Just a word of advice only the coneflowers are perrenials the rest are trees and shrubs. I hope this will save you time when you go look for them at the nursery.

yup, i knew that. thank you though! :)

I have Kousa dogwood, Serviceberry trees, both shrub and tree forms, and as many coneflowers as I can; both the pink and yello. The pinks (Echinacea purpurea) bloom earlier than the Rudbeckia yellows. Both are hardy, sturdy plants with tough stems and rather rough leaves.
Birds feast on the 'cone' in the fall. Birds also love the blue Serviceberries. In fact, I never get more than one or two to eat. Ditto for the Dogwood fruits.

One more hardy and beautiful shurb you might try for your wildlife garden are varieties of Virburnum. "Korean Spice" is one of my favorites.

Good luck with your wildlife garden. The critters and birds will love your place.
Pondy

thanks for the info Pondy! i would love to have a nice dogwood. one of the tree forms. that would be so pretty and elegant. i never realized they produced berries until a little while ago.

Since you answered my reply so nicely, I thank you. There truely are people that do not know the difference and they told by nurseries all kinds of things by seasonal workers just wanting to make a sale.

I have a problem with Virginia Creeper in that it quickly spreads and I find it every where. Not a problem for most people but I get poison ivy like welts from the sap.

For the fruiting trees try to find a nursery that will identify male and female trees. Some are self pollenating some are not.

Coneflowers are nice and birds love the seeds. You get an added benefit that many small bugs cluster on the cones when they are blooming allowing hummingbirds to have a protein snack. If you are a tidy gardener and must put things to bed and cut everything back you lose the attraction of the seedheads.

The more diverse your plantings are the more birds and other things you will attract.

I've grown all of those except the kelsey dogwood, which i think is a redtwig type of dogwood. All are good for birds.

Serviceberries are great - some of the varieties are very sweet, i think i like eating them more than the birds. Saskatoon serviceberry has large sweet berries robins really like.

Virginia creepers - if you have some space, grow these on the trunks of trees, hopefully that will help control their spreading. They're beautiful in fall.

I like coneflowers because they're easy to grow - only "problem" ive had is they get really big, just plan ahead when you plant them.

I try to plan the plantings so there are fruits ripening for as much of the seasons as possible - and pick varieties that fruit heavily.

thanks for the advice all!

maifleur - that's really unfortunate. :( i'm happy i've never had a run in with /actual/ poison ivy. do you know if the virginia creeper is related to poison ivy?

thanks for the advice chrsvic!

Virginia Creeper is not in the same family. Lots of people have problems with things that everyone can tolerate, this is mine. I can even pull poison ivy unless it is a very old plant with no problems but let Virgina Creeper sap hit my skin and it is welt/blister city.

aww i'm sorry.

I grow all the plants you mentioned, except the dogwood.

I've was surprised to see all how much the hummingbirds really do love the insects on the cone flowers. And once they dry the finches love the seeds.