Gardening in Parker: Best Perennials Annual, & Butterfly Friendly Plants

Attracting Hummingbirds to Your Garden

Parker residents get to enjoy Hummingbirds from May through September. Just listen for that familiar buzzing sound, rush inside pull out and clean your feeders. and make that homemade nectar.

The number one thing you can do to attract hummingbirds to your home is to plant flowers that hummers love. Plant them in different areas of your garden so as many as possible can join the feast. It’s a fun summer pass time just watching the hummer wars once you get your garden hummingbird friendly.

Top Perennial Flowers for Hummingbirds

1. Bee Balm
2. Cardinal Flower
3. Salvia
4. Butterfly Bush
5. Trumpet Creeper
6. Lupine
7. Columbine (Our State Flower)
8. Day Lily
9. Penstemon
10. Peony
11. Coral Bells
12. Oriental Poppy

Best Annuals for Hummingbirds

1. Petunias
2. Zinnias
3. Cleomes
4. impatiens

Hummingbirds Like Spider Webs

If your goal is to attract hummingbirds to your garden, don’t remove any spider webs that appear among the plants. Hummingbirds use the delicate threads of these webs for material to build nests. And hummingbirds often steal insects that are trapped in spider webs.

Hummingbird Feeders

Once you’ve attracted these wonderful creatures to your yard, putting up a hummingbird feeder is the next step.

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe

The standard sugar-to-water ratio for homemade hummingbird food is 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. First boil your water measure it out and mix in the plain white sugar. Let cool and pour into your feeders. If you have lots of feeders use 4 cups water to 1 cup of sugar. I usually mix up this big batch and store half in the refrigerator.

**Do not use any fancy sugars thinking it’s healthy for the hummingbirds. Organic sugar, Turbinado Sugar, Brown Sugar, Artificial Sweetener and Honey are all toxic to hummingbirds. DO NOT ADD RED FOOD COLORING!

My favorite feeders are the ones that are easy to fill, easy to clean and don’t leak. Over my 40 years of gardening my daughter purchased me this brand for Mother’s Day and I adore them. I gave away all my other feeders and now have 4 of these gorgeous glass ones.

The feeders from Grateful Gnome are SO beautiful in the garden and the hummers just love them and fight over them.

My favorites listed below

Hand Blown Glass – Large Blue Egg with Flowers – 36 Fluid Ounces Free Bonus Accessories S-Hook, Ant Moat, Brush and Hemp Rope Included.

They call it a Purple Speckled Mushroom Feeder.

The Best of Parker for Gardening needs

Tagawa Gardens

My favorite spot to plan for and dream about my Parker Colorado Garden.

Need a pick me up from your daily routine? Inspiration for your next yard and garden home improvement? Want to stroll through the perennial beds and day dream? Pick up some bulbs to plant in the fall for early spring color? Do all that and more at Tagawa Gardens any month of the year.

To make the most of shopping at Tagawa Gardens, be sure and join both their online newsletter and their mailing list. Each comes with different coupons and special events. A favorite feature of the mailed monthly brochure is the “What to do now in your garden calendar section”.

This is so handy, you can just cut it out and post it to your things to do list so you can be sure not to miss the right time to prune, plant or fertilize your lawn, plants or garden.

Get updated on their latest sales by joining their text club. Text TAGAWA to 48696 to receive 10% OFF Your next purchase! Just show your text message to the cashiers to receive your discount.  (10% discount is valid on items in stock only, not valid with other offers or discounts and cannot be combined with other discounts)

The best thing about anything you buy at Tagawa is that all the plants they have for sale are specially chosen to grow in the high desert climate of Douglas County and if they don’t grow for you, simply keep your receipt and your container and they will cheerfully replace it and advise you on how to keep it thriving this time.

You can check out a photo slide show of some of the best sections of Tagawa here.

Tagawa Gardens
7711 S. Parker Road
Centennial, CO 80016
303.690.4722

Upcoming Gardening Class’s

Pine Lane Nursery Garden Center in Parker, CO

Address:
18200 Apache Dr.
Parker, CO  80134
Phone: (303) 841-3009

Watch for more gardening tips and feel free to share you own below and we’ll add them for all your Parker neighbors to enjoy.

The Sprucery Garden Center

4647 North Highway 83
Franktown, CO 80116
720-583-8119

You will also find a selection of plants and accessories at Target, Walmart, Lowe’s & Home Depot and coming soon a Ace Hardware Gardening center.

Deer and Rabbit resistant plants for your Parker Garden