patio pots. Zinnias are fantastic at drawing in birds as well as pollinator insects.
Firecracker plant (Cuphea): This tropical plant does well in a small container. Hummingbirds can't resist the eye-catching color of compact selections like Sweet Talk Deep Pink cuphea.
Texas sage (Salvia coccinea): This smaller, southern-native salvia can do well in areas with limited space. Popular cultivars include 'Lady in Red', Summer Jewel Pink and Summer Jewel Red.
Scarlet sage (Salvia splendens): With a small, dense habit, this Brazilian salvia is a great choice for patios and other small spaces. Plus, those scarlet blooms are a stunning sight.
Lantana (Lantana): The bright colors of tropical lantana are hard to resist, especially the red hybrids. (Invasive Note: Several lantana species are listed as invasive in parts of the southern United States and in Hawaii; see invasiveplantatlas.org.)
Canna lilies (Canna x generalis): Cannas offer a great mix of bright cultivars, including bicolor selections like Red Golden Flame, and they look great in medium to large containers.