Theresa Relyea is the Content Specialist of our E-Commerce Team here at Classic Accessories. She wouldn’t be the first to tell you, but I will – the girl has a green thumb I am jealous of! I asked her to tell me a little bit about her garden and she told me about her favorite spot:

My favorite spot in my garden is this corner. It’s a shady one that can get rather dark here in Washington. That’s why I planted the bleeding hearts in the corner, to fill that area with bright greenery and brilliant pink blooms.


It fills the area at the base of my plum tree and welcomes birds of all sorts with my feeders and baths. One of my favorite things to do on my patio is watch the humming birds. This fountain is their favorite place to sit in the pedals and drink from the water falls. It’s the perfect size for them.

I just had this peony pop up from transplanting a rose bush into this corner. It’s one of those rogue plants that makes gardening so much fun. It goes great with the bleeding hearts. There is no other place I would rather have my morning coffee than this little spot in my own outdoors.

Here are some more tips on bringing hummingbirds to your patio with flowers, shurbs and trees from Debbie Hine-Lea of birdwatchers.com:

I have found that this is the best recipe for making your own nectar–I feel the birds prefer it over the various instant mixes.

  • 1 Part Sugar
  • 4 Parts Water
  • Boil 1-2 Minutes
  • Cool & Store In Refrigerator

Never use honey or artificial sweeteners!
Honey ferments easily, and can cause sores in a hummers mouth.
Artificial sweeteners have no food value.
DO NOT use red food coloring in your solution, as this could be harmful to your hummers. Most feeders have red on them and that should be enough.

Here are lists of Flowers, Shrubs and Trees you can plant in your garden to attract hummingbirds:

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Flowers
1 Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis
2 Lantana Lantana camara
3 Columbine Aguilegia spp.
4 Fuchsias Fuchsia spp.
5 Impatiens Impatiens spp.
6 Coral-Bells Heuchera sanguinea
7 Hollyhocks Althea spp.
8 Penstemen Penstemen spp.
9 Petunia Petunia spp.
10 Flowering Tobacco Nicotania alata
11 Geranium Pelargonium spp.
12 Begonia Begonia spp.

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Shrubs
1 Azaleas Rhododendron spp.
2 Butterfly Bush Buddleia davidii
3 Flowering Quince Chaenomeles japonica
4 Honeysuckle Lonicera spp.
5 Weigela Weigela spp.

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Trees
1 Flowering Crab Malus spp.
2 Tulip Poplar Liriodendron Tulipifera
3 Locust Robinia
4 Eucalyptus Eucalyptus spp.
5 Vines Honeysuckle Lonicera heckrottii
6 Morning Glory Ipomea ssp.
7 Trumpet Creeper Campsis radicans
8 Trumpet Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens

Sources:
**The Hummingbird Book by Donald and Lillian Stokes. Published by Little, Brown and Company. (ISBN 0-316-81715-5)
http://www.birdwatchers.com/debtips.html  by Debbie Hine-Lea