I have planted a hummingbird and butterfly garden in the back with lots of milkweed but I have a raised brick flowerbed in the front of the house that gets plenty of sun. I want to do annuals there. What annuals will attract butterflies and hummingbirds the best? I'm in zone 6a, central Ohio. TIA!

My most visited plant at the moment is a variety of hybrid Cuphea sold under the trademark Vermillionaire. My female hits the sugar feeders hard but ALWAYS hits these plants immediately before and after. A number of the larger salvias are great. Plant mexican sunflower now for late blooms that entice them. I have plenty of seed available if you want some. I read cleomes are good for ,hummers but hjaven't seen mine visited by them yet. For the last two years she has seemed to be interested in both yellow and orange cannas. We have hanging pots of fucsias spaced between sugar water feeders that she visits regularly as well.

Large Firecracker Plant (Cuphea Vermillionaire®)

UrbanWild said:My most visited plant at the moment is a variety of hybrid Cuphea sold under the trademark Vermillionaire. My female hits the sugar feeders hard but ALWAYS hits these plants immediately before...

Large Firecracker Plant (Cuphea Vermillionaire®)

Thank you. I was not familiar with Cuphea but I clearly must have some!

Budleila for butterflies and honey suckle for humming birds

I replied to a similar thread about hummingbird plants, so I'll just copy and paste some of that here, too. It is a mix of annual and perennials, but many of the latter are used "as annuals" where not hardy.

Many Salvias native to the Americas are adapted for hummingbird pollination (but not all).

Here is a small sampling of readily available Salvias for Hummingbirds:
Scarlet Sage (Salvia coccinea) (many cultivars)
Blackcurrant Sage (Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips') (& similar cultivars)
Sage (Salvia x jamensis Heatwave™ Blaze) (& similar cultivars)
Salvia Ember's Wish
Salvia 'Wendy's Wish'
Salvia Rockin'® Deep Purple
Salvia Rockin'® Fuchsia
Blue Anise Sage (Salvia coerulea) (many cultivars, like 'Black & Blue' )
Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) (many cultivars)

There are many more and many cultivars of some of the above species/hybrids.

Some types of Cuphea are a big hit.
Large Firecracker Plant (Cuphea Vermillionaire®)
Firecracker Plant (Cuphea 'David Verity')
Schumann’s Cuphea (Cuphea schumannii)
Candy Corn Plant (Cuphea micropetala)
(C. micropetala starts blooming in the fall)

Some Sinningias are favorites:
Hardy Red Gloxinia (Sinningia sellovii)
Hybrid Sinningia (Sinningia 'Apricot Bouquet')
Sinningia 'Bananas Foster'
Check out varieties from Plant Delights. (The S.tubiflora isn't good for them, though.)
https://www.plantdelights.com/...

They like the western Agastaches with longer flowers. They are usually in shades of orange, yellow, and pink. Just a few examples:
Threadleaf Giant Hyssop (Agastache rupestris)
Giant Hyssop (Agastache 'Tutti Frutti')
Anise Hyssop (Agastache aurantiaca 'Apricot Sprite')
Orange Hummingbird Mint (Agastache aurantiaca Coronado®)

The Hyssops with small blue flowers, like Agastache foeniculum, are very attractive to bees and wasps, but not favored by hummingbirds.

Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeeana) is a fun plant and hummingbirds adore it!
https://garden.org/plants/sear...

Butterflies like Buddleja, Zinnia, Tithonia, Verbena bonariensis, Lantana, Phlox paniculata, and more.
They especially adore this cultivar of perennial Phlox Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata 'Jeana')

Both butterflies and hummingbirds enjoy Pentas. The older, taller varieties are usually preferred. Here are a few that worked well for me.
Egyptian Star Cluster (Pentas lanceolata 'Graffiti Red Lace')
Egyptian Star Cluster (Pentas lanceolata 'Ruby Glow')
Star Flower (Pentas lanceolata 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom')
(mostly butterflies on this last one, but the Tiger Swallowtails loved it.)

This isn't an exhaustive list, but just what pops to mind at the moment.

Another forum on NGA that you may enjoy is the Agastache & Salvia forum.
https://garden.org/forums/view...

I'm hoping this Ipomoea sloteri morning glory will entice hummingbirds. It should open tomorrow.

The flowers are a nice vivid red color. Perfect lure for the hummingbirds.

The hummingbirds down here are always on the porterweed. We have purple purple blue coral, and red. They would probably be annuals up in your weather.