Plant This Herb Next To Rosemary To Fill Your Garden With Hummingbirds And Butterflies

Among the many surefire ways to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, one of the best is to plant nectar-rich flowers for them to feed on. Having multiple options allows more hummingbirds and butterflies to feed at once, but you need to be careful to ensure the plants you're growing all play nice together. If you already have rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) in your garden, an excellent companion plant is lavender (Lavandula angustifolia). On top of both herbs looking nice in your garden, they'll also appeal to hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators.

Part of the reason these herbs are so appealing is their flower shape. Tube-shaped flowers are attractive to hummingbirds, and both lavender and rosemary have those types of flowers. Butterflies will drink from a variety of flower shapes as long as they have plenty of nectar, and both lavender and rosemary fit the bill here as well. They're also easy to grow, even for beginners.

Rosemary is hardy in zones 8 to 10, while lavender has a slightly broader range of 5 to 10. Both are known for being resilient, and they can be grown either in your garden or as part of a container garden. They're even popular choices for mason jar kitchen gardens, although you'll need to move them outdoors in order to see any hummingbirds or butterflies, of course.

If you already have rosemary in your garden, you may only need to know how to grow lavender. Luckily, these two plants enjoy roughly the same conditions, so if your rosemary is thriving, your lavender likely will as well. Rosemary and lavender both enjoy plenty of sun and well-draining soil. Plant them in full sun and avoid dense, slow-draining soil or areas prone to flooding. While these herbs will bounce back from occasional overwatering, you don't want them to be consistently waterlogged. They can develop root rot or other fungal infections in those conditions.

Spacing is important when growing lavender and rosemary, as both of these plants can grow fairly large. Rosemary can grow up to six feet tall in the right conditions. Lavender tends to be smaller, but it can still grow fairly tall and wide. To avoid crowding them, make sure your lavender and rosemary plants have a few feet to either side of them so they can grow unimpeded. If you don't have a lot of room, opt for a more compact variety such as Spanish lavender (Lavendula stoechas) and 'Blue Boy' dwarf rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Blue Boy'). If you're growing them in containers, you can plant them in separate pots and still enjoy the benefits of growing them together by arranging the containers near each other.