Where are you located geographically? We can provide more meaningful plant suggestions if we know the locale we are dealing with.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) Hi! I am in Zone 7A just outside and north of New York City. Many Thanks!

Spring blooming:

Early clematis (alpina, macropetala, montana, etc.)

Pulmonaria (lungwort)

hellebores

bleeding heart

primulas

columbine

foxgloves

flowering quince

flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)

Early summer:

Monarda (Bee balm)

garden phlox

red hot pokers

evening primrose

coral bells

daylilies

delphiniums

YES! Thank you so much @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9). I have some of these but not very accessible. I will do some redesigning.

Here in central PA, I've seen hummingbirds nectaring on some plants that I have:

Scarlet Runner Bean (this is also a host plant for Gray Hairstreaks)

Gas Plant (Dictamnus) - this is also a host plant for Giant Swallowtails

Bleeding Heart

Calibrachoa

Our hummingbirds have left for the year, but they're here almost like clockwork every year, coming either the last week of April or the first week of May.

Oh @caterwallin thank you so much. I had never heard of a Gas Plant. I will try to start it from seed since I see the seeds are readily available but I dont think I have seen the plants sold at nurseries. Is it a long lived perennial?

I will try the Scarlet Runner beans too.

Will any of these really bloom by end of April? The Bleeding Hearts might.

Katy, Yes, our bleeding hearts are blooming by the end of April/beginning of May. Glad to hear you want to try the gas plants and scarlet runner beans. Gas plants are a very long lived perennial. I've read that the same gas plants last through generations. I'm the first one here on this property to have tried them probably. We've lived here over 30 years; I planted my six gas plants here about ten years ago and they're still going strong and they get such beautiful flowers. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I've also had success with nicotiana and salvias also attracting hummingbirds. We really love to watch the hummingbirds here. One year probably about 20 years ago I noticed a hummingbird sitting on our one guy wire going up to our tv tower (no longer there). It was the first one that I saw here that here and right after I got the hummer feeder put outside, it flew down and was drinking from it. That more or less convinced me that the hummers that are here one here most likely return the next year because of how familiar it seemed to be with our place. Of course, just like other animals, they don't live forever so I'm thinking that maybe they keep returning here as long as they're alive rather than going to another place. We don't get more than a few but we enjoy that ones that do make this place their spring and summer home.

I’m not in your zone, but I saw someone mention Black and Blue Salvia. I have to heartily second this advice! Our female hummer paid our deck multiple visits per day going from plant to plant. Our friends who have tried for years to attract hummers had them within hours of putting out Black and Blue Salvia. I also had a hummingbird feeder, but when the wasps became a nuisance, I took it down. She still kept coming for the salvias.

@caterwallin Thank you again. I feel your excitement. I only grew the Tithonia and saw 4 Hummingbirds! And that has me hooked. I will be planting early season plants in spring so not too many birds in April and May but later in summer should be a lot of fun! And yes I have read that Hummingbirds remember and return. So cool!

@gawdinfever Z6 Thank you for your beautiful pictures! I look forward to such sights in my garden! My garden is still almost in full bloom but the Hummingbirds are gone.

@B T You must have read my mind....the last two days I have been reading up on the Salvias guaraniticas such as Black and Blue and how effective they are for drawing Hummingbirds. I most certainly am getting one or two of these. There are several, Black and Blue, Black and Bloom and Rhythm and Blues. I wish I knew the differences between these so I could choose the right one for me! Do you know? There is even a very tall one, Van Remsen.

Thank you for all these suggestions. I think most of them will work out for me!

I’m afraid I can’t help on the other salvias, sorry. Black and Blue worked so well (I am a huge fan of blue flowers) that I haven’t tried anything else. I did notice that our hummer also went to a Verbena Bonariensis that was in the same pot as one the Black and Blues. I’m not sure if that grows in your zone. I am in Zone 3a. I guess I would recommend that you try a variety … create a great buffet for your hummers. 😎

Any salvia will attract hummers. And depending where you garden, some will be fully perennial while others should be treated as annuals. If your hummers are migratory birds and not year round residents, make sure you select early flowering varieties.

FWIW, the two plants in my garden that have the longest bloom season and attract the most hummingbirds are Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' and Cuphea 'Vermillionaire'. Both will need to be treated as annuals in zones lower than mine.

For anyone in a warm zone, kangaroo paw is a huge hummingbird magnet in my Spring and Summer garden. If you get an early bloomer and a late bloomer the show lasts about 3-4 months

@B T: I too am a huge, huge, fan of blue flowers or blue-purple flowers. In this context, I am ashamed to say, how much I dislike (read loathe) red and orange flowers. But I am sucking it up as I have become charmed or bewitched by these Hummingbirds. The reason I am trying to know a little about the above three Blue salvias is that at least one of them starts blooming earlier than the rest. I would like to start with that one. nevertheless, anyone of these plants will be a great addition to my garden just for looks alone.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9): Thank you for your continued knowledgeable and experienced input. I am very grateful. I do see how red and tube like flowers are irresistible to these birds. Trying to stick to perennials as much as doable I just got a Major Wheeler honeysuckle to plant in fall. Hopefully there will some flowers in spring. This honeysuckle supposedly blooms earliest and longest of all honeysuckles. Helas no scent. I am going to get the Hummingbird Plant, AKA Uruguayan Firecracker Plant or Dicliptera suberecta which should be an perennial for me and is like Cuphea.

Hi! @Stephanie, 9b inland SoCal. How are you???! Thank you for introducing me to this new plant. Kangaroo Paw! 😂 In effect it seems it would be like the Firecracker Plant above. Are you specifically growing a Hummingbird garden?

Thank you everyone!

Katyajini, yes I do try to grow flowers to attract hummingbirds. I have Love and Wishes salvia plants everywhere, which they love the most and which are in bloom almost year round. I cut the plants down to one foot in an alternating way so there are always flowers on a plant somewhere in the yard. I also have a hummingbird feeder. It is the style that is a flat saucer disc with plastic red top, which is easy to clean, bees can’t access and it has an ant trap. Plus the hummingbirds get to rest while drinking. I have feeder 18 inches from window so I can see them close while they linger and sit there.

@Stephanie, 9b inland SoCal After plants are lowered to one foot, at what height do they next get hummingbird visits?

I do not have to cut my salvia back to get them to bloom. Some winters here kill them to the ground, but as soon as it gets warm, they start growing fast from the roots and begin blooming early. The blooming does not slow down till frost/freezes bite the plants back. I am 100 miles NW of Houston, TX, zone 9.

They bloom year round in my garden. As soon as they put up shoots they have blooms about 4 weeks later, which are about 18 inches. If I do nothing they become huge monster 4ftx4ft plants and they get unkempt looking. i trim to keep neat and fertilze them spring and fall with slow release osmocote Plus

Here is a two foot one trimmed hard 2 months ago. Tall one trimmed probably last February

So do hummingburds go for flowers at 18 inches?

Yes the flowers of Love and Wishes seem to be particularly full of nectar at all stages. Carpenter bees will also steal the nectar by going to the base on the outside if the flower tube, bypassing any pollinating function. Although I am not sure Love and Wishes makes seeds….at least I have never seen any. I have made two new plants by taking fall cuttings of older wood and sticking them into the ground in various places in the yard. Since pretty much the only rain we ever get here falls between end of Oct and April and we don’t get hard freezes that is best time for lazy person method of rooting them here.