Attract Hummingbirds with Columbine
Posted by: gardenaccentheaven in Bird Information and Facts, Gardening, tags: attract hummingbirds, columbine, Gardening
Western Columbine
Columbines (Aguilegia spp) are a great plant to grow for their intricately shaped flowers, good color ranges, frilly fern like leaves, and some have a long bloom period. They are perennial and will reseed easily. Columbines rely on hummingbirds to pollinate them so there is a good symbiotic relationship.
The nectar is secreted in the long tube of the flower and collects in a bulge at the base, making it the ideal source for humming birds. Plant them en masse for extra effect along walk ways and patios.
You can find them in seed catalogs and as plants at high quality nurseries in the early spring. I like to get starts and seeds from friends.
There are seed catalogs that focus on native plants which contribute to their hardiness and accessibility by hummers. Four to experiment with are:
- Aquilegia Canadensis, Canada or wild red columbine. Native from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Ontario and
Canada Columbine
Quebec south through much of the eastern United States. The flowers are red and lemon yellow in midspring to midsummer. Plants grow two feet tall and one foot wide. Wild red columbine is also a larval food plant for the columbine dusky wing butterfly.
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Rocky Mtn Cloumbine
Aquilegia carulea, Rocky Mountain columbine. Erect blooms are bicolor in lovely shades of blue and white. Plants grow 1 to 2 feet tall and bloom from June to August. This is the state flower for Colorado and includes the mountains of southwestern Montana and central Idaho to northern New Mexico and Arizona.
- Aguilegia chrysantha or golden or yellow columbine. The horizontal-facing canary
Yellow Columbine
yellow flowers look like little rockets. They have a long bloom from April to September making them especially appealing. Plants grow 2 to 3 feet tall with a nearly equal spread. They grow in mountain canyon seeps in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert regions, and are found from west Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Utah, and Arizona and Mexico.
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Western Columbine
4. Aquilegia Formosa, western columbine. Formosa means beautiful. It reaches 1 ½ feet tall and bears dangling yellow and red blooms in late spring through early summer. The spurs are only about ½ to ¾ inch long and point upright, making them ideal for hungry hummers. They are found in meadows and damp areas of western mountains, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska.
- Aquilegia longissima, Long Spur Columbine, relies on the sphinx moths with their
Long Spur Columbine
extra long proboscises to effect pollination; hummer tongues are too short for them to successfully feed on this plant. This species has particularly large flowers with spurs that are 4 to 6 inches long which makes them inaccessible to hummers. They are native from west Texas to southern Arizona and northeastern Mexico.
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