Make Your Yard a Hummingbird Oasis with Red Buckeyes

Adding a few of these easily grown trees to your landscape will ensure your yard is a hummingbird habitat. They are so reliable that you can hang your hummingbird feeders when the first bell-shaped flower opens. Red buckeye is a handsome tree with an open habit and large palm-shaped leaves that give it a tropical look. In its native habitats, it grows in moderately moist soil under the protection of leaf-losing trees like oaks and hickories.

Photo courtesy of J. Miller, USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

Where to Place Your Red Buckeye

In a home landscape, it prefers to be planted in well-drained, loamy soil (add a little lime if your soil is acidic) in full to partial shade. Although it is a denizen of the shady deciduous forest, red buckeye will develop a fuller growth habit and bloom more prolifically if you plant it in an area with full sun, but with protection from the hot afternoon sun in summer. Once established, red buckeye is tolerant of both occasional droughts and flooding, although it doesn't like wet feet.

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Grow Red Buckeyes from Saplings or Seed

Young red buckeye plants are readily available from nurseries. You can also grow them from cuttings or, most easily, from seed. Collect buckeyes in early autumn when the seed pod has split slightly and the seeds are firm and brown. Plant the seeds in pots or directly into the ground. Seed-grown plants will produce blooming sized trees in two to three years. Although very poisonous if swallowed, buckeye seeds have long been considered good luck and kept in many a naturalist's pocket.

>Photo Courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder