Plantings that will not attract hummingbirds

While searching what to plant for hummingbirds I found this article:

https://www.thespruce.com/flowers-that-will-not-attract-hummingbirds-386256

I know not to plant yellow flowers because they attract bees and that red flowers are the best to attract hummingbirds.  I am looking for deer and drought resistant ones.

Anyway I just wanted to share this concept that I had not thought of.

Good article, thanks for sharing!

I'm also in 8a, and have a trumpet creeper vine with a downright alarming rate of growth. It ate 10 feet of fence in a year, top to bottom just covered the whole thing. The red/reddish trumpet flowers draw in hummingbirds, and the plant keeps pumping them out from May through September.

It also produces thousands of air-dispersed seeds, so that's something to watch out for. I just gather up all the pods throughout the season before they open, end up with a small bucket or so of the seed each season.

HERE'S A GOOD PLANT

the scarlet runner bean   hummingbirds love it plus edible beans

I try to have year round flowers for the hummingbirds, and not to prune all of a plant at once, so as to leave some blooms for them. Pineapple sage provides flowers for them in the winter here. And they love my nasturiums. They tend to prefer tubular flowers.

Tubular, red flowers sounds like Lonerica sempervirens, a native plant that I see growing by the roadside in MD.

I took some pictures of red-flowered plants at the San Diego Botanical Gardens, several of them are apparently attractive to hummingbirds. While I was taking a nature walk in a chaparral area, I took a lot of pictures of plants. There's two that might be red-flowered wild salvias, probably attractive to hummingbirds. I saw a lot of hummingbirds on the walk, but they didn't stay still long enough for me to get a picture.

There was some succulents flowering by the beach in La Jolla that honeybees were going crazy over. I have never seen so many happy bees in one place. Might have been an ice plant? I didn't take my phone, being afraid to drop it in the water...

Although they love red flowers, sometimes timing and availability is the most important thing. I notice that in the early spring, patches of mahonia in blossom are often jealously guarded by male hummingbirds.

(not my photos)



Later on in the season, azalea, lucifer lillies, fuchsia, dame's rocket and runner beans are all very popular with them.

Many of the most common, widespread flowers are actually terrible choices for attracting hummers. Knowing which blooms to avoid can help birders develop stunning flowerbeds that will also serve as nutritious, bountiful buffets for visiting hummingbirds.

Many flowers produce no nectar at all, and therefore have no food that will satisfy a hungry hummer.

Flowers that will not attract hummingbirds


Pollinators may love these, like bees, butterflies and other birds. These blooms are not strongly appealing to hummingbirds: