- Specific shrubs ave more appeal to hummingbirds than other do.Steve Allen/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
You can attract the species of hummingbirds that traverse North America to your landscape by planting specific flowering shrubs that appeal to them. Both native and nonnative shrubs are available at nurseries to do the trick, producing flowers that these hummingbirds seek out for their nectar stores. - The fragrant yellow flowers of the bush honeysuckle (Diervilla sessilifolia) will appeal to your senses, with the added advantage of appealing to those of the hummingbirds in your locale. Bush honeysuckle, native in the wild from the Carolinas southward through Georgia, grows to 5 feet. The dark green leaves do not provide any "reliable" autumn color, according to the University of Connecticut Plant Database. Bush honeysuckle is a shrub small enough to plant in containers and position by windows so you can view any hummingbird activity. The shrub prefers full sun and you can mass it in numbers in a corner of your yard to lure in hummingbirds.
- If you grow a coral plant (Ruusselia equisetifromis) in cold climates, bring it indoors for the winter recommends the Missouri Botanical Garden. Native to Mexico, the coral plant can stay outside in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 11. This small shrub escaped cultivation in southern states and it grows in the wild. Coral plant is a hummingbird magnet because of its tubular flowers. The bright red flowers give the shrub the nickname of firecracker plant with their shape. Coral plant is an excellent container shrub, allowing you to put it where you can see it and then rescue it from the cold by bringing it inside, preferable to a room that receives the benefit of full sun.
- The northern Chinese landscape and that of Korea and Japan is the home of weigela (Weigela florida), a deciduous shrub growing to 10 feet. Requiring full sun to produce abundant flowers, weigela is suitable for assorted jobs, such as being a foundation plant or hedge. Weigela's flowers bloom most of the spring, from April through June and the plant is hardy to zone 4, allowing you to use it in many eastern states. Weigela' pink flowers possess a funnel-like appearance, making them perfect for the long bills of the acrobatic hummingbirds that favor its nectar.
- Native in eastern North America on hillsides and open woodlands, New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus) belongs to the buckthorn family. This 3- to 4-foot tall shrub attracts butterflies as well as the whirring hummingbirds. New Jersey tea's white flowers bloom from May into July, with the aromatic blossoms developing on long stalks. You should plant this shrub from seed during the end of fall or winter's beginning, as it is problematic to transplant, notes the U.S. Department of Agriculture. New Jersey tea does very well in sandy loam or in rocky ground, as long as the drainage is solid.
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