Hummingbird Season

Create a hummingbird haven

By Amy McDowell

Faeries must’ve come into garden lore in part, at least, because of tiny hummingbirds and their graceful acrobatic flight. Tinkerbell’s nimble flight patterns and ability to hover must have originated with hummingbirds. Perhaps there’s even some genetic link between hummingbirds and faeries.

Attract these charming flying jewels to your garden and you will forever be enchanted.

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe

Mixing up a batch of fresh nectar is quick and simple. Stir one cup of sugar into four cups warm water. Boiling is not necessary, honestly.

Flying-saucer-shaped feeders are the best because they are the easiest to clean. The top and bottom discs snap together, and there isn’t a narrow bottleneck to scrub. Once every three to seven days, dump out the old nectar, wash the feeder with warm soapy water, and refill it with fresh nectar. The whole process takes no more than five minutes, and you’ll be rewarded for your effort with frequent visits from the tiny beauties.

Hang several feeders around your home. Male hummingbirds are territorial and will chase others away from a feeder. Although they feed throughout the day, I notice more activity in the evenings.

A blooming garden adds a buffet of natural flower nectar to the hummingbird diet. Here are lists of annuals, perennials and woody shrubs and vines that hummingbirds would love to find in your garden.

Annual hummingbird nectar plants

Four o’clock (Mirabilis), Dahlia, Gladioli, Fuschia, Impatiens, Nasturtium, Petunia, snapdragon, spider flower (Cleome), sweet William (Dianthus), Nicotiana, and Zinnias. Annual vines include morning glory (Ipomoea) and scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus).

Perennial hummingbird nectar plants

   

Monarda, bleeding heart (Dicentra), butterfly weed (Asclepias), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), ajuga, columbine (Aquilegia), coral bells (Heuchera), Delphinium, foxglove, Penstemon, garden phlox, red-hot poker (Kniphofia), salvia and hosta.

Shrubs and vines that attract hummingbirds

Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), honeysuckle (Lonicera), azaleas, beauty bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis), butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii), coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus), lilac (Syringa), quince (Chaenomeles japonica), rose of sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) and Weigela.

Ooooh lookey there!

Focal Points in the Garden

By Amy McDowell

The idea of creating focal points in the garden troubled me for years. I just wanted a garden to goof around in. (And if it looked good, all the better to impress others.) Adding specific focal points sounded like a demanding task. I wondered who’s stuffy idea it was that a garden needs a focal point, anyway.

Then one winter, whiling away the snowy hours with a stack of garden magazines, I noticed something. In the gorgeous glossy garden photos, my eye was always drawn to the single man-made element in the shot. Whether it was a birdbath, a bench or a statue, the photo would not have had the impact if it was just a garden bursting with plants. Playing a game in my mind, I’d picture the garden without the man-made item. I realized that without the “thing,” the garden would’ve never caught my eye. At last, I was beginning to understand how important a focal point can be in a garden.

Scouting out flea markets and antique stores, I bought every cheap milk can, metal watering can and wagon wheel I could get my hands on. Around every turn along the garden path, I’d tuck something in among the flowers. Often, the perennials—iris or goat’s beard or whatever—were so huge that the milk can or wagon wheel nestled into the flowers would nearly disappear. Just enough of it would poke out to create a subtle focal point. Visitors to the garden probably never realized what it was that gave the garden a rustic charm. The man-made elements throughout completed the picture perfect garden.

Anything will work—a pot, urn, sundial, gate, arbor, birdbath, bench, statue, fountain, wagon or antique plow. They say specimen plants can be used as a focal point. Although that sugary pink weeping crabapple tree may steal the show while it’s in bloom, the garden’s focal point may shift as the crabapple blooms fade and a clump of peonies or a climbing rose nearby bursts into color. Dark burgundy foliage on a Japanese maple or a purple smoke bush or the sparkling variegation or lime green foliage of a hosta can be used as focal points. But plants used as focal points are subtle and ever changing. I’m sticking with the simple man-made stuff that adds year-round accent.

Tried and true will reward you

Old-fashioned garden plants

By Amy McDowell

“I’d like to plant some low perennials over here in the shade,” my neighbor said, “but I don’t want any hostas. They’re too old-fashioned—like something my mother and her generation would plant.” Raising my eyebrows, I stammered for a couple of minutes before regaining my composure and coming up with a list of shade perennials for her.

Trends in plant popularity are puzzling. What makes some plants “in” and others “old fashioned”? Hostas are gems in the shade garden and it’s hard to imagine casting them aside as old fashioned. There are countless plants beloved by earlier generations that deserve space in our gardens today.

Twiggy old Hydrangeas (H. arborescens or paniculata) with cantaloupe-sized clusters of blooms are robust, reliable and trouble-free. Along the shady north side of a home or underneath the dense canopy of trees, Hydrangeas bloom faithfully and sucker to form a wide mound. Newer varieties are terrific, but their ancestors shouldn’t be forgotten.

Hedgerows of bridal wreath Spirea (Spiraea x vanhoutei) still frame the back yards of homes in some historic early 1900s Des Moines neighborhoods. Draped with tiny white blooms along graceful arching stems each spring, Spirea are pest-free and easy to love. Straggly in shade but dense and showy in sun, bridal wreath Spirea is great for a privacy planting around a patio.

Just as we disregard some delightful old garden plants, we sometimes trip over our own feet in a rush to snatch up the newest garden center offering. Unproven in our climate, the newest plants on the market can lead to failure and frustration. Daphne ‘Carol Macki’ (D. x burkwoodii), a darling shrub with fragrant white blooms, raged the Des Moines market a dozen years ago. Everyone planted them, and over the winter nearly everyone lost them. Daphne’s popularity fizzled out in a few years, after local gardeners realized she was a no-go for this area.

Every season, plant breeders, growers and garden centers offer new selections. Some become raging successes and some fail. Like anything new on the market, there’s always the possibility you’re buying a lemon. The plants of yesteryear, however, are tried and true and worth consideration anew.