• Coax hummingbirds to your garden by growing their favorite plants.Design Pics/Valueline/Getty Images
  
  A hummingbird is a sight to behold in a home garden, with a metallic green back, ruby-red or white throat and long bill. Coax these fluttering beauties to frequent your flower garden by including brightly colored, nectar-rich plants that they love. Grow the selected tall and trailing flowering plants in hanging baskets so the birds feel secure while enjoying their high-sugar snacks. Hummingbirds usually feed on the blooms while beating their wings, so space multiple baskets sufficiently apart.
  
  

Wave Petunia

• According to the Birds& Blooms website, hummingbirds prefer nectar-rich, tubular blooms of petunias. Include trailing varieties of the sun-loving, fragrant annuals in the hanging basket that cascade over the edge, providing flitting hummingbirds a chance to feed on rich blooms. Wave petunias (Petunia x hybrid Wave) trail as long as 4 feet and bear striking 3- to 4-inch wide, trumpet-shaped blooms in violet, pink or white. The easy-to-grow plant prefers full sunlight and dresses up the spot from midsummer till fall.
  
  

Lantana

• A cheerful annual that spruces up a garden or container with its colorful blooms, lantana (lantana camara) is popular with hummingbirds due to its abundant nectar. The clump-like plants grow 2 to 4 feet tall and produce cup-shaped blooms in shades of white, orange, pink, yellow and violet. Also called yellow sage, the plant prefers full sun and well-draining soil.
  
  

Salvia

• A distant relative of sage, salvia (salvia coccinea) is an upright perennial that provides rich color to a container garden in zones 8 through 10. The 2 to 2 1/2-foot tall plants produce heart- or oval-shaped leaves and deep red flowers from summer to fall. Butterflies and hummingbirds frequent the showy blooms rich in nectar. The fast-growing plant features a clump-like habit and requires full to partial shade and well-draining soil.
  
  

Nasturtium

• Also called Indian cress, nasturtium are cheerful flowers that add a splash of fresh color to the container from summer until fall. The funnel-shaped, 1- to 2-inch-wide blooms that appear in a wide variety of shades including yellow, pink deep red and orange are rich in nutritious nectar. The winged beauties easily insert their long bills into the blooms and savor the high caloric snack. Intolerant of hard freezes, this annual prefers well-draining, mildly sandy soil and full sun to partial shade.
  
  

Penstemon "Phoenix Red"

• Members of the genus Penstemon, these annuals feature red tubular flower with white throats. Hardy in zone 9, the heat-tolerant plants grow 1 to 3 feet tall and equally wide, and produce showy blooms all through the summer months. The low-maintenance flower thrives in full sun and well-draining, moderately moist soil.