Why Gardeners Are Going Wild Over Red Flowers

Red flowers do more than make a garden pop. They give it energy and heart. There’s something primal and powerful about crimson, scarlet, and ruby blooms. They call hummingbirds, catch the eye of passersby, and add year-round structure and drama to a thoughtfully designed planting plan. If you want to fill your space with bold and beautiful flowers that feed wildlife and flourish in your soil, red native flowers give you the best of flash and function.

I grow and sell native red bloomers at TN Nursery. At home and at work, I’ve been making garden plans and planting with these dependable beauties for decades. Here’s why they’re my favorite native flowers and how to use them to create a wild and structured red masterpiece in your own garden.

Red Blooms That Lure Pollinators: Nature’s Flashiest Invitations

Bright red color is one of the main ways flowers attract hummingbirds. Hummers can’t see the blue range as clearly as bees can—they love vivid warm colors. Planting a bright red bloom is a hummingbird food call we can’t resist. So what do I recommend for making hummingbirds welcome at your feeder?

One of my personal favorites is the Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis). It has deep scarlet spikes that bloom from mid- to late summer, practically glowing against a moist bed of foliage. This plant is native to most of the eastern U.S. and grows best in stream banks and low, wet areas. But if you’ve got soil that doesn’t dry out completely in the summer, Cardinal Flower will attract hummingbirds like crazy, I’ve seen them literally fight over mine. 

Another one of my hummingbird favorites is Bee Balm (Monarda didyma). It goes by several common names, including Oswego tea, but if you call it by its proper Latin name, it might have enough pull to stay put in your garden once you plant it. Monarda didyma puts on a shaggy red fireworks display of blooms starting midsummer. It’s heavily scented with a cool minty smell and attracts not just hummingbirds but also bees and butterflies. This plant also does well in average garden soil and has plenty of lush, spicy green foliage to reward you in addition to a nice flowering display. Bonus: It’s part of our TN Nursery native perennial collection and is easygoing and hardy.

But if you want something a little taller, a late-summer bloomer like Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink) will bring tubular red petals with yellow tips and the drama of a roadside stand flower to woodland borders and edges. It’s also hummingbird food, so that color does double duty. As a native plant, don’t expect this one to love being transplanted once it’s in place—pick a good location and let it grow!

Flowers in any color make your garden look great, but adding structural elements? That’s where red flowers really shine. In addition to the hummingbird attractors above, there are several native red flowers that I often reach for in garden design work to provide rich color and architectural interest in shade areas. Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) blooms in spring with deep burgundy-red petals and adds an elegant wildflower touch to shaded or forested beds. Trilliums can take a while to establish, but if you can wait for them to become fully grown, they’re treasures—symbols of a native garden in maturity.

Another great native shade perennial is Red Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), sometimes called swamp milkweed, which offers mauve-red tones that look fantastic in midsummer bloom alongside darker and more purple native flowers. This monarch caterpillar essential also fills a tall bill and gives you the big impact of height that native garden designs often call for. Mix it with other midsummer native bloomers like Joe-Pye weed or blue vervain in moist soils for a crowd-pleasing pollinator cocktail you can expect to see on our top seller list every year.

Another great bold red native option is Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). The familiar red and yellow bicolor Columbine that we know and love offers spring blooms that look like little lanterns dangling from an arch, making it a favorite of early-season pollinators that can handle a bit of dappled shade. Its finely cut foliage also provides a nice contrast to the bolder blooms to give your spring beds some softer texture in a bold statement package.

Building a Red Flower Garden That Gives Back

One of the things I love most about native red flowers is how generous they are. They’re not just sitting pretty in your garden; they’re feeding and supporting entire ecosystems. If you’re looking for one plant I always recommend for long-season color and butterfly support, try Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella). Gaillardia usually shows up in the yellow-gold range of the color wheel, but like everything at TN Nursery, these tough plants come in multiple varieties and red ones with blazing centers are out there. Blanket Flower blooms prolifically all season, is drought-tolerant, and will bring in pollinators by the dozen.

You can also get lots of fall color and tons of nectar with Ironweed (Vernonia), which shows up in deeper red-violet ranges that play well with brighter and warmer reds in garden designs. It’s more purple, but in the way that it behaves in a native planting, it’s often playing the same role as red flower might in late summer to fall beds. It’s a native plant that thrives in moist soils, adds height, movement, and a moody richness that really anchors a native planting plan.

Coral Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens Native to TN Nursery

Another plant I love recommending for vertical color in a garden is Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). Native coral honeysuckle produces red tubular blooms that will drape off a vine and put on repeat bloom performances all season long. Unlike the obnoxiously invasive Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), this native vine is polite in the garden and provides valuable nectar for hummingbirds and butterflies as well as bright vertical color.

If you’re ready to make a big first impression, many of TN Nursery’s red-flowered natives are available as bare-root plants that are relatively affordable, easy to establish when you get them into the ground during their dormant season, and come up strong when planted with a little mulch and water. Bare-root Bee Balm, Cardinal Flower, and Red Milkweed all ship well and take off in the spring when paired with easygoing native ground covers like ferns or wild ginger to create a lush, layered effect that encourages biodiversity and reduces the need for synthetic fertilizer or pest control.

A Garden That Pulses with Life and Color

At the end of the day, there’s a quiet satisfaction in knowing that every hummingbird and butterfly you see at your home is actually interacting with an entire ecosystem centered on the native plants you put in the ground. Every bright red flower you plant feeds birds and hosts butterflies. It connects you to the rhythms of your region and the legacy of the native landscapes we’re restoring, whether you’re filling in a few borders or going big on a meadow transformation.

Don’t be afraid of red in the garden. When you use it with intention, you can use it with balance, structure, and irresistible charm. With natives like those at TN Nursery, you get the luxury of beauty and function—right in your backyard.

So go ahead. Plant wild. Plant red. Then watch your garden pulse.