Plant These Petunias To Attract Hummingbirds While Creating A Vibrant Display

It's hard not to be fascinated by hummingbirds. They hover like no other bird and their colors can be quite brilliant when you get a good look at them as they pause on a feeder. Even when they're being territorial, quickly chasing one another about, they're still amazing to watch. So, how can you attract more hummingbirds to your garden or patio for summertime viewing? That can be as easy as planting some red petunias to capture their attention.

Hummingbirds can see far more colors than humans and they learn to recognize the ones that might yield energy-sustaining nectar as they quickly cruise over the landscape, including red. Planting red flowers to draw them into your yard works very well, in fact. Since petunias tend to form beautiful clusters or trails of blooms, red ones are among the flowers with the potential to attract a hummingbirds attention. You also get the benefit of enjoying a gorgeous plant that's not difficult to grow all summer long. 

Most of the time petunias are grown as annuals, but they can be nurtured as tender perennials in Zones 9 to 11. Many gardeners use them as seasonal ground cover or in garden borders. If you prefer container gardening, they work well in planters and hanging baskets. Most nurseries offer red petunias for sale in the spring and summer months. If you get an early start in the spring, though, you can also try growing your own petunias by starting seeds indoors.

There a many different varieties of petunias and they're all available in lots of colors, including a bright red that attracts hummingbirds. Those with big blooms are called grandifloras and floribundas have flowers in the medium-sized range. Multifloras have even more blooms while the flowers on millifloras are smaller. Then there are trailing petunias that are great for groundcover in garden beds. Once you delve further into the topic of plants that bloom with vibrant red flowers, you'll discover there are petunia choices like Aladdin Red that are less prone to wilt in the rain and others such as Capri Rose that are tolerant to weather extremes. Most have typical ruffled flowers, but Double Valentine has lush double blooms. All these deliver flowers in scarlet hues, but Potunia Plus Red is particularly attractive to hummingbirds since it has big trumpet-shaped flowers. As a bonus, they require less water than some other types of petunias. 

Petunias are generally heat tolerant so you can keep them blooming all summer to attract hummingbirds. They need five to six hours of sunshine daily to bloom fervently but can tolerate full sun in many areas. Watering petunias in garden beds requires enough time to soak the soil about 6 to 8 inches to encourage adequate root growth. You might find that you need to water petunias in containers daily, but that depends on how big the plant is, how much soil the container holds, and how hot it gets in your area. By mid-July, plan on using liquid fertilizer every few weeks for petunias planted in the ground. For those in containers, liquid fertilizer for flowering plants can be used every couple of weeks beginning in July to keep the blooms coming. Spreading petunias, regardless of the location, require fertilizer each week. 

Deadheading (removing wilted blooms) is recommended to keep petunias looking good, which is easier when planted in containers rather than the ground. This also encourages new blooms to take the place of old ones. You also might have to cut back leggy petunias as the summer goes on. This can require cutting off some flowers, but if you fertilize the plants after pruning, they'll bounce back with even more foliage and beautiful blooms. With some uncomplicated nurturing, you may find red petunias to be the  vibrant hummingbird magnets to grow in your yard that you've been seeking.