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Creating a Wild Backyard
Hummingbirds, Butterflies & Bees

Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds are not only beautiful- they are fast! Their wing-beats have been measured at 200 per second. They can hover and even fly backwards. This agility helps them to get the necessary amount of nectar, small insects, and water they need to sustain themselves.

Planting tubular flowers like bee balm or trumpet vine will help attract hummingbirds. Nectar feeders will supplement the diets of your neighborhood hummers. Use four parts water to one part sugar to make a solution. Do not use honey. Boil the water, turn off heat, and then add the sugar. Thoroughly clean feeders every three or four days and refill with fresh solution.

There are 340 species of hummingbirds in the world. The Ruby-throated hummingbird is the only species of hummingbird found in Maryland. They migrate here from Southern Mexico and Central America every spring and return in the fall. Males normally arrive first and scout out territories rich in food. Setting out feeders in late March will attract the males to your area.

Leave feeders up through the fall months to provide these migratory birds with food for their journey. Also, migrating birds moving through the area will have a place to refuel.

Butterflies and Bees

Butterflies and bees can add a special grace to your garden and both play an important ecological role in the reproduction of plants. Butterflies in Maryland have evolved to make the most use of native plants. See the table below for more information on plants for butterflies.

If you would like your garden to become a butterfly "nursery", you may want to include those plants that are used by caterpillars.

To provide butterflies and bees with water, add about a quarter inch of sand to a large saucer, such as a clay flowerpot liner. Add water until a quarter inch of water rises above the sand. Place a few flat stones that rise above the water and others that just touch the surface. This will allow insects to drink without drowning.

Flowers, flowers, flowers!
Hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees come to flowers to feed on the nectar that they produce. Iridescent hummingbirds, glimmering in the sunlight as they dart from flower to flower, are a rewarding sight for any wildlife gardener. A garden filled with perennial and annual flowers, blooming at various times from spring to fall, may be visited not only by hummingbirds, but also a colorful assortment of butterflies, bees, and nectar-eating moths.

There is a practical side to the color and beauty of flowers and their nectar-eating visitors. Flowers use these animals to transfer pollen to other flowers of the same kind. In this way, the hummingbirds and insects play a vital role in the reproduction of many plants. The colors on the animals serve to protect them from predators by camouflage or to warn predators against their toxic nature.

Planting Tips

• Have your soil tested. Contact the University of Maryland Soil Testing Lab, through you county extension office.

• Choose your plants according to the recommendations made by your soil test results and your nurseryman.

• Most plants that attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees need lots of sun. Be sure to plant your garden where it can get the most sun.
  

• Use little, if any, pesticides in the part of your garden meant for butterflies and bees. Try more natural means of pest control.
  

• Use little, if any, herbicides. The native grasses and flowers that will grow in your garden, in addition to your plantings, will greatly benefit your butterflies and bees.
  

• Don’t take whole native plants growing naturally. Take seeds and cultivate them yourself. Plants growing naturally are an important part of the natural community in which they are found.

Plant Name	Scientific Name	Attracts			Blooms	Soil
Goldenrod	Solidago sp.				July – September	Dry Soil
Columbine	Aquilegia canad.				April – July	Dry Soil
White Snake Root	Ageratina				July – October
Bee Balm	Monarda didyma				July – September	Moist Soil
Cardinal flower	Lobelia cardinalis				July – September	Moist Soil
Turkscap Lily	Lilium cardinalis				July – September	Moist Soil
Milkweed	Asclepias sp.				June – August	Moist Soil
Purple Coneflower	Echinacea Purpurea				June – October	Dry Soil
Bonset	Eupatorium pertolatum				July – October
Catnip	Nepeta cataria				June – September
Trumpet Creeper	Campsis radicans				June – September
Coral Bells	Heuchera sanguinea				April –- June
Joe-pye Weed	Eupatorium perfolium				July – September	Moist Soil
Asters	Aster sp.				August – October
Bluebells	Pertensia virginica				July – September
Liatris	Liatris sp.				July – September