Idiot proof flowers for butterflies & hummingbirds?

Have been seeing them here lately & would like to attract more. I live an hour north of Houston Tx (I think zone 9A) Have rather sandy soil here.
Planted honeysuckle & jasmine this spring - they took off pretty well, then just stopped growing much. Put miracle grow time release at planting & watered regularly. Don't know if it was the drought & heat or what. IT FINALLY RAINED HERE the last few days!! With the corresponding drop in temp the birds, hummers & butterflies out now. Ready to buy some other easy to grow stuff for them to enhance my little spot here in the country.

i am in the same zone as you and the hummers love my salvias and agastaches.
kc

You will be able to grow many more flowering plants than I can here in UK, but for attracting these beautiful birds and insects, the best type of flowers these creatures love are the flowers that are trumpet shaped where the nectar is stored way down the bottom of the trumpet, butterflies / moths and hummers have long tongues so the gather the nectar as food and most other creatures cant reach it because they were never equipped for this,
A list of well known plants are:
Abutilon
Buddliea
Gladiolus
Delphiniums
Digitalis
Lilies
Salvia
Weigela
Yucca
Nicotina
Clematis
Hyacinth
Hollyhocks
Agapanthus
Orchids
Aconetum
Acanthus
Iris
Kniphofia
Laburnum (tree) Poisonous if eaten
Sweet-pea
Lavateria (Shrub)
These are just a few common ones but, there are many, many more you can either grow from seed, but at garden center, Now is a good time to visit garden center as they are reducing the prices so they don't have to care for the plants over winter, you can plant all shrub / trees Perennials now as the soil is still warm , the plants are going to sleep and will grow again from spring on-wards, just mulch for frost protection IF your in A FROST POCKET / ZONE.
Hope this gives you some ideas, also look for packets of seeds as this is less costly than plants, all you need is more patience, ha, ha, ha, are there gardeners who have that eh.
Good Luck. WeeNel.

Look at High Country Garden web page for ideas. They have both the hummingbird and drought tolerant plants marked.

List above from England is great, one of my favs. is the Nicotiana, I have the fragrant variety which is sandersae, it also reseeds itself. In the evening they begin to emit a wonderful fragrance til early morning, What a great reason to go into the garden after dark, I sit and watch the nite hummers (hawkmoths) flit from flower to flower. If you try make sure to get the fragrant varieties as most that are available from garden centers are nonfragrant. Oh sorry the name on the nic that iI bought is "Heaven Scent" and that they are! If interested they are available from Thompson and Morgan Seed and guess what they are out of England. Don't worry they also have a branch on the east coast that is mailorder. I have ordered from them for more than 15 years nows and love 'em. The catalog is considered as my flower bible,lol, the pix and descriptions are great. Good Luck, Kathy

I understand completely what you are saying re Thomson's seeds /plants, they are one of the longest established companies and give a no quarrel refund if things are not good, they also ship to companies (garden centers) all over the world and we even found them at the side of the road on a small garden stall in Malaysia, I got so excited to recognise the logo, husband thought I'd been stung / bitten or just heat had got to me ha, ha, ha.
The only warning I would give is regarding flowers, all single trumpet or otherwise shaped flowers that give of the perfume and nectar, the nectar feeds the hummers / moths, butterflies etc, so you want these, but don't go pay extra for double flowering plants as to get the larger flowers, but you loose out on the nectar and this is not what you want, also they don't always smell as good.
If anyone has difficulties with branded company seed let me know and can post them onto to you.
I can only do this with well known companies as they will have a license for exportation of their products, if this helps.
Good luck, WeeNel.

Monarda, otherwise known as Bee balm!

I'm with tommyr. I would do the mondarda didymis red.

Glad it finally rained!

This message was edited Sep 28, 2011 11:33 AM

Weenel.. was womdering if you know the name or web address of the other big seed company in England. I can't remember, saw a catalog at local botanic garden and have lost info but I remember they had an extensive list of varieties, ie campanulas had 20 some varieties and centaureas had more. LOL. Hope you can remember for meas I would love to get some seed from them. Kathy. Pix is centaurea phiggria, one of those oddballs that I got from T&M and I love it.

Hi Warrior, will do my best, like my brain can be a bit on the slow side, it's like soon as someone asks for your kids date of birth, your brain goes blank even IF you have just sent one of them a card, ha, ha, ha.

Sutton's seeds are a good company and have displays in all UK garden centers.
www.suttons.co.uk

Mr Fotheringills (same as above)
www.mr-fotheringills.co.uk

Wild Flowers (not used myself but friend has.
www.wildflowersuk.com


Chiltern seeds as the first two.
www.chilternseeds.co.uk

Thompson & Morgan have about the best selection good quality too
www.thompson-morgan.com

Marshalls good but, maybe sell more plants ????, but the catalogers are a good winter read, ha, ha, ha.
marshalls-seeds.co.uk

DT Brown, have never used this company before so cant give report.
dtbrownseeds.co.uk

Debbie's, very old garden (nursery) but now bought over by big company, sell everything from Buckets, bulbs, seeds, dried flowers etc.
don't know if they ship overseas, give it a go.
www.dobbies.co.uk

Spalding are good for Plants and bulbs but not sure if they still sell seeds, give a go.
www.spaldingplantandbulbs.co

Can look out my list if you want more, I automatically get seasonal cataloger so have not done a search for ages but don't mind helping out.
Good luck, let me know if you have any problems, good luck. WeeNel.