The 9 Best Hanging Plants That Attract Hummingbirds

Bejeweled hummingbirds love nectar, and they’ll spend lots of time in your garden if there are plenty of large blooming flowers there. But which flowers are best? Here are the nine best hanging plants that attract hummingbirds and how to take care of them to maximize your hummingbird visitors.

What Do Hummingbirds Eat?

Petite, vivid hummingbirds drink nectar from flowers, but they’re true garden friends because they also eat insects. That’s a perfect reason to encourage hummingbirds to your yard if their lustrous feather display isn’t enough.

A hummingbird’s beak is designed to reach inside flower throats, so large blooms work best. Hanging plants are the perfect food for hummingbirds because they rarely stop flitting around to drink, preferring to fuel “up on the wing.” Multiple hanging flowers make their mealtime easy.

On top of the best hanging plants, offering fresh, clean water is essential because hummingbirds need plenty to drink. They also love lots of safety covers. Birds of prey, snakes, lizards, cats, and large spiders all prey on hummingbirds, so they like to check the coast is clear before enjoying a meal. Trees, shrubs, and lattice-work all provide safety for dazzling hummingbirds.

Without further ado, here’s a list of the top nine hanging plants that attract hummingbirds.

1. Lantana

Elaborate hummingbirds love lantana because it’s easy to take a drink from their small, clustered flowers. Lantana plants are vines, so they grow best from hanging baskets, pot edges, or over a wall, and best of all, it’s easy to grow them from a packet of inexpensive seeds.

Native to tropical Americas and African regions, red, orange, white, yellow, blue, or pink lantanas are evergreen in the tropics or zones 8-11. In colder areas, gardeners usually grow them from seed each year. Many grazing animals find their leaves toxic, but the flowers are full of sweet, attracting nectar.

Lantanas need full sun and moisture-retentive fertile soil to thrive. Deadhead spent blooms and fertilize them regularly to ensure a constant hummingbird buffet.  

• Height and spread: 6 x 6 feet
• Growing zones: 8-11 or annual down to zones 3-4
• Sun: Full sun
• Color: White, pink, blue, yellow, orange, red

2. Fuchsia

Fuchsias come in a variety of styles, but hanging fuchsia chiefly attracts hummingbirds because when they’re grown off the ground their mass of tumbling flowers is a safe place.

From summer into early fall, these bright and beautiful perennial flowers provide a regular food source that hummingbirds rely on. In zones 8-11, most varieties thrive, but in zones 8 and below, choose hardy cultivars that spring back the following year.

Grow arresting fuchsias in part shade because they don’t enjoy full sun or too much heat. Dappled shade is best; you’ll find hummingbirds like those conditions too. A win on both sides.

Deadheading and regular fertilizer will increase flowerhead numbers and bring all the hummingbirds to the yard.

• Height and spread: Up to 3 feet
• Growing zone: 6-11
• Sun: Part shade
• Colors: Pink, red, blue, cream, white, purple, orange

3. Petunia

Petunias grow easily and inexpensively from seed, but if that’s not your thing, buy plug plants from a nursery and wait until the last frost has passed before planting them outside in a sunny position.

Tumbling petunias have a open, bell-shaped flower that’s so easy for hummingbirds to access that gardeners have spotted them lining up. They suit hanging baskets, window boxes, deck containers, borders, or anywhere with fertile soil. Give them plenty of sunshine, and these traditional favorites bloom seemingly without end all summer long.

Prune back leggy stems throughout summer and pinch off spent flowers. Letting flowers go to seed uses up lots of energy so that the plant won’t produce more flowers. Deadheading means more blooms for hummingbirds to enjoy

• Height and spread: Up to 18 inches
• Growing zone: 9-11, annually in colder regions
• Sun: Full sun or part shade
• Color: Pink, white, red, purple, blue

4. Nasturtiums

Edible nasturtiums prettify a salad, but wait! Let the hummingbirds eat their fill first. Nasturtiums trail, spread, and twine if you buy the trailing types. Bush nasturtiums don’t hang, but they fill out the top of a hanging basket and attract hummingbirds nicely. Why not buy both?

Easily grown from seed or inexpensive plugs, nasturtiums offer deep flowers that hummingbirds can access, but small pollinators have more trouble with. This means there’s always a meal for our emerald friends.

Deadheading encourages more flowers (you’re spotting a deadheading theme here) and plenty of water because they can reach 10 feet long! Regular fertilizer and trimming away spent flowers keep trailing nasturtiums on the bloom from late spring to early fall.

• Height and spread: 1-10 feet x 2-3 feet
• Growing zone: 2-11, annuals in zone 6 and below
• Sun: Full sun or part shade
• Color: Yellow, pink, orange, red

5. Trumpet Vine

Native to the tropics, the trumpet vine is an extravagant plant with massive, you’ve guessed it, trumpet-shaped flowers so large hummingbirds all but vanish into their midst. Abundant nectar reserves make trumpet vine an absolute hummingbird powerhouse.

The fast-growing trumpet vine grows in hanging baskets or containers so it can hang, but it’s versatile and also grows upwards on a trellis. Its fast-growing nature might be a little too invasive in a border or small space, so give this beauty room to spread.

• Height and spread: Up to 40 x 10 feet
• Growing zones: 4-9
• Sun: Full sun or partial shade
• Color: Red, yellow, orange

6. Bleeding Heart

Bleeding heart differs slightly from others on this list because it’s a shade lover that blooms in early spring. These aesthetically pleasing perennials produce branches of heart-shaped, nectar-packed flowers that hummingbirds can’t resist.

They suit the top of a container, hanging basket, or window box and fill the early spring nectar desert that hummingbirds and pollinators struggle with. Plus, they emit the sweetest fragrance and don’t require deadheading.

This pretty flower doesn’t like drying out, so keep it well-watered and fertilize it once a week in the growing season. It generally dies back in early summer, so plant it alongside other hummingbird-attracting hanging plants for continuity. Hummingbirds return to gardens that offer the most resources, and a year-long buffet is irresistible to them.

• Height and spread: 3 x 3 feet
• Growing zone: 3-9
• Sun: Partial shade
• Color: White, pink, red

7. Impatiens

Annual impatiens’ bright and cheerful outlook is irresistible to hummingbirds, pollinators, and gardeners. Best of all, they enjoy shade, so they’re a good choice to lighten up a dull corner of a shady porch.  

Also known as Busy Lizzy or Touch-Me-Not, they’re robust hummingbird attractors and simple to grow. They only need fertile soil, shade, water, and regular fertilizer. If you deadhead them, too, that guarantees a stunning display framed by hummingbird silhouettes during the summer months.

Impatiens hang beautifully from a container, whether that’s a hanging basket, window box, or a pot. They like well-drained, moist soil and deep shade. Sun worship is not on the agenda, and hummingbirds will enjoy a respite from the summer sun as they refuel on your impatiens.

• Height and spread: 3 x 3 feet
• Growing zone: 2-11
• Sun: Full shade or partial shade
• Color: Yellow, pink, purple, red, light orange

8. Begonia

Begonia hangs from any free-draining container — even an old colander. They’re simple to grow and look after, and hummingbirds love their brightly colored fleshy flowers packed out with life-giving nectar.

Buy trailing begonia tubers and plant them outside, once frosts have passed, in a sheltered spot with full sun or partial shade. Their large blooms and sweet fragrance catch the attention of passing hummingbirds and invite them in for dinner.

Perennial trailing begonias bloom during summer, and the best way to ensure they come back the following year is to dig them up! Bring them back inside for the winter unless you’re in zone 9 and above because they can be frost-tender.

• Height and spread: 3 x 3 feet
• Growing zone: 9-11, in zone 5 and above if brought inside over winter
• Sun: Full sun or partial shade
• Color: Red, orange, peach, yellow, white

9. Calibrachoa

Bright calibrachoa, commonly called “million bells,” is native to South America. It’s a plant literally coated in flowerheads. They may be small, but they are mighty, and hummingbirds love their prolific nectar-filled blooms that resemble 1-inch petunias.

Calibrachoa blooms continuously until the frosts, so hummingbirds return day after day and month after month to fuel up. Keep those flowers in peak condition with plenty of water, fertilizer once a week, a sheltered spot, and lots of sunshine.

Just to note, million bells produce sticky foliage. Experts think it’s a defense mechanism against insects. It doesn’t affect hummingbirds, but you may not like its stickiness on your hands. Wear gloves to deadhead and water them if so!

• Height and spread: 3 x 5 feet
• Growing zones: Perennial 9-11, annual in colder regions
• Sun: Sun or part shade
• Color: Blue, purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, white

What Color-Hanging Plants Do Hummingbirds Like?

Hummingbirds find it easier to spot brightly colored flowers, and that’s why there are so many vivid hanging plants on this list.

If you have a choice, always go for red, pink, orange, yellow, or blue over white. If there’s no choice, white is better than no flowers at all.

What About Winter?

So you’ve spent all spring and summer nurturing hanging plants that attract hummingbirds, but what about winter because hummingbirds don’t hibernate? They need food all year round.

Here’s where winter-blooming plants step up. Viburnums, mahonia, camellia, saracocca, and daphne odera all bloom in fall and winter. They’re not hanging plants, but tough winter-proof shrubs. However, they will keep hummingbirds happy until you’re able to plant out tender hanging plants again.

Failing that, commercially bought sugar water from a feeder will save a few hungry hummingbirds from a miserable winter. Just keep it clean and offer plenty of fresh water alongside it.

If you feed hummingbirds all winter, they’ll be ready and waiting for your hanging plant spring-to-summer buffet.

Summary of 9 Best Hanging Plants That Attract Hummingbirds

Here’s a recap of the nine beautiful hanging plants attractive to hummingbirds that we took a look at.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock.com