hey friends before we know it the hummingbirds are going to be coming back
to our area if you want to ensure that they visit your garden stay tuned
because I have the perfect plant to attract hummingbirds to your garden
hey y'all welcome to gardening with Creekside I am Jenny and today I am
going to share with you one of my absolute favorite plants you're like
Jenny what's so special about this plant well this plant is a major hummingbird
attractor plant so in a few weeks the hummingbirds are going to be coming back
to our area we are in North Carolina we are a zone 7b and so our time for the
hummingbirds to come back is right around April 1st and that is just right
around the corner and I want to be prepared to welcome our little hummers
back to our home so the best way to do that is to put hummingbird attractor
plants in your yard today I am going to be putting up a container using proven
winners Vermillionaire cuphea y'all I'm telling you this plant the
hummingbirds cannot resist I tell folks if hummingbirds come to this plant while
my children are playing in a pool and they do not care that there's three
screaming kids by the pool then it will come to your yard
also what's great about the Vermilionaire is that they've got these tubular
shaped blooms that are a bright orange with a little bit of red and yellow in
them and the hummingbirds are really attracted to those bright colors in fact
did you know that hummingbirds can see in color better than we can because they
can see ultraviolet colors and just to my human eye these blooms are very
bright very colorful so I can only imagine how the hummingbird sees them so
they see this they come and then because of the small tubular shape their little
beaks fit perfectly inside these blooms their tongues can go in and lap up all
that sweet nectar that is in there and it is such a small tubular bloom that
other pollinators can't get in it so it's kind of an exclusive plant for the
hummingbird the Vermilionaire will get to be about 18 to 28 inches tall 12 to
24 inches wide just depending on where you have it so we're going to get
started potting this up and then as I'm potting up I'm going to tell you all
about this great plant so we're using proven winner's potting soil and I just
have a great ceramic pot that I found at a local store I love using these ceramic
glaze pots because they hold the water really well they're not as porous as
terracotta so I'm really filling it up here I like to use brand new soil every
time that I make a pot every season I start with fresh soil put it in there
you want to use a premium potting soil again this is proven winners I love the
proven winners potting soil because it already has some slow release fertilizer
in there it is really high-quality and it just it's just a great potting
soil for your plants they're going to succeed beautifully in here so we fill
it up about 3/4 of the way full even though it's got some slow release
fertilizer in there I'm just going to take it to the next level and add some
more so this is the proven winners slow release fertilizer and we're going to
put a couple of tablespoons in here because this is a pretty good-sized pot
so I'm about two and a half scoops of slow release fertilizer in there this is
going to give me six months of good food for these plants so here we go we're
going to take the Vermilionaire and we're just going to pack it in here
because we want our hummingbirds to be very happy and come back also this I
found that's really interesting if you've ever had hummingbirds in your
yard you know that they know where they're going like I've had hummingbirds
come to our front porch where we have had feeders in the past and I haven't
gotten them up yet and the hummingbird is just like flying they're saying like
hello Jenny where's the food why aren't you why do you not have it out so
hummingbirds actually have it's really neat a brain the size of a pea well you
know hummingbirds are not that big so and proportion to their body it's pretty
large for their whole body and they have great memory so they know exactly where
your feeders are they know where the plants are they remember hey I went to
this Vermillionaire yesterday and I got a really good meal so I am gonna come
back again today and eat again so I've got vermillionaire in there now you could
do a pot of just vermillionaire that would be gorgeous because as you can
tell Vermillionaire shoots off a lot of stems it's very free-flowing it's not a
it's not a spiller it is definitely a filler or a thriller it goes straight up
you have the blooms that come straight down the stems is great but I want to
add a little pop of color to the front of it so I'm gonna use another one of my
favorites proven winners lemon coral sedum if you're not familiar with lemon
coral sedum well let me introduce you to this beauty because it was actually the
annual of the year last year it can technically be a perennial for us in
zone 70 it's a perennial in zones 7 through 11 I believe and it really does
great in both the landscape and in containers and here it'll act as my
spiller because it will go over the pot bring in a just a nice pop of color both
of these plants are drought tolerant so you're not gonna have to be out there
watering continuously this guys in here we're gonna give it a little juj here
we go got it so you're not gonna have to be out there watering it continuously
their drought tolerant the lemon coral sedum is not going to be a bloomer
you're using it just for the foliage but I mean look at that color you've got the
great dark foliage of the Vermillionaire with those bright orange blooms then
that lemon-lime color the lemon coral sedum it's just so pretty so we're
going to add we're just going to top off fill in any little holes with some more
potting soil another thing about Vermillionaire
that is absolutely fantastic is you do not have to deadhead not only do you
not have to deadhead you really don't even have to prune these guys they will
just I'm making a hot mess over here that's all right it's gardening they
will just bloom continuously you don't have to deadhead you don't have to pinch
them back if you want a tighter plant you can trim them back a little bit I do
not I like the free form of the plant I like to see that it's kind of wild and
free and spiky everywhere the hummingbirds definitely love it so you
just want to kind of leave it alone let the hummingbirds do their thing and
they're just going to come continuously all the time and seed off of this
gorgeous vermillionaire now one more little trick that I want to show you
that I do with all of my containers is really important so I always finish all
of my containers with a nice layer of mulch even though you're not gonna see
the mulch in the container this really helps to regulate the soil temperature
of the pot it keeps the roots at a nice even temperature throughout the summer
so in the heat of the summer it count helps keep them cool when we have cool
spring days it keeps it warm of course mulch will help retain all of
that good water and moisture that's in your container so you're not gonna have
to water it as much so wherever there's a little open area you can see soil go
ahead and take some mulch and just tuck it in there it really makes a massive
difference to your containers when you do have little holes that you can see
then it just makes it look prettier now for maintenance on this this will bloom
vermilionaire is going to bloom all season long from Spring until hard frost
it is a continuous bloomer it just puts them on put some own you're not going to
have to maintain this at all other than you're gonna have to water it and about
every one to two weeks you're going to want to use a really high quality liquid
soluble fertilizer so I again love the proven winners water soluble fertilizer
it will tell you on the container how much
you're going to use for a container size this how much you're going to dilute it
into your watering can again every one to two weeks that you're going to want
every one to two weeks you're going to want to fertilize your container gives
you that nice dark green foliage on your vermillionaire lots of blooms so if you
start to see that your plant is not looking as healthy your slow release
fertilizer could be running out so then you want to start on your liquid
fertilizer and make sure you do that every one to two weeks just set it on
your phone it'll tell you to do it but again if you're looking to attract
hummingbirds to your yard you have to get Vermilionaire we own Creekside
Nursery in Dallas, North Carolina we always stock vermillionaire it is one of
our number one plant sellers for our customers they love it if they cannot
remember the name of it they'll just go the hummingbird plant do you have the
hummingbird plant yes we do but if you're not able to come visit Creekside
if you will just go to provenwinners.com they have a place where you can
put your zip code in and you can find a local retailer near you give them a call
and ask them if they are going to carry Vermillionaire and if not it's still
early enough in the season that they can actually bring it into their nursery so
that you can have access to this plant because I'm telling you if you're
looking to bring hummingbirds into your yard you have to have a vermillionaire
thanks so much for watching hope you have a great day and we appreciate you
Gardening with Creekside see you later guys bye
you