BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Container Gardening Attracting Hummingbirds

I have a small patio that has a wide ledge around it. I will be able to put several oblong planters on the ledge and want to attract hummingbirds. Beside my nectar feeder, what plants are best for hummingbirds? I want to be able to capture them with pictures to use as models for my drawings.

Hi Phyllis! Pretty much any red flowering plant which produces nectar will attract hummingbirds, especially if they are trumpet shaped. For smaller containers on your ledge try some bright red petunias or red columbine. Red Salvia is also a good choice, and some of the drawf nasturtium or snapdragon will also do well. Having the hummingbird feeder close by as an added plus, and if there is a place where the hummingbirds can perch while being able to both watch 'their territory' and not be easily seen you will have created the perfect habitat.

Hi Phyllis and Jessica,

If you're considering some small shrubs for your planters, I had great luck attracting hummingbirds with Butterfly Bush. They loved it and you'll get butterflies as well. Also, the scent is lovely. Lantana is another good plant for a container. The birds and butterflies love it and it, too, is sweetly scented.

Jessica, you have some really good ideas, thanks. I did not think of providing some perches for the little birds. Thanks, Helen. I love the Butterfly Bush, but I don't think I will have enough room on the patio railing for that. My patio wall is 5' high and the railing is only 6" wide. I will have to use some planters that are long and narrow and only about 8" deep, so there will not be enough soil for larger plants. I will probably have to just get some smaller plants like lobelia and petunias, salvia, snapdragons (the small ones). I am tempted, though to try the Butterfly Bush.

Hi Phyllis,

You could always put a separate container for the butterfly bush. One about 12 inches or so across should be enough for 1 bush, then stand it in a sunny corner. It would be lovely with the other colorful flowers above it.

I love hummingbirds, they should be here in a few weeks!! No sighting yet though!

I have such pretty flowers on my deck this summer - I picked up two hanging baskets of "millions of blooms" - one yellow and one red. The blooms look like the shape of the flowers on the humming bird feeders. The hummers love the and come around frequently during the day. They also stop by the hibiscus and petunias which are nearby. I just need to water them well each day.

I've also had many hummingbirds at my red Impatiens planters. They do love bee balm and canna, but those are too big for patio planters. As everyone noted, red blossoms with trumpets are the little hummer's favorites. Inexpensive feeders with perches will also attract them. They love to rest while they feed.

We have a hummingbird feeder on our deck, and it attracted hummingbirds throughout the days in the spring. But for the past 6 weeks, they've abandoned it! Is it because it's summertime, and the flowers are blooming? They're getting their nectar from natural sources? (which is better than refined sugar water!).

I love those little birds. We have blue ones and green ones. They sound like a little helicopter when you get close, and seem fearless!

I've put out the hummingbird feeders and they do come around but I decided to try flowers instead. They are still coming and they stop at several places on the deck. I found I couldn't keep the feeders either full or if several days went by, clean. They get grungy looking. When I took them down to clean them, there would be mold. It gets very hot here. I often wondered if the sugar water fermented and if it were hazardous to the hummers.

I had said that I was not going to put out a feeder this year but after I saw the little guys trying to drink from some red silk flowers, I decided to hang one.

I was reading an article on the subject yesterday and it said that you should put out old bananas or fruit peels along with your feeders to draw fruit flies because hummingbirds like to snack on them. That was a new one to me! We have plenty of gnats and tiny biting insects for them to eat without having to put out fruit fly bait.

I hadn't heard of that either, but do know that hummers eat the little insects they find in flowers, and feed them to their nestlings too, so it makes sense to provide some fruit flies on your feeder. I would guess that a simple smear of banana on the feeder would do the trick, it doesn't take much to attract fruit flies!

I know the hummers check out all the flowers sp they may be looking for more than just nectar - interesting. I toss some vege and fruit trimmings over the side of the deck. I notice that they are gone each day - I don't think the fruit flies even have time to arrive.

Angie, I think you are attracting some four legged critters along with your hummingbirds! We got the bright idea to start a compost pile because we were throwing away a smart amount of potato peels, carrot scrapings, etc. that I figured we could make use of rather than tossing them in the landfill. We couldn't figure out why our pile never got any bigger until one night we happened to see a family of possums enjoying the leftovers.

Cute! Bambi and Thumper live in my yard but the birds are also eating what they want. We very well could have possums too. I have one tomato and cannot figure out what is going on with my tomato plant. It looks beautiful but it is not bearing fruit. Perhaps the fertilizer is not right.

The problem may be a lack of bees to pollinate the plants! If you have plenty of flowers on the plants, but no fruit, then pollination could be the problem.

I saw my first Humming bird in 61 yrs ;o) it was feeding off my hanging plant

Well, there are flowers but they disappear and no fruit develops. Perhaps it is pollination. How do I attract bees or do I need to do the fertilizing myself? How do I do that?

Yes thats what it was pollination, I couldn't think of that
Thanks

Yes, the sugar water will ferment and it can harm your hummers. You have to keep your feeders clean and the nectar fresh.

If you live in a hot climate you should change the nectar in your feeders at least every other day.
If you have a lot of hummers, like I do, you won't have to worry about the nectar fermenting because it will be gone in about 30 minutes!
But if you don't live in a warm climate or have a lot of hummers, just fill the feeder 1/4 to 1/2 full and watch to see if the nectar is disappearing.
Hang feeders near trees in shady areas.
Try to get a feeder that has perches. They feel more comfortable with a perch.

The past few days a raccoon has been drinking all the nectar left in our feeder at night. Apparently he shimmies up the pole and is able to tip the feeder and drink it dry. I have reduced the amount of nectar I put in at each refill so there's not very much left at the end of each day. I wish I could catch him or her on video camera. I think it would be hilarious to watch.

The crows did it....... I caught them in the act.

Oh, I'd love to see that! I made a video of my hummers with my digital camera but the quality isn't that great

They are smart critters - raccoons and squirrels. The squirrels are fun to watch. They sit down and ponder the situation. They try one method and if that doesn't work, they try something else. You can see the wheels turning in their head. Raccoons can figure out how to "pick the lock" on the trash can.