Category: Hummingbird Gardening

Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Garden Design / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Hummingbird Gardening / Plant Literacy / Summer Color Plants

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Herbs Every Master Gardener Should Know

Evergreen Herbs Lavandula spp. and hybrids, Lavender L. angustifolia (L. officinalis), English Lavender L. stoechas, Spanish lavender, which withstands humidity and blooms in late spring L. x intermedia ‘Phenomenal’, Hybrid ‘Phenomenal’ Lavender that withstands high humidity and heat Mentha spicata, Spearmint Mentha x piperita, Peppermint Petroselinum crispum, Parsley (Biennial) Salvia officinalis, Culinary Sage Salvia rosmarinus , Rosemary Santolina spp. Santolina, Cotton Lavendar Thymus spp., Thyme Teucrium chamaedrys, Germander   Landscaping with Herbs in Williamsburg:  Part I Evergreen Herbs    ...

Bulb Gardening / Conservation / Container Gardens / Evergreen Perennials / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Geophytes / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Native Plants / Permaculture / Plant Literacy / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Ornamental Perennials Every Master Gardener Should Know

Perennial plants feature prominently in most gardens.  They may be evergreen or deciduous, have showy flowers or may be grown mostly for their foliage.  Some steal the spotlight for only a few weeks while others remain productive over several months.  Flowering perennials, whether native or not, help support a variety of pollinating insects.  Those that produce seeds may support birds long into the winter. Plants readily available in the nursery trade are most likely hybrids or named cultivars of specific...

Tricolor culinary sage

Container Gardens / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Hummingbird Gardening / Propagation / Summer Color Plants / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Sage ‘The Savior’

  “Why should a man die in whose garden grows sage? Against the power of death there is not medicine in our gardens But Sage calms the nerves, takes away hand Tremors, and helps cure fever. Sage, castoreum, lavender, primrose, Nasturtium, and athanasia cure paralytic parts of the body. O sage the savior, of nature the conciliator!” From the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum ca 1100-1200 CE   The name Salvia officinalis, designating our common culinary sage, derives its species name from...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Citizen Science / climate change / Conservation / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hummingbird Gardening / Keystone Species / Larval Host Plants / Lepidoptera / Native Trees / Phenology / Weather / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Beyond Flowers: How to Support Pollinators in Your Own Yard

  Have you ever planned a party, set up the bar and buffet, and then felt disappointed by how few people turned up to enjoy your hospitality?   We are left wondering what went wrong.  Curious gardeners planting flowers to support pollinators have sometimes been left feeling that way in recent years.  We plant a tempting array of all the right plants and then sit watching and waiting for hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and other winged pollinators to swoop in to enjoy...

Carbon Garden / Evergreen Perennials / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Nuisance Plants / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Climbing Vines in Coastal Virginia

  Vines of all types love our Coastal Virginia climate.  Many different species thrive in summer’s heat and humidity, growing by inches each day.  They creep across the ground until they encounter something to climb.  Their tender, flexible tips reach up and out in search of a support, and then they climb. Benefits of Vines All vines in our area produce flowers and seeds.  While some flowers are bright and showy, like the bright orange trumpet creeper, others are nearly...

Birds / Carbon Garden / Conservation / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hummingbird Gardening / Summer Color Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Water Wise / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Lantana ‘Stand’

    I never intended to create the Lantana stand.  Never in my wildest gardening dream did I expect it to get this huge.  There were no warning labels to prepare me for what it has become.  And it all began so innocently… In the beginning, there were only a lonely tea rose and  a few New Guinnea impatiens, I. hawkeri, growing in the neat round bed in the center of our new front yard.  We bought the house in...

Birds / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hummingbird Gardening / Summer Color Plants / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

How to Create a Haven for Hummingbirds

  A friend showed me a video she had taken in her backyard of hummingbirds swarming around one of her feeders.  She loves hummingbirds and works hard to attract and care for them.  She plants containers filled with flowers she knows they like, and maintains multiple feeders kept stocked with sugar water.  She told me that she has several tiny feeders on stakes that she places among the flowers in her containers. There were so many tiny birds flying about...