A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Hummingbird gardens in the woods?

This may seem like a silly question to most of you, but my fiance and I are designing our landscaping for around our house, and I wanted to incorporate hummingbird-friendly flowers into all parts of the garden. My dilemma comes when trying to find flowers (mostly perennials) that take full or part shade and are still hummingbird friendly.

On the hummingbird garden page here it says to incorporate shade and sun sections of the garden in order to attract hummingbirds, but our land 5 acres of woods. Is a hummingbird garden in the woods possible? and how (aside from putting out a lot of feeders) do I make sure to attract the birds?

Also, my mother's property is about 3 and a half acres of open grass. She has two large oak trees, one Mulberry tree, and a pear tree, along with various varieties of Hibiscus and rose of Sharon bushes. She tried putting out hummingbird feeders that are on a long stick which you poke into the ground. The stand about 2 feet up and the feeder part is shaped like a ball with the "perch" like a regular flower (bad description, I know)... How would you keep racoons and other various animals from coming and tipping the little flower parts over to drink the sugar water?

Hmmmm... I am consulting my hummingbird book (The Hummingbird Book by Donald and Lillian Stokes) to find the answers for you.

Unfortunately you and I live in the east, meaning we will only see Ruby-throats, but that's okay!

The woods are a fine place for a habitat. This will give a female many options as to which tree to build her nest in. Most hummers will use downy plant fibers, spider silk and lichens for nest material. They also love to perch in a place where they can overlook their territory, and it sounds like you should have plenty of varying tree heights from which the hummers can keep an eye on things. Hummers spend 60% of their time perched. If your woods are too shady in the deep parts they probably will not venture too far into them. I wouldn't worry too much about that though, if you end up planting flowers that need a lot of sun I think the hummers would be fine to have a shaded area nearby to nest in or cool off. She will also prefer a shady spot to build her nest so the eggs won't get too hot.

It's a good idea to put out a birdbath too (very shallow of course) because they need to bathe and drink like any other bird.

You live in the east, and here is a list of flowers that may grow well in your area, and that the little birds love:

Cross Vine
Trumpet Vine
Cardinal flower
Wild Columbine
Fireweed
Trumpet Honeysuckle
Red Iris
Canada lily
Wood lily
Indian Pink
Bee Balm
Purple Bergamot
Red Morning Glory
Texas Plume
Smooth Phlox
Wild Sweet William
Fire Pink
Scarlet Lychnis
Indian Paintbrush
Red Turtlehead
Pale Jewelweed
Spotted Jewelweed

You'll have to conduct your own research as to what growing requirements each of these flowers need to thrive. It's smart to choose varying plants that flower at all different times so that the hummer will always have a reason to come there.

I only recently looked at this list of flowers and I believe it's too late to plant a whole lot, as the hummer will leave my area by October. I sure got the wheels a-turnin' thinking about what to plant next year!

As for your mother's stake with the feeder on it... I wouldn't hesitate to raise it up to four feet or so, perhaps that would deter animals from trying to reach it. Maybe get one of those stakes shaped like a Shepherd's crook that are used for hanging flower baskets, but I don't know how high most of them are.

I hope I was able to help and good luck with everything!!! If you get a chance to buy the book That I got this info from, do it... it's like a complete A-Z guide for hummer-watchers

wow this is awesome information! Naturally, since its is already so late in the summer I am waiting until next year to plant my flowers and things, but I wanted a good list so that I can get started planning what flowers in what areas and things. Also, our nursery selections are limited so this allows a longer time for me to find and order the plants I want.

Thank you very much for all the help!

Suzi

Here is a site w/ plants for your zone & their light requirements.

hum birds

Jewelweed is one of the BEST late-Summer/early-Fall hummingbird attracters I have found. It must be planted in a VERY moist area such as a marsh or gravel bar on a small creek to thrive. If you have any areas like that on your land, that might be something to consider planting.

You are most welcome. I am growing tomatoes for the first time this year and that's how I found this board.

I really know NOTHING about gardening, but my grandma loved hummingbirds all her life, and when she passed away... after the funeral we all went back to her house and I saw that book laying on the coffee table and I took it. The reason was because I needed a picture for a hummingbird tattoo in her honor... ruby-throat with some wood lilies (Wood is my last name ) Now I have the tat and the book sure has come in handy for luring in my own little feathered friends

what does Jewelweed look like?

and thanks Rugbyhukr for that site. It's got a good list of plants, but most are for full sun or partial shade. I need more partial to full shade plants

There is actually some wet land in my area, but it's way back at the back of the property. We are going to include a Koi pond in the garden, but I know Koi are terrible on flowers. So if I plant them NEAR the water (like right beside) will they be alright as long as I check them everyday?

The pond is going to be up hill a bit from another moat like creek that we have decided to put in nearly all the way around the house. We still haven't come up with a good way to keep the koi in the pond without coming down the waterfall and into the rest of the water but my brother and I are pretty innovative with things like that so we might be able to figure it out. I thought about putting a thin mesh over the whole thing since Koi jump, and then where the waterfall starts just get a thicker 1/4 inch mesh to put there so that the water can still flow through. I'm not sure what we will figure out, but I'm sure we will get something done.

The Jewelweed that we have here in Tennessee is a bush about 2 feet high with small, pansi-like, blossoms on the end of each branch that are a yellowish/orange in color. I t has tiny seed pods that look like a miniature green bean or Mimosa pod.
They always grow in wet marshy areas where creeks and streams slow down to form bogs. Go to Google Image Search and look for pictures there.

Here is a picture of a Jewewelweed plant and its seed pods.

Jewelweed


Jewelweed seed Pods

Okay, I am from WV. I am going to list some of my favorite shade loving plants from there, since you should be the same zone. They are not, specifically, hmmingbird plants. But, it does not mean that they don't like them.

rhododendrons & wild rhodos
evergreen & deciduous azaleas more
mountain laurel (kalmia)
hydrangeas
hostas
Tiarella trifoliata 'foamflower'
Linnaea borealis 'twinflower'

You can cross reference between these 3 lists if you like...
Hummingbird flowers

Full shade plants

Partial shade plants

thanks Bill I didn't even think about cross referencing them. I have a few other lists of plants they'd like also, but I have more of a yellow thumb than a green one so I like to do a lot of research before I buy and kill them.

Thanks for all the help, and the pictures!

I have seen humminmgbirds feed regularly on hostas and coral bells.

One thing I find interesting is that the hummers pick a favorite feeder and empty it first. At least that's what happens in my yard. We have 2 feeders and they empty the small one first then move to the bigger one.