Attracting Hummingbirds With Flowers – 10 Great Flowers To Grow

Attracting hummingbirds to your property by growing certain flowers is a great way to not only help pollinate your plants and vegetables but also get free fun entertainment as well!

Sure, you can set out hummingbird feeders filled with sugar water to help feed these feathered friends. But you can also attract them to your property just by the flowers and plants you grow in your garden.

The best hummingbird flowers feature tubular-shaped blooms and loads of sweet nectar. Flowers that bloom all growing season long are the best to attract the hummingbirds and keep them sticking around.

While hummingbirds seem to be most attracted to red-colored blooms, they will also frequently visit flowers in bright shades of orange, yellow, and purple. Both perennial and annual flowers can attract hummingbirds to your property, so there are loads of options for you to plant.

To create a true hummingbird garden, be sure to plant a variety of flowers so that there are always blooms from spring all the way until late fall. This way, even birds passing through will always have a sweet treat to enjoy!

Using Hummingbird Feeders

There is nothing wrong with using hummingbird feeders. In fact, I usually set out at least a couple each summer. I love to see these tiny flyers take a break on our back deck while they head on to their next spot. (Product Link: Hummingbird Feeders)

However, I prefer to attract these beautiful birds to my vegetable garden using plants. To do this, I like to have all sorts of different flowers growing that are not only attractive to hummingbirds, but provide them with plenty of nectar as well. The flowers also help to draw in butterflies, bees, and other pollinators as well.

With a constant supply of food, hummingbirds might make your home their permanent spot for the summer months. Then you can enjoy watching them all season long! Choose a variety of different flowers that bloom from spring all the way through fall. This way, there will always be a source of food ready and waiting.

If you do end up putting out a hummingbird feeder, make sure to only provide the birds with a mixture of one part sugar with four parts water. Do NOT add red food coloring. It just isn’t needed and can cause issues with the birds.

Now, on to the top 10 flowers I prefer to grow to attract hummingbirds.

10 Great Flowers For Attracting Hummingbirds

#1: Lilacs

One of the first perennial flowers to bloom in the spring is lilacs. These hardy bushes can even live for over 100 years under the right conditions.

Lilac bushes produce blooms for about two weeks during the mid to late spring months. Most varieties feature blooms in shades of purple, but you can also find lilacs with white, pink, or even cream blooms.

No matter what color they come in, lilac blooms are one of the most fragrant and appealing flowers to all sorts of pollinators, including hummingbirds. They are a great source of early food for those hummingbirds making their way North for the summer.

#2: Zinnias – Flowers For Attracting Hummingbirds

Zinnias are one of my absolute favorite flowers to grow in our vegetable garden each year. They come in all sorts of different shades from multicolored to red, orange, yellow, green, purple, pink, and white as well as different bloom shapes and styles.

These annual flowers are extremely easy to grow by seed when planted directly in your garden. They flourish in locations with full sun and well-draining soil but will also grow great in containers.

Even though hummingbirds and other pollinators love zinnia blooms, they also make excellent cut flowers. In fact, the more often you cut zinnia blooms, the more the plants will produce. Just be sure to leave plenty behind for the pollinators to enjoy!

#3: Petunias

What summer front porch isn’t complete without a container or hanging basket loaded down with petunias? This is another annual flower that comes in all sorts of different shades and colors.

Petunia blooms are not only colorful and help to attract hummingbirds, but they are also the perfect trumpet-like shape. A hummingbird can easily hover over a flower and use its long beak and tongue to lap up all the nectar it wants.

Once a petunia bloom starts to fade, cut it off. This will help to keep the plant looking tidy but also encourage it to produce even more blooms for you and the hummingbirds to enjoy.

#4: Lantana – Flowers For Attracting Hummingbirds

This is a relatively newer flower for my vegetable garden roundup, but one that I make sure to include every year now. I just can’t get over the range of colors that each plant provides! Each bloom is like a kaleidoscope of colors.

These bright flowers help to draw in hummingbirds, making it easy for them to feed from their tiny trumpet-shaped blooms. You can find their blooms in a wide range of colors, including red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, white, and all the shades in between.

Lantana plants are both drought and heat-tolerant, making them a great choice for growing in containers, hanging baskets, and flower beds. They continue to bloom long into the growing season, even after other annual flowers have stopped blooming.

#5: Sunflowers

In my humble opinion, it’s not summer until you see the bright yellow, cheerful blooms from sunflowers coming out of your garden. This iconic sunny flower might as well be the official flower of summer if you ask me!

Believe it or not, but the bright petals that surround the sunflower bloom aren’t actual petals at all. They are actually called “ray petal” and their only job is to help attract pollinators like hummingbirds and bees.

The real petals are actually attached to each individual seed that grows in the center of the sunflower head (also called “disc” petals). That is the part that the pollinators feed from.

#6: Daylilies – Flowers For Attracting Hummingbirds

Daylilies are one of the easiest, low-maintenance perennials to grow on your property. They can grow in about any soil type, including pool or nutrient-rich soils.

They can also survive low sunlight conditions as well as drought. AND, they are great flowers for attracting hummingbirds!

Daylilies have a long blooming period, pushing out large flowers in shades of red, orange, pink, yellow, white, and purple. You can also find daylily varieties with a wide range of bloom periods from early season, midseason, late season, and repeated bloomers as well. This provides those hummingbirds with plenty of food from late spring until the first frost.

#7: Snapdragons

Snapdragons will always have a special place in my heart as well as my garden! I can remember being a little child and visiting my late Grandma’s house. She always had snapdragons growing in her small garden, and I was always amazed by their unique and fun hinged blooms.

These flowers, especially taller varieties, feature long flower spikes with multiple blooms growing along them. Each bloom is filled with sweet nectar.

While it might seem difficult for a hummingbird to open up a snapdragon’s bloom, it’s really quite simple. They can easily get their thin beaks in between the petal hinge and lap up all the nectar they want – all while mid-flight.

#8: Phlox – Flowers For Attracting Hummingbirds

You can grow both perennial and annual phlox. While there are over 70 different types of phlox, the two most common types are garden and creeping phlox. Hummingbirds and other pollinators are attracted to the fragrant blooms, but deer and other pests are not. This makes it a great choice for garden spaces that aren’t fenced in.

Garden phlox has more of an upright growth habit and can grow to be as tall as 5 feet. It blooms around mid to late summer.

Creeping phlox (or Moss Phlox) is more of a low-growing, mounding variety. A lot of gardeners like to use creeping phlox as a ground cover since it only gets to be a few inches tall and can produce massive amounts of blooms in spring.

#9: Dahlias

Dahlias are one of the most stunning flowers out there that come in a rainbow of different colors and bloom patterns. Their tubers are planted in early spring, but they bloom in late summer and into fall, making them a great source of nectar as the hummingbirds make their migration south.

Their blooms can grow as small as just a few inches all the way up to a massive 15 inches across! To help encourage more blooms to appear, deadhead spent blooms quickly after they start to fade.

For warmer locations, dahlias can stay in the ground over the winter season. For those of us in the Midwest or Northern climates, you can simply dig up the tubers and store them until the following spring.

#10: Coneflowers – Flowers For Attracting Hummingbirds

Coneflower, also known as Echinacea, is a perennial flower that is native to the United States. It is a favorite amongst bees, butterflies, and songbirds, but hummingbirds also frequent the plant.

Most coneflowers bloom in the midsummer months and continue to push out blooms here and there until the first frost. This long bloom period helps to ensure there is plenty of nectar around for hummingbirds.

Once the plants are done blooming, they can self-seed, helping to ensure you always have these beautiful perennials coming back year after year.

While there are plenty of other flowers out there that are also great for attracting hummingbirds, these are definitely my top ten favorites!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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