Plants for Hummingbirds
Showing 49–56 of 88 results
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Lobelia cardinalis Cardinal flower Z 3-9
Ruby, cardinal red tubes with an upper lip split in half and a lower lip like a pixie’s apron encircle the spike from August to October beckon hummingbirds to feed.
OUT OF STOCK
Ruby, cardinal red tubes with an upper lip split in half and a lower lip like a pixie’s apron encircle the spike from August to October beckon hummingbirds to feed.
Size: 3’ x 12”
Care: sun to part shade in fertile, moist soil. Moist soil important
Native: Canada to Texas, Wisconsin native.
Wildlife Value: attracts hummingbirds
Awards: Received England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit & Missouri Botanic Garden Plant of Merit.Tradescant the Younger introduced this to European gardens when he sent it to England in 1637. Offered for sale in Bartram Garden’s 1783 Broadside. Cherokee cured stomach aches, worms, pain, fever, nose bleeds, rheumatism, headaches, colds, croup and syphilis with Lobelia. In 1749 Swedish botanist Peter Kalm wrote that Lobelia had to cure venereal disease, “an infallible art of curing” venereal disease. At the end of a funeral, Meskwaki Indians threw the dried and pulverized plant into the grave. Meskwaki also chopped the roots and secretly put it in the food of “a quarrelsome pair” to make “the pair love each other again.” Grown by Washington at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.
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Lobelia siphilitica ‘Alba’ z 4-8
A striking, erect spike of pure white blossoms opening from bottom up. On top club-shaped buds, below open flowers are trumpet-shaped made of a tube flaring open at the ends with the top of the flare looking like a quarter moon with the circle at the bottom and the lower divided into three, each segment pointed at the ends. Its fresh white blooms stand out in late summer to early fall.
A striking, erect spike of pure white blossoms opening from bottom up. On top club-shaped buds, below open flowers are trumpet-shaped made of a tube flaring open at the ends with the top of the flare looking like a quarter moon with the circle at the bottom and the lower divided into three, each segment pointed at the ends. Its fresh white blooms stand out in late summer to early fall.
Size: 2-3’ x 1-2’
Care: sun to part shade in moist or moist well-drained soil
Native: The blue form of this Lobelia is native from Connecticut to Wyoming, south to Texas then east to Georgia and all states in between. This may be native in the same locations as the species or it may not.
Wildlife Value: Deer resistant, attracts bees, hummingbirds and some butterflies.This white Lobelia is “An albino of occasional occurrence.” Britton, Nathaniel Lord “On the Naming of ‘Forms,’ in the New Jersey Catalogue” Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 17: 121,125. 1890
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Lobelia siphilitica Great lobelia Z 4-9
A striking, erect spike of sky to blueberry-blue blossoms. On top club-shaped buds, below trumpet-shaped, open flowers, made of a tube flaring open with the bottom divided into three, each segment pointed at the ends. From late summer to early fall.
A striking, erect spike of sky to blueberry-blue blossoms. On top club-shaped buds, below trumpet-shaped, open flowers, made of a tube flaring open with the bottom divided into three, each segment pointed at the ends. From late summer to early fall.
Size: 3' x 12"
Care: Full sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
Native: Connecticut to Wyoming, south to Texas then east to Georgia and all states in between.
Wildlife Value: attracts bumble bees, hummingbirds and some butterfliesLobelia is named for Matthias L’Obel (1538-1616) a French expatriate who emigrated to England and became physician to English King James I. Cherokee used the root to treat headaches, stomachaches, worms, nosebleeds, colds and syphilis. 1st collected by Rev. John Banister who moved to colonial Virginia in 1678. A gunman mistakenly shot and killed him while he collected plants. In 1749 Swedish botanist Peter Kalm wrote that Indians used five species of Lobelia to cure venereal disease, having “an infallible art of curing it.” Oneidas considered this good medicine for distemper. Sioux treated bloat, diarrhea and dysentery as well as a love charm by adding powdered root to the food of the intended. Offered for sale in Bartram Garden’s 1783 Broadside, America’s 1st plant catalog.
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Lonicera x brownii ‘Dropmore Scarlet’ Dropmore Scarlet trumpet honeysuckle Z 2-8
Scarlet trumpets for 5 months, hummingbird magnet
Clusters of scarlet trumpets with orange throats bloom repeatedly from July through November
Size: 10-12’ x 2-3’ fast growing
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil. Prune in early spring
Wildlife Value: Hummingbirds love the red trumpet-shaped flowers.Cross of L. sempervirens and L. hirsuta. This long-blooming selection made by Dr. F.L. Skinner at Dropmore Manitoba. Introduced in 1950.
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Lupinus perennis Sun-dial lupin, Old maid’s bonnet, wild pea Z. 4-9
Many flowered blue, pea flowered raceme May-June
OUT OF STOCK
Many flowered blue, pea flowered raceme May-June
Size: 1-2' x 12"
Care: full sun in well drained soil. A legume, so it enriches the soil by adding nitrogen.
Native: Maine to FL, Ontario to MN to Louisiana.
Wildlife Value: Attracts both hummingbirds and butterflies. The only food for larvae of endangered species, Karner Blue butterfly.Lupinus is Latin from Lupus meaning “wolf.” Likely sent from its native Virginia to England by Tradescant the Younger in 1637. Certainly collected by Michaux, late 1700’s. Grown by Jefferson. The Cherokee used this to stop bleeding. The Menominee fattened their horses with this Lupin and made them spirited. They rubbed the plant on themselves to give power to control the horses.
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Mimulus lewisii syn. Erythyranthe lewisii Lewis’ Monkeyflower Z 5-9
Bright rose trumpets with hairy yellow throats, flowers all summer
Blooming for months in summer, flower tubes of rosy-violet flowers with random maroon dots on the throats of the three lower lobes. The center lobe of the three bottom ones is, I call it, “bee-witching” yellow.
Size: 1-2' x 12"
Care: sun in moist to moist well-drained soil
Native: Alaska to California west to Wyoming and Colorado
Wildlife Value: Good bee pollinator, Yellow attracts bees looking for pollen.
Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of MeritFirst collected by Meriwether Lewis on the Lewis & Clark Expedition “on the head springs of the Missouri, at the foot of Portage hill.”
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Monarda bradburyana Eastern beebalm, Bradbury’s Monarda Z. 5-8
Whorls of pale pink hood-shaped petals with dark purple spots, April to June.
OUT OF STOCK
Whorls of pale pink hood-shaped petals with dark purple spots, April to June.
Size: 18-24" x 24"
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Walnut toxicity resistant.
Native: IL west to KS, south from AL to TX
Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies and hummingbirdsNamed for its collector, Englishman Bradbury who searched for plants in central No. America in 1810. In gardens by 1826.
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Monarda didyma ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ Beebalm, Oswego tea
Whorls of scarlet tubes and bracts
Whorls of scarlet tubes and bracts crown 3′ tall, square stems in July and August.
Size: 3-4' x spreading
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Grow in an open location to prevent powdery mildew. Deer resistant. Walnut toxicity resistant.
Native: Upstate NY
Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies and hummingbirdsDidyma refers to paired stamens. Oswego Indians taught colonists how to make tea from the dried leaves. Colonists in turn showed John Bartram who sent Beebalm to Peter Collinson in England, in whose garden it grew in 1744. Widely used during the American Revolution as a substitute for tea. Gertrude Jeykll recommended the cultivated variety ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ in 1908.
