Buena Creek Gardens

San Diego's finest selection of new and uncommon flowering plants

Cheeseburgers!
by Steve Brigham

Although I'd love to take the credit for it, it wasn't me who coined the phrase. It was the notorious "Mark Twain of American Horticulture," Felder Rushing, who was visiting my garden last December just as I was beginning to plant our new Bird and Butterfly Garden. Felder knows a lot about bird and butterfly gardening. I was explaining to him that while I was planning on close to 700 types of plants to eventually be included in the new garden, I realized that some plants would be more popular with the hummingbirds and butterflies than others.

"Yep," Felder replied, "they always go for the Cheeseburgers!" And he's right –there are some plants whose flowers have richer nectar, and so the hummingbirds greatly prefer them. And there are certain flowers that butterflies just can't resist. If you really care about the quality of your bird and butterfly cuisine, you'll want to choose these "cheeseburgers" first to serve to your hungry winged guests. And even if you don't have many hummingbirds or butterflies in your garden right now, if you plant these plants you'll soon be seeing lots of new little friends!

What's For Dinner?

In general, flowers that attract hummingbirds are not the same as flowers that attract butterflies. The reason for this is that while both types of creatures drink nectar from flowers, they do it in different ways. Hummingbirds hover, and specialize in long tubular flowers. Butterflies need a place to land in order to eat, and prefer small flat flowers that come in clusters. There are some flowers, however, that are "cheeseburgers" for both hummingbirds and butterflies, which is good news, particularly if you have a small garden with limited space.

Among the best of these "double-duty" plants are the various color forms of Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii and its hybrids). These fast-growing plants may either be kept shrubby by pruning or allowed to naturally develop into small multi-trunked trees. Blooming abundantly on new growth, they have long showy clusters of fragrant flowers that may be white, pink, gold, lavender, purple, or violet, depending on the variety grown, and there are even variegated varieties with colorful foliage.

For smaller spaces, the various flat-flowered Flowering Sages (Salvia cvs.) will also attract hummingbirds and butterflies alike. These include the many colorful forms and hybrids of Salvia microphylla and Salvia gregii, and also Salvia blepharophylla, giving you a choice of flower color that includes red, orange, pink, purple, lavender, yellow, and white on evergreen shrubby plants from 2 to 5 feet tall. In frost-free gardens, Star Clusters (Pentas lanceolata cvs.) are also a good choice – these 3-foot evergreen shrubs are adaptable to either sun or shade, and bloom all year long with showy clusters of bright red, pink, or white flowers.

For a nice evergreen background planting, other good plants for both hummingbirds and butterflies are the Sky Flowers (Duranta cvs.), with summertime sprays of fragrant flowers in blue, purple, or white and ornamental yellow berries as a bonus.

More Plants For Hummingbirds

Our hummingbirds are very inquisitive and adventurous creatures. Sometimes it seems that they will visit almost any kind of flower, and in fact the list of all hummingbird flowers we can grow is a long one. But if hummingbirds were plant collectors in San Diego County, they'd love to specialize in certain groups. Interestingly enough, they're all my favorite plant groups, and probably yours, too!

Tops on this list of "cheeseburgers" are the Flowering Sages (Salvia cvs.). This one group alone gives you about a thousand different plant choices, including ground covers, perennials, and shrubs with many different foliage and flower colors. Hummingbirds particularly love red-flowered salvias (their favorite color is red), but they also go nuts over the blue-flowered Salvia guaranitica, the purple-flowered Salvia leucantha and its hybrids, and of course our native lavender-blue-flowered Salvia clevelandii and its hybrids, just to name a few.

It's no secret that so many of the flowers that hummingbirds like best are the same ones that hummingbirds naturally pollinate in the wild. Since hummingbirds are native in both North and South America, these include the very showy Peruvian Lilies (Alstroemeria cvs.). Although different species of hummingbirds pollinate wild alstroemerias in their native South America, our hummingbirds like 'em, too. Here's an example of a great garden plant that can do many things at once, providing superior garden color and unsurpassed cut-flower material while making the hummingbirds very happy at the same time!

Another important group of hummingbird plants from North American parentage are the many species and hybrids of Penstemon. The modern "gloxinioides" hybrid penstemons in particular are very floriferous and easy to grow, with a wide range of colors including whites, blues, pinks, reds, purples, and many bicolored varieties as well. All also make excellent cut-flowers.

All of the plants I've mentioned in this column are fast-growing plants that don't need much maintenance and don't use much water. Gallon-size plants I planted just 5 months ago in our new garden are nearly fully grown now and full of flowers! The list of these plants is in part two. So as Felder Rushing might say (he's from Mississippi), "See y'all then!"