Pomona Valley Audubon -
Create a Hummingbird Garden

Landscaping with plants that attract hummingbirds, gives you the opportunity to watch these fascinating creatures without the need for a feeder or the messy nectar that you must change often.

Hummingbirds are attracted to bright red or orange, tubular flowers. While the tubular shape compliments their bills, they also feed on other types of flowers, as well as other plants that may contain the insects that satisfy their fat and protein needs. They also have very fast metabolisms, and accordingly, need to feed continually during daylight hours. At night, they store food in their crops. While in the winter, or during cold weather, they can lower their metabolisms, and enter a temporary state of dormancy.

Like any other bird garden, you'll want to provide food, water, shelter and nest sites for maximum enjoyment of the birds. Plan to have a constant supply of flowers throughout the year. Talk to your garden shop for suggestions. A yard that offers a mixture of sunny and shady areas is great for attracting hummingbirds. Many of the flowers that attract them grow in sunny beds or borders, while wooded areas provide good nesting sites.

If you'd like to provide a hummingbird friendly bird bath, consider adding a device that produces a fine mist above the bird bath. Hummingbirds are designed for living in the air, and will bathe by repeatedly flying through mist.

Since hummingbirds are territorial, once they find your garden of delights, you'll often see the same bird year after year.

Plants for Attracting Hummingbirds in Southern California

Aesculus californica - California Buckeye

Aquilegia spp. - Columbines

Arbutus menziesii - Madden

Arctostaphylos patula - Greenleaf Manzanita

Arctostaphylos viscida - Whiteleaf Manzanita

Aristolochia californica - California Dutchman's Pipe

Ceanothus cordulatus - Whitethorn Ceanothus

Ceanothus crassifolius - Wild Lilac (Ceanothus)

Lilium spp. - Lilies

Lonicera spp. - Honeysuckle

Mimulus longiflorus - Monkey Flower

Penstemon centranthifolius - Scarlet Bugler

Rhododendron occidentale - Western Azelea

Ribes aureum var. graciilimum - Golden Currant

Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum - Pink Flowering Currant

Ribes speciosum - Fuscia-flowered Gooseberry

Salvia apiana - White Sage

Saliva mellifera - Black Sage

Thistle

Yucca Whipplei - Yucca (Our Lord's Candle)

Additions by Jeffrey A. Caldwell
(PVAS secretary about 1969)
Epilobium canum -- California Fuchsia,
Zauschneria Salvia spathacea -- Hummingbird Sage
These are both great S. California native perennials for hummingbirds.

The showy and not weedy thistle southern California natives are:
Cirsium occidentale var. californicum -- California Thistle and
Cirsium occidentale var. venustum -- Venus Thistle

A friend of mine in Los Altos, Louise G. Blakey, author of Our Hummingbirds, experimented with dozens of species of plants to attract hummingbirds.
Southern California natives in her 20 best species, yet to make your list, include:
Keckiella cordifolia -- a bush Penstemon
Trichostema lanatum -- Woolly Bluecurls
Lavatera assurgentiflora -- Malva Rosa, Island Mallow
Susceptible to snails, great in a hanging basket:
Silene laciniata ssp. major
Many Southern California natives are mentioned as attractive to hummingbirds at: www.laspilitas.com/bird.htm

A couple of the more outstanding of the many choices of southern California natives from that list not yet on your list:
Delphinium cardinale -- Cardinal or Scarlet Larkspur (still found in the Wash on the Pomona College campus in 1970)
Galvezia speciosa -- Showy Island Snapdragon [a bush, very easy to grow]