Texan Magazine
Plants That Will Withstand Scorching Summer Temps And Attract Hummingbirds
By Marc Hess
Gardening Expert and Published Author
Those summer days in Texas that never reached triple digit temperatures are a fading memory. It’s too hot to work outside in the garden so it’s time to pour yourself a tall glass of iced tea and spend your afternoon in the air conditioned indoors, watching the hummingbirds that are attracted to the selection of heat tolerant plants in your hot Texas garden.
There are so many plants that love this heat and hummingbirds love those plants. Texas gardeners are lucky to have a good selection of heat tolerant plants that attract hummingbirds. There’s a great selection of plants that produce beautiful and colorful flowers and thrive in full sun. Many of these flowers have the short tubular flowers that will draw hummingbirds to your garden like magnets. And even though it’s the middle of summer, it’s not too late to enjoy a backyard full of jewel-like hummingbirds because all of the hummingbird attracting plants listed below do well in containers.
SALVIA
(BLACK AND BLUE SAGE)
Almost any Salvia will attract hummingbirds to your garden. Salvia guaranitica, also known as Black and Blue Sage, does well in heat and full sun. It’s one of the few non-red flowers that reliably attract hummingbirds to any yard. Black and Blue Sage is famously drought-tolerant as well as heat-tolerant, and hummingbirds are attracted to its beautiful cobalt tubular flowers. Salvia garanitica blooms all summer long and well into the fall, which makes it a valuable flower to plant if you want to attract the hummingbirds that migrate through Texas in the late summer and fall. It does well in containers. Deer avoid sages which is an important consideration because this summer so many deer have been driven into neighborhoods to hunt for food because the conditions in their natural habitat are so sparse.
RED SAGE
Red sage is another heat tolerant plant that reliably attracts hummingbirds. There are two types of heat tolerant red sage to consider: Mountain Sage (salvia greggii) and Scarlett O’Hara (salvia coccinea). Both species feature tubular red blooms that hummingbirds love, and like a true Texas native, it does not wilt in the full Texas sun.
MOUNTAIN SAGE
Salvia greggii is a hummingbird attracting plant also known as Mountain Sage. It does well with only morning sun, and is very heat tolerant. Mountains Sage does not bloom until later in the summer, which makes it a good choice for attracting hummingbirds as they migrate through Texas to their winter homes in Mexico and Central America.
PENTAS
Plant some Pentas. Of all the flowers in a hummingbird garden, hummers seem to love Penta lanceolata most of all. Gardeners love them, too, because Pentas are heat-tolerant, drought- tolerant and almost impossible to kill. Any plant that can thrive in the stifling heat of July and August, and still be around to attract hummingbirds as they migrate through Texas in the fall is a good choice for your landscape. Pentas are available in colors ranging from white to dark magenta. Also known as Egyptian Star Flower, the darker pink and reddish shade of Pentas attract the most hummingbirds. Butterflies are attracted to Pentas, too.
LANTANA
Hummingbirds love Lantana. Aside from being heat tolerant, Lantanas are ridiculously easy to grow and bounce back from periods of drought with no apparent problems. Lantanas also look lovely in containers, where the hummingbirds love to work over their beautifully trailing vines. Like sages, deer do not like lantana. However, they will try anything when they are really desperate.
Even without you being out there working in the heat there is still a lot going on in your garden. Summer is the time to sit back and enjoy it.
“The spring hummingbird migration that comes through Texas may start as early as January and run through mid-May. The birds migrate north to their breeding grounds. The fall migration south often runs from July through late August and sometimes into September. Black-chinned hummingbirds are usually the only species of hummingbird that actually breeds in Texas.” ~ Jennifer Greenwell, HighlandLakes.com
Hummingbirds are as amazing as they are delightful. Here are some very cool and interesting hummingbird facts you might find simply incredible:
➢ Hummingbird wings beat up to 55 times per second.
➢ They are the only bird species that can hover and fly backward or upside down.
➢ Hummingbirds cannot walk or hop but shuffle — their legs are not very strong.
➢ They have no sense of smell but very sharp eyesight.
➢ When hovering, their energy output is 10 times that of a man running 9 mph.
➢ They have the highest energy output per unit of body weight of any animal in the world.
➢ They go into a deep rest period at night called “torpor” during which the heart rate slows.
➢ Hummingbirds have a variety of calls, chips, chatters, and squeals to communicate with each other.
➢ Different species have their own “language.”
➢ The average life span of the ruby-throated hummingbird is estimated to be 3-5 years.
➢ An average ruby-throated hummingbird weighs 3 grams. (For comparison, a nickel weighs 4.5 grams.)
➢ Their maximum forward flight speed is about 30 mph, but they can reach up to 60 mph in a dive.
➢ A hummingbird egg is smaller than a jelly bean at less than one-half inch long.
➢ Hummingbirds do not suck nectar, they lick it with fringed or forked tongues.
➢ The hummingbird is one of most aggressive bird species and will attack jays, crows, and hawks that invade their territory.
