This compact Agastache, or ‘Hummingbird Mint’ bears dozens of upright stalks of purple tubular flowers which–of course!–attract hummingbirds. Because of its compact form, it can be used to create spectacular small ‘hedges’, bringing color to the late summer garden.
Valuable as a shade-tolerant groundcover, Plumbago will also grow in full sun. Glossy deep green leaves and lovely blue flowers with striking red calyces make this a most attractive spreading groundcover. The plant vanishes in winter, but comes back reliably each spring.
Desert Willow is a small tree with willow-like leaves and gorgeous iris-like flowers in mid-late summer. Attracts Hummingbirds! Tolerates clay. More information here.
The red tubular flowers are a magnet for Hummers in the late summer and early autumn, as these tiny birds prepare for their annual migration. Adaptable to many soil types and low water, Hummingbird Trumpet provides a spectacular splash of color in the late season garden.
Dense, flat clusters of tiny, woolly, gray-green leaves sending up spikes of airy white flowers in late summer. This gorgeous little Buckwheat is native to the Sierra and Western Great Basin of California. Lovely in a rock garden.
A dense carpet of gray-green leaves topped with a cloud of delicate pinkish-white blossoms. Rock gardens. Tolerates clay.
Gaura has long graceful spikes of pinkish or white blooms float on the breeze from mid-summer to fall. Long-blooming, dramatic, easy.
A showy plant for dry gardens or shortgrass meadows, Dotted Gayfeather produces lavender bottlebrushes that bloom from the top down. Deep tuberous taproots account for extreme drought tolerance and long life. Nectar plant for butterflies. Firewise.
Late blooming, vigorous groundcover with large light purple flowers. Large-scale groundcover. Firewise.