Focus on Cardinal flowers to attract hummingbirds

North American native flower that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies

The Cardinal Flower is as close to a guarantee of attracting hummingbirds to your garden as anything, other than maybe a commercial feeder.

But the cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis L.), with its spires of scarlet tubular flowers, is certainly more attractive growing throughout the garden than any commercial feeder could ever hope to be.

Be sure to check out my earlier article on how to photograph hummingbirds in the garden and my comprehensive post on Flower photography in the garden.

Adding to its attractive qualities is the fact it is native throughout parts of North America in both the United States and Canada, blooms for a month or longer later in the summer, is slightly aromatic, and is a nectar source not only for hummingbirds but also swallowtail butterflies and other insects and butterflies. The scarlet-coloured wildflower, with delicate blossoms that open from bottom to top on spikes that can reach between two to four feet in height, is a member of the Bluebell family.

If you are looking for more information on growing native flowers, you might be interested in going to my comprehensive article: Why we should use native plants in our gardens.

Here, a Ruby-throated hummingbird feeds at a Cardinal flower a little later in the season. You can see how the flowers on the very top of the plant after earlier blooms have died off leaving a pod of seeds which should be sprinkled about the ground.

What are good companion plants for Cardinal flower?

It’s as much at home in a woodland or shade garden surrounded by hostas and ferns that also enjoy plenty of moisture, as it is as a specimen plant stealing the show in a small, contemporary garden alongside a man-made stream. Look to pair the Cardinal flower with moisture-loving plants that will live happily alongside Cardinal flower.

Where to plant Cardinal flower to easily capture great hummingbird photos

For garden photographers, the plants’ elegant spires stretching up against a blue sky is reason enough to include them in the garden. But the real reason to plant Cardinal flower en-masse is to catch an image of a hummingbird in its natural environment. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect flower to plant in your garden to show off our beautiful hummingbirds in a more natural setting. Plan to spend time, however, working the hummingbird/flower combination. Getting the right light to stop the frenetic motion of the hummingbird requires patience, luck and good lighting.

“Hoping to bring the plant back into the fold, this time in a lower garden within the stone terrace, I picked a seed stalk and placed it on bare soil in a gap next to the flagstones. The next year a seedling sprouted from the gap, and the following year it flowered and went to seed. hundreds of seedlings emerged in the cracks between the stones in the terrace next year. The year after that, a few of these plants flowered and the following year the terrace was a sea of red cardinal flowers. A pair of hummingbirds hovered over the terrace all summer, and my main task was to remove enough of the lush red flowered growth to create paths and a place for my dining table. ”

— Larry Weaner, Garden Revolution

I have a nice patch of the flowers growing near my favourite patio chair allowing me to easily photograph the tiny, frenetic birds from the comfort of my favourite chair with a coffee – or even better – a glass of wine.

One of the other benefits of planting Cardinal flowers near a patio is the ease of keeping the soil around the plants moist. Hanging baskets and other container plants around our patio get watered daily, so it’s easy enough to water the Cardinal flowers at the same time.

Don’t mistake the plants for weeds. The plants themselves, which appear in spring as dark green leaves, are tapered at both ends. The flowers appear later in summer – July and August – depending on your location.

A cardinal flower in full bloom with the flowers running up the large 2 to 4ft spikes.

Do deer eat Cardinal flowers?

For those of us who are lucky enough to share our backyard with deer, Cardinal flowers have proven to be extremely deer resistant. This might be because all the parts of the plant are considered toxic if eaten in large quantities.

Where do Cardinal flowers grow?

In nature, you’ll find them growing on the edge of woodlands, the banks of streams, near lakes or ponds and swamps. Yes, you can often find them growing happily in moist, wet areas, but you’ll also find them along ditches, along roadsides, in ravines prairies, meadows and even in pastures.

Are Cardinal Flowers native to New England and other areas of the United States?

In the United States they are found growing naturally from Minnesota, south to Florida, Texas and California. They are also native to New England. They are also at home throughout Mexico and through Central and South America.

In Canada, Cardinal flower is native from New Brunswick through parts of Ontario, including down through southern Ontario and throughout the Carolinian zone. In colder areas, adding a mulch layer of leaves over the winter will provide needed protection.

To grow them successfully the plants’ roots need to be kept moist, even wet, but the plants can grow in sun, part shade right through to deeper shade. They prefer to grow in a humus-rich soil, but can do well in medium loam, clay loam and sandy loam.

Cardinal flowers can be easy to grow

In the right conditions, Cardinal flowers are easy-to-grow perennials and will spread in the garden to create lovely drifts of intense flowers. They can, however, disappear quickly if they are not provided with the right conditions because individual plants are actually short-lived perennials. It’s important to allow the plants to reseed themselves in the garden to keep them prospering for years.

Do not cut down the dead and dying stalks without at first distributing the seeds around where they are growing. The seeds need cold stratification to germinate the following spring. One way to better ensure success is to lay the flower stems with seeds in them on top of soil so the seeds disperse and spread on their own. In the picture below, from the book Garden Revolution (link to my review of the book), seeds from a single plant made their way down the terrace following heavy rains a reseeded.

The image of Cardinal flowers taken from the inspiring book Garden Revolution, shows just how spectacular the plant can be in the landscape. These flowers were all grown from a single plant’s seeds spread about the terrace from rains.

In conclusion

It may take a little effort finding native Cardinal flower, but the effort is certainly worthwhile. Not only are they impressive in the landscape all on their own, but the fact they bring our landscapes to life with hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators makes them indespensible in our woodland gardens.

In the book Garden Revolution, How our landscapes can be a source of environmental change, (Ferns and Feather book review link) authors Larry Weaner and Thomas Christopher tell the story about how Cardinal flowers played a major role in shaping how they changed their approach to landscaping. Weaner describes his special relationship with the plant in his garden: “A number of years passed and I saw no Cardinal flowers in my yard until one spindly plant emerged from between a grouping of stones. Hoping to bring the plant back into the fold, this time in a lower garden within the stone terrace, I picked a seed stalk and placed it on bare soil in a gap next to the flagstones. The next year a seedling sprouted from the gap, and the following year it flowered and went to seed. hundreds of seedlings emerged in the cracks between the stones in the terrace next year. The year after that, a few of these plants flowered and the following year the terrace was a sea of red cardinal flowers. A pair of hummingbirds hovered over the terrace all summer, and my main task was to remove enough of the lush red flowered growth to create paths and a place for my dining table.”

The image included in the book (above) of a sea of red spikes surrounding the terrace should convince everyone who is not growing Cardinal flower to track them down and get them into the ground as soon as possible.