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Bright Fall Flowers for Hummingbirds

Bright Fall Flowers for Hummingbirds Featured Image
Mexican bush sage is one of the best bright fall flowers for hummingbirds.

Bright tubular flowers are nectar-filled beacons of hope for hummingbirds making their fall journey south. North American hummingbirds begin their great migration in late summer–some starting as far north as New Brunswick, Canada. It’s a long journey; an adult ruby-throated hummingbird can travel up to 20 miles and consume twice its weight in nectar and insects per day. Good food sources are essential, so reserve some space for their nectar-rich flowers in your fall garden. The beautiful blooms come in flaming colors, so it’s no chore.

Hummingbird Mints that Keep on Blooming

Young broad-tailed hummingbird taking nectar from Mexican giant hyssop
Young broad-tailed hummingbird takes nectar from Mexican giant hyssop.

Hummingbird mints (Agastache spp.) bloom from summer to fall and have fragrant foliage and flowers. The southwestern orange hummingbird mint (Agastache aurantiaca, Zones 4-9) is one of the prettiest with its loose spires of bright orange blooms. Try the 2.5-foot ‘Coronado’ with its silvery foliage and profuse tangerine-orange flowers. Mexican giant hyssop (Agastache mexicana, Zones 7-10) produces tall spikes of bright pink flowers on 3-foot plants. Both Agastache bloom into fall, adding bright pops of color that are sure to lure many hummingbirds. Deadhead regularly.

Mexican Cigar Flower

Ruby-throated hummingbird male feeding from a cigar plant
A ruby-throated hummingbird male feeds from a cigar plant.

Vermillionaire® Mexican cigar flower (Cuphea ignea Vermillionaire®, Zones 8-11) is a bushy tender perennial that will bloom from summer to frost. Its numerous, orange-red, tubular flowers are excellent hummingbird food. Another added bonus is that the cigar flower is exceptionally heat and drought tolerant. It will shine through the worst of the summer weather and keep on shining when it cools down.

Hybrid Foxglove

Hummingbird flying towards a Digiplexus
Digiplexus are nonstop bloomers that flower right up to frost.

One of the coolest new perennials in recent years is Digiplexus, a hybrid cross between the spring-flowering European foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) and Canary Island foxglove (Isoplexis canariensis). Brilliant raspberry-pink flower spikes cover the impressive Digiplexus ‘Illumination Raspberry Improved’ from summer to frost. It will overwinter in Zones 8-11, and hummingbirds can’t get enough of the blooms.

Cannas

Canna 'Striata'
Canna ‘Striata’ are some of the best cannas for bright fall color. (Image by Jessie Keith)

Cannas tall and short have colorful flowers that hummingbirds cannot resist. Whether you plant them in containers or gardens, they make a nonstop garden statement. My garden is never without ‘Striata’
(syn. ‘Pretoria’, ‘Bengal Tiger’). Its 4- to 5-foot plants have yellow-striped leaves and electric orange flowers. Gardeners with less space can try the 2-foot ‘Cleopatra‘, which has red and yellow flowers and green foliage with purple blocks of color. It grows beautifully in pots filled with Fafard® Ultra Container Mix with Extended Feed. Right after the first frost, I cut my cannas back, dig the tubers, and store them in my cool, dark basement through winter.

Salvias for Hummingbirds

Ruby-throated hummingbird male feeding from Texas sage
Ruby-throated hummingbird male feeding from Texas sage.

Late-blooming salvias are some of the finest flowers for traveling hummers. Each fall, my Hummingbird Forest Fire Texas sage (Salvia coccinea Hummingbird™ ‘Forest Fire’) looks the best in September. Its wands of deepest red flowers wake up late-season gardens. I also grow the pink-flowered ‘Brenthurst Pink’ Texas sage, which blends well with soft-colored plant compositions. Both of these plants are easily grown from seed in spring.

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha, Zones 8-10) bears its arching spikes of small, fuzzy, purplish-red flowers in fall. Make space for the bushy, 2- to 3-foot plants through summer. When they produce their big show of flowers, you will see that they were worth the wait.

A young ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) feeding from the flowers of pineapple sage
A young ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) feeding from the flowers of pineapple sage.

Another salvia with fall-only flowers is the herbal Golden Delicious pineapple sage (Salvia elegans Proven Accents® Rockin’® ‘Golden Delicious’). Each large, bushy plant is covered with soft, golden leaves that smell of mint and pineapple. They can be used to flavor drinks, tea, and desserts. Mid-fall is when the real show begins when contrasting spikes of scarlet flowers appear. The hummingbird flowers are also edible to humans.

Hummingbirds live for five to nine years, and once they find a good yard filled with their floral foods, they will return to it. Adding any of these colorful flowers to your fall garden will extend its value to hummingbirds down to the last flowering day of the season.

Beautiful Culinary Sage

Beautiful Culinary Sage Featured Image
In late spring to early summer, sage produces purplish or violet flowers (far right).
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For better or worse, we live in the age of multitasking, when the ability to do at least two things at once has become a common goal. As we multitask through our days, we gardeners can’t help but ask our plants to do the same. Fortunately, the enormous salvia clan has been multitasking for millennia. Ornamental forms of culinary sage, mostly Salvia officinalis, are champion multitaskers, contributing flavor to our food and beauty to our landscapes. Gardening and life don’t get much better than that.

Culinary sage is a pungent herb. For many families, it does a star turn at Thanksgiving in turkey dressing. It also has affinities to pork, poultry, eggs, sausage, and savory ravioli. When food is rich, a little sage can save the day by cutting tastefully through heavy flavors.

Sage also remains beautiful in the garden from fall and through winter. Its evergreen leaves may droop on the coldest winter days, but they maintain substance and can still be harvested.

Growing Sage

Standard sage
Standard sage is evergreen and pretty in its own right.

The plants are shrubby perennials that generally grow 12- to 18-inches tall and wide but can be kept shorter by timely light pruning in late spring or after flowering. Standard varieties have elongated oval leaves that are velvety and a little wrinkled on the surface. Lavender-blue or purple flowers appear in May or June. These are also edible.

In the garden, sage favors sunny, well-drained spaces, and benefits from quality soil amendments like Fafard Premium Natural and Organic Compost and Garden Manure Blend. Once established, sages require little care and offer a steady supply of evergreen leaves for fresh or dry use. (Dry by hanging tied stems in a cool, dry place until crisp.) Hardiness depends on the variety but sage can generally withstand quite cold winters. It is wise to check plant tags at purchase time for hardiness specifics.

Culinary Sage Varieties

'Tricolor' sage
‘Tricolor’ sage is ivory edged with purplish new growth.

One of the most beautiful varieties is ‘Tricolor’ (USDA Hardiness Zones 6-9).  The plants feature elongated gray-green leaves edged and marked with cream. New growth is both purple and ivory edged.  Equally suitable for pots, herb gardens, or front- to mid-border positions, ‘Tricolor’ is also a useful, aromatic filler for bouquets.

Purple sage
Purple sage has very attractive purple new growth.

Another eye-catching variety is ‘Purpurescens’ or purple sage (Zones 6-9). The young leaves are purple, while older ones age to gray-green. Its flavor is as intense as any culinary sage, and the colors bring real life to beds and borders.

Golden sage
Golden sage has the brightest color of the ornamental culinary sage varieties.

For something a little more luxurious, try ‘Aurea’.  Featuring brighter green leaves, it attracts attention with its golden edging.  ‘Icterina’ is similar to ‘Aurea’, but the foliage is more subdued and edged in pale green.  Like ‘Ictarina’, the less common ‘Woodcote’ also boasts pale-green leaf edges, contrasting with darker green centers.

'Berggarten' sage
The silver-grey leaves of ‘Berggarten’ sage are broad and ornamental.

‘Berggarten’ features more silvery leaves that are fatter. Its habit is also neater and mounded, making it especially useful for flower gardens and container culture.  For dramatic edging in a large bed, alternate ‘Berggarten’ with its bi-colored sport, ‘Variegated Berggarten’, which features leaves with creamy-yellow leaf edges.

'Ictarina' sage
‘Ictarina’ is a more subdued variegated sage.

In addition to pretty leaves, culinary salvia produces spikes of lavender-blue or purple blooms that attract bees while discouraging deer and other marauding creatures. For flower contrast and culinary prowess, choose pink-flowered ‘Rosea’. The leaves are solid green and aromatic, growing on plants that may be a little larger (36 inches tall and wide) than some other salvias.

Decorative culinary sages can also work well in smaller spaces. The petite ‘Compacta’ tops out at about eight inches. Its flowers are vivid purple and aromatic leaves contribute the same flavor punch. 

Pineapple Sage

Pineapple sage
The red fall flowers of pineapple sage feed migrating hummingbirds. (Image by Jessie Keith)

Other species are also edible and ornamental. Bushy pineapple sage (Salvia elegans, Zones 8-10) reaches a great height of 3-4 feet. The tender perennial grows quickly and should be treated as an annual in cold-winter climates. It features intensely aromatic leaves that exude the fruity scent of fresh pineapple.  Minced in fruit salad or muddled in hot or cold drinks, the leaves are a great addition to the home cook’s herbal arsenal. It is a fall bloomer that sports vivid scarlet blooms that lure migrating hummingbirds.

The ‘Golden Delicious’ variety adds an extra dimension to the landscape with the brightest golden-green, aromatic leaves. This one also reaches great heights, so it needs ample space, but don’t let this deter you from growing it. Judicious pruning can reduce its overall dimensions and stimulate branching and more flowers.

You can use culinary sages to adorn herb gardens, but don’t stop there.  Beds, borders, containers (mixed or single variety) and window boxes all become more interesting when decorative culinary sage is added to the mix.