Hummingbird Joy in South Florida Winter Gardens

22. January 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

Planting in a fashion which provides habitat and food for desirable wildlife is one the most important tenets of Green gardening. The rewards are magnificent, and winter in south Florida is a great time to enjoy the bounty of nature in a south Florida garden. It also a great time to enjoy the beauty of the Ruby Throated hummingbirds who overwinter here when it’s cold up north.

The male Ruby Throated hummers have a diamond shaped ruby colored pattern on their throats. The females are absent this marking. They are a shimmering green and are easy to miss in the garden if you are not watching for them.

Their demure size and speed could keep from ever seeing them if you don’t plant some of their favorite nectar plants close to window vistas you often enjoy from inside your home, or close to the patio or deck or sitting area of your garden.

The plants you use to entice them into your  Greenscape need to be ones that bloom during the fall, winter and early spring in order to provide nectar for them.

In my garden the hummers are taking nectar from Pink and Red Powderpuffs, Porterweed, Purple and Red Firespike, Several varieties of Justicia, several varieties of Salvia, Yellow Elder, Cape Honeysuckle, Honeysuckle, Tropical Fern Leaf Lavendar, Russian Sage, and Firebush, all which bloom on and off throughout the fall, winter and spring.

Something is always blooming in this cacophony of color and I see them regularly when I’m sitting at my windows or on my back yard deck. Their is always nectar available for them in my garden.

I don’t use feeders, as in our on again off again warm climate, the sugar water can sour if not changed often and cause the creatures to acquire a deadly virus on their tiny tongues.

The picture above is a hummer workers at a grower’s field in Homestead discovered cold and stunned laying on the ground. They picked it up, warmed it, held it for awhile and it began to fly excitedly around them after it warmed.

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