Hummingbird Plants

The bracts start out chartreuse to yellow and quickly begin to take on bronze tones and mature to a deep brick red. A favorite among hummingbirds, the nectar rich, tubular white flowers peak out from between the bracts and have maroon bee guides on the lower lip. The Bicolor Red Shrimp Plant, a selection of Justicia brandeegeana, is a heat loving, naturally evergreen, bushy, tropical plant with dark olive green foliage and grows to about 24" high by about 18" wide. The foliage of these plants may eventually show white and cream variegation as they were propagated from variegated mother plants. The Red Shrimp Plants can be enjoyed both as container plants as specimens or in mixed company as well as in the garden and landscape. It is both full sun and bright shade tolerant but tends to have the densest branching habit where it receives at least 4 hours or more of direct sunlight. Provide an average to well-drained, moderately fertile, average moist soil for optimum vigor and flowering. The Red Shrimp Plant is an RHS Award of Garden Merit winner. Caterpillar host: Cuban Crescent, Texan Crescent, White Peacock, and Malachite. Item# 12909

Conical spikes of deep red, 3" long tubular flowers are produced nearly continuously throughout the growing season on this vigorous and easy to grow shrub to shrub-like perennial. Bidwill's Coral Tree is a hybrid of our native Mamou Bean, Erythrina herbacea, and the tropical Crybaby Tree, Erythrina crista-galli, combining the best features of both parents. It has the cold hardiness of the Mamou and the continuous flowering of the Crybaby and the hummingbirds flock to the intense red tubular flowers. Easy to grow and establish, it is perennial in areas where freezes are common and becomes more shrub-like in zones 9, 10, and 11. Item# 11083

The large sleepy scarlet blooms of 'Big Momma' are held upright on woody stems from late spring to fall or even year round in mild winter climates. This hybrid Greg Grant selection produces a large, vigorous, and free flowering Turk's Cap that revels in the heat and the sun of Southern summers. A hummingbird and butterfly magnet! Item# 1081

Selected at the esteemed Biltmore Estate, Ashville, NC, the summerlong display of 2" wide dangling Chinese lantern-like flowers are a soft yellow-orange heavily overlaid with a strongly contrasting deep red veining. Biltmore Ball Gown Abutilon or Flowering Maple is an exceptionally hardy and reliable upright growing, naturally evergreen shrubby tropical that has proven to be evergreen in mild zone 8 winters but where it is not reliably hardy it makes an easy container plant that can be overwintered indoors near a sunny window. Abutilons are also known as Parlor Maples as this was a reliably flowering indoor plant and a conversation piece. The flowers attract hummingbirds and other garden beneficials. Provide a full sun to partly shaded site in a fertile, average moist soil. Item# 13087

Beautiful, deep blue flowers emerge from spikes of black calyxes on this exquisite perennial Salvia all summer and fall against a backdrop of rich deep green foliage. Black and Blue Salvia, an Anise Sage, is a highly sought after nectar plant for hummingbirds and may also be visited by larger butterflies. This easy and reliable perennial Salvia slowly spreads by rhizomes to create a tall groundcover like effect. Provide a full to mostly sunny position in an average to well-drained moderately fertile soil for maximum vigor and flower production. Item# 808

Noted for its dark chocolate to maroon colored foliage, in summer Black Truffle Lobelia produces tall dark spikes of deep true red tubular flowers that are truly a hummingbird's delight. Combine this beauty with chartreuse elephant ears or other light colored moisture loving plants for a wonderful contrast. Black Truffle Cardinal Flower is a hybrid selection with Lobelia cardinalis parentage which by some accounts is considered to be the most beautiful of North America's red flowered species. Provide consistently moist to wet sites, such as a bog garden, for full sun conditions as well as the deepest foliage coloration. Image courtesy of Plants Nouveau, all rights reserved. Item# 11705

Clusters of 2" long, orange-red, tubular, trumpet-shaped flowers with an orange throats are produced beginning in early spring with and just before the arrival of the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds and may continue sporadically until fall on mature plantings. Blanche Sandman Coral Honeysuckle, a disease resistant and free-flowering selection of the southeastern native Lonicera sempervirens, is an easy, undemanding, non-invasive, semi-evergreen to deciduous twining vine that works well on fences, trellises, and arbors. Clusters of bright clear red, 1/4" diameter, songbird friendly berries are produced after flowering and can be removed to promote new growth and additional flowering. Provide a full to mostly sunny site in a fertile, well-drained, average moist soil for optimum vigor and continuous flowering. Coral Honeysuckle is one of our top recommended vines for attracting hummingbirds who greedily guard the plants from interlopers. Caterpillar host: Chalcedon Checkerspot. Item# 12662

Dense spikes of deep blue tubular flowers are produced from late spring to fall attracting a variety of pollinators including bees, butterflies, and low flying hummingbirds. Blue Bayou Agastache is a small to medium-sized herbaceous perennial with deep green fragrant foliage and excellent flower power. Reminiscent of Black Adder but in a more compact size that is better suited to small to medium sized container gardens as well as a long flowering addition to the sunny garden or landscape. Provide a full to mostly sunny location in a well-drained sandy soil for optimum vigor and flowering as well as the plant's longevity. Image courtesy of Walter's Gardens, Inc., all rights reserved. Item# 13297

This award winning Agastache produces tall spikes of deep purplish blue tubular flowers held on sturdy stems atop rich deep green fragrant foliage. The flower show lasts for an exceptionally long period and begins in early summer with butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds all showing up for the feast. A drought resistant perennial preferring well drained mostly sunny sites, Blue Boa Agastache requires minimal care and provides big rewards. Photo courtesy of TERRA NOVA® Nurseries, Inc. www.terranovanurseries.com. Item# 10918.

Boasting bigger blue and more beautiful whorled clusters of nectar rich tubular flowers in tall wands that extend well above the gray-green foliage and last for weeks in summer. Blue Empire™ Bluebeard or Caryopteris was selected for its noticeably larger and longer lasting clusters of flowers as well as for its nicely compact habit further highlighting the tall candles of flower clusters. In zones 5-6 Bluebeard tends to act more like a clump forming die-back perennial and becomes more shrub-like where winters are milder, although, it benefits from hard late winter or early spring pruning since it flowers on new growth. Somewhat drought resistant once well-established and prefers a sunny site in a well-drained soil for optimum vigor and flowering. Images courtesy of North Creek Nurseries, all rights reserved. Item# 12248

The large, 3-4'' wide, blue to lavender, Hibiscus-like flowers are produced throughout the warmer months of the year to year-round under warm frost free conditions. The Blue Hibiscus, Alyogyne huegelii, is an upright to rounded, naturally evergreen, Australian native shrub that is heat and sunloving and is somewhat drought resistant once well-established. It is fairly adaptable to soil types and moisture as long as they are provided with excellent drainage, otherwise it tends to be fairly short-lived. Full sun is optimal and it can be enjoyed both as a container plant as well as making a nice specimen or informal hedge in the garden and landscape. It is sometimes trained as a tree standard to good effect. Plants tend to be somewhat open and if foliage becomes too sparse or the plants too larger they can be pruned back fairly hard and will put out vigorous new growth and some sources suggest that it flowers best after a good pruning. Caterpillar host: Gray hairstreak. Item# 12881

With some of the deepest blue flowers of any Amsonia and a consistently compact habit, Blue Ice has become one of the most popular Bluestar cultivars on the market. The clusters of deep blue, starry flowers open from deep violet buds and will be sure to brighten any spring garden. Yellow fall color adds to its interest. Bluestars are pest, disease, and deer resistant perennials that are considered to be somewhat drought resistant once well-established. Item# 10652.

2022 Missouri Botanic Garden Plants of Merit selection! One of the most amazingly blue colored flowers in the plant world! This small growing but vigorous annual or tender perennial vine produces loads of brilliant deep blue flowers with recurving and overlapping petals with a white to creamy yellow throat. It can be successfully overwintered but it's easier just to save a few seeds to plant in spring. Caterpillar host: Longtail Skipper. Item# 9114

Blue dye can be extracted from the blossoms!!

Light blue to blue-purple 1/4" wide nectar-rich flowers adorn the tall narrow indeterminate flower spikes from spring to frost to year round under warm tropical conditions. Native to Florida and much of the tropical Americas, Blue Porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis, has smoother lighter green foliage and generally grows wider than tall whereas the other Blue Porterweed, Stachytarpheta cayennensis or S. urticifolia, has more rugose or quilted deeper green glossier foliage with a typically upright habit. Porterweeds are excellent pollinator plants where they attract a continuous menagerie of aerial acrobats from spring until frost. This a heat and sunloving tropical to tender perennial that can be added to gardens and landscapes or plant them in containers to draw the pollinators in for upclose viewing. Blue Porterweed is also a caterpillar host plant for the Tropical Buckeye butterfly. Item# 12046

Dense broadly conical 3-4" high spikes of intense sapphire blue tubular flowers open from the bottom upwards with the first flowers to open creating the broad brim of the witches hat. Blue Witches Hat, or Hedgehog Sage, begins flowering in autumn and in areas where it is protected from frosts it can flower throughout winter and into spring. It is a medium to short day flowering plant. This tropical South African member of the mint family can develop into a shrub where winters are freeze and frost free reaching up to 8' high, 3-4' high in a container is more typical. Item# 11750

The widely flaring deep blue-purple fan shaped flowers open from tubular buds, and are very reminiscent of Scaevola or Half-Flower, open singly and in clusters held at the growing tips as well as in the leaf axils attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The 5-lobed flowers of Blue-Lips, Sclerochiton harveyanus, are produced most heavily throughout the warmer months of the year. This is a shade tolerant naturally spreading to scandent (vine-like) evergreen tropical shrub with rounded, glossy deep green foliage. Blue-Lips is considered to be frost resistant but not freeze tolerant and it is easily maintained as a shrub form for containers, including hanging baskets, in and around larger growing shade-loving tropicals in the garden as well as on a shaded porch or patio. Provide it with an average moist, acidic to neutral, well-drained soil in a site that receives at least some cool morning sunlight or filtered sunlight for optimum vigor and flowering. Item# 12268

Spikes of 1/2" long, tubular, two-lipped, deep azure blue flowers have a contrasting bright white bee-guide and throat are produced in late spring or early summer and continue into fall atop the tall wispy stems. The nectar rich flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Bog Sage, Salvia uliginosa, is a rhizomatous, herbaceous perennial producing a multitude of tall thin wiry stems that can reach 5-6' high in rich fertile moist soils but tends to remain shorter, 3-4' high or so, under average moist garden conditions, which it can tolerate quite well, despite its name, once fully established. it tends to be more restrained under drier conditions as well. Its long flowering season and ease of care have garnered Bog Sage the RHS Award of Garden Merit. It can tolerate full sun in the cooler portions of its range but may be at its best where it receives a little midday shade in areas with hot summer climates. Item# 12906