Planting the new Breck's® Hummingbird Designer Garden is like putting out an "all you can eat" sign for these sprightly pollinators. Prepare to welcome lots of nectar-seeking hummingbirds when these amazing plants start flowering. For the best results, we recommend planting them as shown in the garden diagram included with your order.
Each variety was chosen for its ability to enhance the look of the landscape while attracting hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. This special selection will keep precious pollinators busy all season—and keep them coming back. Speaking of coming back, all these varieties are excellent perennials. Plant them once, and they will return year after year with increased beauty and vigour.
Of course, hummingbirds and other pollinators are not only fun to watch, they are crucial to maintaining global biodiversity. As gardeners, we can do our part by giving them a place to call home.
The varieties in this collection cover an area of approximately 62½ square feet (5' x 12½').
This garden is suitable for hardiness zones 3–8. It should be planted in well-drained soil where it will receive full sun.
Fig-Leaved Hollyhock Mixture: Hollyhocks feature satiny, showy flowers borne on tall stalks. This delightful mix yields single, 3–4" blooms in a wide range of pastel shades. Ideal at the back of a sunny border, where it can serve as an attractive backdrop for lower-growing perennials. Safe for planting beneath black walnut trees
Alcea ficifolia.
Size: #1 Plant
Height: 5-7'
Bloom Time: Mid to Late Summer
Nora Barlow Columbine: Its fluffy double blooms with pointy, overlapping, reddish-pink and white petals resemble small dahlias. Grey-green, fernlike foliage forms a low mound. An old, fast-growing variety with lots of appeal that perennializes well and is superb for cutting. Deer resistant.
Aquilegia vulgaris var.stellata.Size: #1 Plant
Height: 24-28"
Bloom Time: Late Spring to Early Summer
Sammy Russell Daylily: Hardy, free-flowering, drought-tolerant daylily has trumpet-shaped, dark red flowers with yellow throats and golden rims. Compact habit makes it suitable for smaller gardens, in sunny borders or beside small ponds. Grassy leaves remain green all season. Best grown in a moist, humus-rich soil.
HemerocallisSize: #1 Plant
Height: 30"
Bloom Time: Mid to Late Summer
Blue Hill Salvia: Glorious floral spikes stand at attention in their dress blues, attracting butterflies all summer long. Drought-tolerant sun lover has a compact habit and even deters pests and deer. Cut back after flowering for a repeat of long-lasting blooms. This compact and carefree cultivar is a marathon bloomer!
BlauhügelSize: #1 Plant
Height: 15-18"
Bloom Time: Summer to Frost
Summer Pastels Yarrow Mixture: Yarrow is a versatile, hardy and almost care-free perennial that spreads easily, making it great in borders or as a ground cover. This mix produces flower clusters in a variety of soft pastel shades of white, cream, yellow, pink, salmon, mauve and red. Forms low mounds of fragrant, fernlike foliage. Plants grow in nearly any sunny spot, even where soil is poor and dry.
AchilleaSize: #1 Plant
Height: 20–28"
Bloom Time: All Summer
Husker Red Penstemon: This award-winning perennial is named for its distinctive maroon leaves. White, tubular flowers have two lips like snapdragon blooms and emerge from panicles atop rigid stems. Flowers sometimes have a pink blush. This deer-resistant, drought-tolerant penstemon was the Perennial Plant Association Plant of the Year in 1996. Penstemons are also called beardtongues.
Penstemon digitalisSize: #1 Plant
Height: 24-36"
Bloom Time: Mid Spring to Early Summer
Maximillian Sunflower: Strong, tall stems are covered with soft yellow, miniature sunflowers measuring 2" across. Plants grow quickly and naturalize nicely in sun-soaked landscapes, and perform well in heat, drought and even poor soil. The flowers' seeds and nectar provide plenty of food for birds and other pollinators. Deer tend to avoid
Helianthus maximillianiSize: #1 Plant
Height: 7-8'
Bloom Time: Late Summer to Mid Fall
This Designer Garden includes the following:
- 3 Fig-Leaved Single Hollyhock Mixture
- 3 Nora Barlow Columbine
- 2 Sammy Russell Daylily
- 2 Blue Hill Salvia
- 3 Summer Pastels Yarrow Mixture
- 1 Husker Red Penstemon
- 1 Maximillian Sunflower
