Our Heavenly Haven for Butterflies and Hummers

From our dining room windows and Dutch glass doors leading to the patio, we are blessed with a view of the entire back yard, including the butterflies, hummers, and many other birds that come to visit the feeders and bird bath. In the background beyond the arbor is a very low-maintenance flowerbed that accommodates two HUGE hostas, a pink Hydrangea {H. macrophylla} that's a real show-stopper when in bloom, and another climbing rose called "The Weaver" that sports delightful burgundy-colored roses all summer.

Another very charming flower that hummingbirds like to visit are my Campanulas, also called "Bellflowers" because of their bell-shaped blossoms. The two varieties I have bloom in colors of pale blue and soft white in late spring and throughout the summer. When their blossoms are spent, I trim their stems down to the base of the plants and it isn't long before new blossom stems appear and they're once again in full bloom. These flowers do need to be staked, as their stems are very fragile and delicate and their many blossoms tend to weigh them down. I also enjoy them because they are very disease resistant and are a hardy perennial in our USDA Zone 6. The Campanulas grace the flower bed between our two patios and are situated next to several clumps of charming Colorado Columbines that also produce delicate blue and white blossoms. We were blessed with these "special" Columbines when my dear cousin and his wife brought them to us all the way from their flower garden in Lincoln, Nebraska two summers ago. Hardy, low-growing chrysanthemums that boast deep burgundy-colored flowers in early spring and late fall are planted at both ends of this flower bed. Butterflies also enjoy imbibing nectar from the mum blossoms throughout the summer.

There are many more flowers, shrubs, and trees that grace our back yard now as opposed to what there were ten years ago. However, in this brief article I've only highlighted some that are the most attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds.

As to our front yard, I'll give you just a small glimpse of our colorful -- albeit somewhat crowded -- courtyard that we enjoy so much. Again, this entire area was all bare, non-fertile dirt AND rocks when we first moved here. Today, it's a beautiful oasis of lush foliage plants and colorful flowers that include two Japanese Laceleaf Maple shrubs, five or more varieties

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic