Atrracting Wildlife-Planting In Containers

Geraniums easily grown in containers, are a great way to lure butterflies and hummingbirds, such as the female rufous hummingbird seen here.  Place the containers on a deck or patio so you can enjoy them up close.

Container Plantings

Imagine the excitement of seeing a hummingbird by your kitchen window as it hovers in midair, sipping sweet nectar from a hanging basket brimming with colorful fuchsias, trailing lantana, or cascading geraniums.

Window box gardens filled with nectar favorites like verbena, dianthus, penstemon, and daisies are a delightful way to attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and moths to a balcony, patio, veranda, or deck

Attracting Songbirds

Use containers to grow plants that have an abundance of seeds that are attractive to birds, plants such as rudbeckia, coreopsis, globe thistle, or sedums.

Robins, waxwings, orioles, and other birds that feast on fruits and berries will also be your guests!  They will particularly enjoy the berries of roses, hollies, cotoneaster, and even junipers, all easily grown in large containers!

With few exceptions, just about any plant, shrub, vine, or small tree that attracts wildlife can be grown in a container.  Whether in the form of planters, hanging baskets, or window box gardens, container plantings are a quick and compact way to dish up a portable feast for winged wildlife.

What’s more, that feast can be prepared year-round. if you grow food sources that are available from season to season: 

• Spring Bloom:  annual phlox, calendula, and primrose 
• Summer Sensations:  gernaiums, sunflowers, and petunias  asters,
• Autumn Appeal:  salvia, and ornamental grasses
• Winter Wonder:  Forsythia, pansies, flowering kale, hollies and other evergreens

Container plants occasionally provide shelter as well.  For instance, you can transform part of your yard into a butterfly breeding station by growing host plants such as milkweed or asters in containers.  If you want to attract moths, try roses or azaleas.

Some birds, sparrows, house finches, and wrens to name a few have been known to use hanging baskets as a  place to build their nests.