How To Create The Perfect Hummingbird-Friendly Container Garden

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

It's hummingbird season, and you are on a mission to attract more of these buzzy little friends to your yard. Even if you don't have a huge garden space to fill with flowering trees and pollinator-friendly bushes, you can still create an attractive assortment of blooms in your outdoor space. Along with filling your feeder with some delicious homemade nectar, planting a container garden with colorful hummingbird favorites is a sure way to bring more of these feathered friends to your deck or patio.

There are a variety of plants that attract hummingbirds, and many are suitable for container gardening. Mixing compact flowers, taller perennials, and flowing vines will create containers full of visual interest for you and a variety of delicious food sources for your little visitors. Annual flowers can be replaced each year or even throughout the growing season to ensure your blooms stay fresh. Hummingbirds love marigolds (Tagetes spp.) and zinnias (Zinnia elegans), which are easy to grow in small pots and provide compact flowers with bright colors that draw in these sight-based feeders. Taller perennials that can act as container centerpieces include hummingbird favorites like bee balm (Monarda spp.), red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), and giant hyssop (Agastache spp.). Hummingbirds also love to sip from the trumpet-shaped flowers of native honeysuckles (Lonicera sempervirens) and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans). Planting these vines in high or hanging containers will allow them to spill out over the sides of your pots while keeping their quick-spreading roots from taking over your garden.

A successful container garden designed for hummingbirds starts with pots that are durable, the right size for your space, and have good drainage. Plastic containers are easy to hang and move around and are relatively durable to the elements. But plastic can be less attractive than clay or ceramic. Fiberglass containers are a good alternative for outdoor durability, are relatively lightweight, and can mimic the look of stone or concrete.

Larger containers are good choices to hold a variety of flowers while having enough soil to maintain moisture and reduce watering time. However, big containers may not fit your space and can be unwieldy to move around, so an alternative could be to cluster groups of smaller containers on stands of varying heights. Durable stands like this Xgunion Store Metal Plant Stand 5 Pack or this VIVOSUN 5 Tier Vertical Gardening Stackable Planter are fun ways to cluster different hummingbird-friendly flowers together on your deck or patio. For trailing vines, a simple DIY garden trellis placed below a hanging container or inside your container box will add extra support.

If your containers of choice don't come with drainage holes, be sure to drill them. While frequent watering will be necessary to maintain moist soil within containers, you don't want your flowers waterlogged. Clay and wood containers will lose water quickly, so keeping an eye on soil moisture is important, especially for containers placed in full sun and on heat-absorbing decks or patios.