It's Easy To Attract Hummingbirds And Butterflies To Your Garden

(HIT) - With just a little bit of planning, you can attract beautiful butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden. Not only are they fun to watch, they are essential pollinators. Knowing which plants and trees are ideal for feeding these winged creatures will have them flocking to your garden. Monrovia, one of the leading growers of plants, has some tips on creating the perfect environment in your garden:

Butterflies and hummingbirds are seeking flowers with nectar, so when you select nectar-rich plants for the garden, look for varieties that are prolific bloomers and have a long bloom time. Prune your plants to prevent excessive woody growth and instead encourage production of flowers.

Hummingbirds are attracted to bright orange, red and hot pink blossoms. Their long, narrow beaks can reach the nectar of long, tubular flowers like the Balboa Sunset Trumpet Vine with its large scarlet blossoms, and the Goldflame Honeysuckle, which has vibrant yellow and red flowers. Other good choices are the Super Red Flowering Maple and the Navajo series of Salvia, available in many colors, including bright red, rose and salmon red. Not all hummingbirds feed at the same heights, so plant an array of shrub sizes and climbing vines for food sources and to offer protection from the hot sun, wind and rain.

Butterflies are attracted to yellow, orange and red. They too are seeking nectar, but their mouths, or proboscis, are much smaller, so they prefer flatter flowers they can perch on while they drink the nectar. The no-fail plant for butterflies is of course the Butterfly Bush or Buddleja, but since they can get too large for some gardens, consider the Petite series of Dwarf Butterfly Bushes. Petite Indigo has a profusion of lilac-blue flowers; Petite Plum sports reddish-purple blooms and the Petite Snow has pure white blossoms.

Lilacs are favorites of butterflies, but don’t typically flower well in climates with warmer winters. The Blue Skies Lilac produces huge clusters of light lavender-blue flowers that don’t require winter chilling. Butterflies love Coneflowers, like the bright pink Pixie Meadowbrite. Asters are great because they bloom well into fall. The new Farmington Aster has a profusion of lilac bloom clusters that butterflies will flock to.

Don’t forget to supply a source of water. Hummingbirds enjoy flying through a fine mist, which cools them off. Butterflies like drinking from shallow puddles, so they get minerals from the soil as well as moisture. Position some large flat rocks in a sunny spot, on which butterflies can sun themselves to warm their wings.

For more ideas on creating a hummingbird and butterfly garden, visit www.monrovia.com.

Courtesy: Home Improvement News and Information Center