From agapanthus to salvias, blue perennials can turn a simple border into a hummingbird magnet from July to October. Learn which varieties keep nectar and colour flowing.

Picture a border of vivid blue flowers visited by tiny birds, from high summer right into the first cool evenings of autumn.

It is not the colour that hooks hummingbirds first but the steady supply of nectar inside tubular blooms, and the best ‘service stations’ for migrating birds happen to be blue.

Why blue flowers help

Hummingbirds specialise in sipping from long, narrow tubes or bells that most insects cannot reach, using equally long beaks and tongues to mine nectar reserves.

Blue asters, phlox, salvias, lobelias and campanulas blooming from mid-summer into autumn offer exactly that, taking over as earlier perennials fade. They leave Québec between late August and early September to winter in Central America, so flowers that keep going into autumn help them build fat reserves.

The range of blue, nectar-rich perennials is so wide that nurseries base growth plans on them; one founder talked of working “with the exploration of new European markets and the strengthening of our brand portfolios”, said Pascal Griot of Promesse de Fleurs, cited by La Gazette France.

Far from the flowerbeds, the word colibri has inspired a social grocery in Nantes, where food supports local residents. “Access is reserved for people who have been living in Nantes for more than three months, subject to means-testing and after a social assessment”, explained Cécile Clément, social worker and coordinator of the grocery. “Beneficiaries can do 25 euros of shopping each week, that is 100 euros per month, and pay only 10 euros”.

Client Philippe put it bluntly: “These days, for 20 euros at Lidl, you do not get much. This help will let me put some money aside to buy a sofa”. Martine said she loves the atmosphere as much as the prices, saying “I like coming here. Beyond the shopping, we come to have a coffee and chat”.

12 blue flowers for hummingbirds

Back in the garden, blue perennials feed hummingbirds from summer into autumn while pleasing butterflies and bees.

Key candidates include:

・Agapanthus ‘Brilliant Blue’

・Phlox paniculata ‘Blue Paradise’

・Blue asters (Symphyotrichum)

・Stokesia laevis

・Salvia guaranitica

・Salvia farinacea

・Salvia azurea

・Salvia yangii (Russian sage)

・Campanula rotundifolia

・Penstemon ‘Electric Blue’

・Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ or ‘Blue Boa’

・Lobelia siphilitica (great blue lobelia)

Agapanthus “Brilliant Blue” in zones 8 to 11 throws 2-foot stems of azure balls in moist, drained soil, while phlox “Blue Paradise” and blue asters Symphyotrichum novi-belgii or S. patens grow between 2 and 5 feet in zones 4 to 8 in sun or light shade.

Stokesia laevis in zones 5 to 9 forms 30 to 60 centimetre clumps of daisy-like blue blooms, and Campanula rotundifolia stays near 18 inches; blue anise sage Salvia guaranitica, mealy sage S. farinacea, pitcher sage S. azurea, Russian sage S. yangii, Penstemon “Electric Blue”, Agastache “Blue Fortune” or “Blue Boa” and great blue lobelia Lobelia siphilitica all flower in summer and autumn.

Planting and care tips

To make these blue flowers irresistible, group plants in clumps instead of singles and avoid double varieties that hide nectar from beaks.

Skip pesticides here and limit cats, letting salvias, phlox and asters combine with feeders as a natural buffet.

“We have to share!”, said Philippe, while Bassem Hasseh argued that “At the heart of the neighbourhood, the social grocery is a gateway to all kinds of services, and it is a place where we cross paths and meet”.

According to Simon Citeau, “As part of the overall Bottière-Pin Sec project, residents expressed the need to work around food”, and “It is a subject that makes it possible to address other issues such as employment and childcare…”.