Black and Blue salvia is the hummingbird plant we point people to first. Cobalt-blue flowers emerge from near-black calyces on dark stems, blooming from summer until frost on a bold plant that can reach three to five feet in a season.

Give it sun and reasonable soil and stand back; it handles clay, dry spells, deer, and rabbits. In Birmingham it comes back reliably from the roots each spring. Cut it to the ground after frost and mulch the crown for winter.