Sand Cherry Bushes at Nature Hills Nursery
Need a pretty flowering deciduous shrub that is rugged, has edible fruit for you and the birds, plus features silvery foliage and shining white blooms? The Sand Cherry Shrub is all that and more!
Read on to learn more about this native treasure!
Sand Cherry Bushes at Nature Hills Nursery
Sand Cherry Varieties Available At Nature Hills
Caring For Sand Cherry Bushes
Sweet Little Sand Cherry Shrubs
Sand Cherry Shrubs (Prunus) are a smaller Cherry tree relative that - in addition to the heralds regarding its character above - also displays sweetly fragrant flowers for pollinators and lovely foliage color too!
Spring starts with drifts of sparkling pure white (sometimes pinkish), Pollinator-friendly blossoms that look gorgeous in the landscape! Sand Cherries are wonderfully fragrant pink or white flowers. Both native bees and beneficial insects love the pollen they carry, and pollinators and butterflies love the ample nectar.
All growing season, these deciduous shrubs carry an energetic space-saving form! Often small enough to fit into just about any sunny landscape and they can be maintained smaller by pruning very easily.
These shrubs have either purple-red foliage or silvery sage green leaves that are small and finely textured, filling out the entire form that is often rounded to low-growing depending on the variety!
Then, you and your songbirds will anticipate the juicy crop of Cherry-like dark berries that are rich and flavorful with a tart flavor! Related to Aronia, if you can beat the birds to the summer harvest, you will have plenty of fresh eating snacks and treats, or process into preserves and bake into pies or sauces!
Birds adore these shrubs as much as you will for their double-duty fruiting ornamental beauty and nesting shelter and cover!
Sand Cherry Varieties Available At Nature Hills
There are tree-form Sand Cherry’s and shrub-form varieties for you to choose from! All are fantastic shrubs that will enhance your landscape beautifully! Wildlife will make use of any fruit that these plants produce if you don’t hurry and make jam, jelly, juice, or baked goods from your harvest!
Purpleleaf Sand Cherry
The purely ornamental Purpleleaf Sand Cherry Tree is a gorgeous single-stemmed tree form of the shrub that is grafted on a straight standard (trunk). The purple leaves and white petalled blooms have a rosy tint on rosy purple-red stems for an overall pinkish effect in the landscape!
Both the Purpleleaf tree and shrub have a dramatic show throughout USDA planting zones: 4-8 for the tree and zones 4-7 for the shrub! These may be related but Purpleleaf Sand Cherry are native to Asia and not the US.
Pawnee Buttes® Western Sand Cherry
The Pawnee Buttes® Western Sand Cherry Bush features fragrant pinkish-white blooms, edible purple-black fruit, and dramatic fall color! Low-growing but wide-spreading, Pawnee Buttes® have silvery foliage with a lovely gloss! Fall brings on vibrant ruby-red foliage to end the season. These Growing Zones 3-8 cultivars retain all the hardiness of their native counterparts!
Great Lakes Sand Cherry
The Great Lakes Sand Cherry are hardy natives with silvery foliage, fragrant white blooms with yellowish centers, and rich tart fruit. Extremely drought and cold-hardy, Great Lakes Sand Cherry can be variable in size, ranging between 2 -6 feet tall and wide. Growing throughout USDA planting zones 2 to 8, these are highly adaptable shrubs! These also handle a bit more shade than other varieties.
Western Sand Cherry
The Western Sand Cherry is a native with sparkling white blossoms and silvery foliage. Handling the sandier, drier, and more xeric conditions throughout USDA planting zones 3 to 6, these are wonderfully cold-hardy fruiting shrubs that grow 5-6 feet in height and width! In their native environment, Western Sand Cherry bushes can be low growing and spreading, but in the garden border can be while-flowering upright shrubs!
First Editions® Jade Parade® Sand Cherry
The fancy cultivar of the family, First Editions® Jade Parade® Sand Cherry bushes are incredible groundcover plants with blue-green leaves! The long kinetic branching can be pruned or left to grow in fluffy round mounds that are filled with glorious white-scented blooms and later have dark red cherry-like fruit for you or the birds too! The mix of fall colors becomes a riotous mixture of yellow, orange, and red!
Caring For Sand Cherry Bushes
These deciduous shrubs are highly adaptable to various soil types and climates! Cold-hardy, you’ll get the best show of blooms and fruit set in full sun, but a few varieties handle partial shade.
Typically xeric and hardy plants, Sand Cherry thrive in some tough conditions in nature, but these native and hybrid plants also do well in average garden conditions! Purpleleaf Sand Cherry appreciates regular moisture access to keep them looking their healthiest.
Like most plants, these hardy natives need well-drained soil and average fertility. Sand Cherries thrive in harsher conditions due to their deep root system, enabling established plants to survive drought, poor soil, sandy or rocky locations. Provide a layer of mulch to help insulate the roots and support their moisture needs.
These plants bloom in the spring so to get maximum bloom displays, prune right after they have finished blooming. You can also renewal prune every 3-5 years to keep the branching vigorous and remove older branches that are less productive.
Full Sun & Some Part Shade
Well-Drained Soil & Handles Poor Soil
Moderate to Low Moisture Needs - Drought Tolerant Once Established
Prune After Flowering or Renewal Prune Every 3-5 Years
Xeric, Hardy & Cold-Tolerant
Sweet Little Sand Cherry Shrubs
The Prunus family has over 400 species growing in just the Northern hemisphere and includes Almonds, Nectarines, Peaches, Apricots, Cherry, Aronia, and Plum trees! Grown not just for their beauty but for the gorgeous flowers and tasty fruit they produce!
Sand Cherries are grown more for their ornamental qualities and not for the fruit but they are still fantastic additions to your edible landscaping orchards and supporting native ecosystems!
Nature Hills has a wide selection of these hardy bushes for you to choose from so check out each and order yours today!
Happy Planting!
Pinching back sounds like it would hurt doesn't it? Remember getting pinched when you were younger and it either meant you weren’t wearing green at St. Paddy’s day or meant you had done something to deserve it. Often it involved sore cheeks after your visit with an overly-doting aunt.
After all this, you probably don’t want to think about pinching again! But pitching is actually beneficial for plants!
Reasons To Pinch
Plants That Benefit From Pinching
How to Pinch Back Plants
Even If They’re Wearing Green, Pinch Them!
As counterintuitive as pinching plants sounds, pinching is a pruning technique that encourages branching and bushiness! While it may seem like you are hurting or stunting your plants, making you wait a bit longer for your plants to flower, but the results are nothing short of amazing!
Reasons To Pinch
1. Many annuals and perennials plants will be encouraged to grow into more compact domed forms, produce more flowers, and stay smaller.
2. Older plants benefit from pinching to reduce size when they become leggy, and even produce more foliage!
3. You can also pinch off side growth to encourage primary flowering stems to grow and have the plant put all its energy into that single bloom, making it larger and stronger.
4. This pruning style l helps the plant to put out energy on new growth or stop growing and instead produce flowers depending on the timing of the pruning.
5. Many foliage plants do better when they don’t flower, plants such as Coleus for instance, and you really want a nice compact plant with lots and lots of foliage!
6. You can also delay flowering by pinching, either because of some unexpected bad weather approaching, or to time the flowering to align up with other plants in your container garden or garden beds!
7. Nipping off those blooms early also keeps plants from bolting!
8. You can also pinch back plants after they have flowered and want to encourage rebloom or discourage seeds.
Plants That Benefit From Pinching
These perennials and annuals grow fuller, more compact, and flower more profusely when pinched at a young age.
Perennials
Both creating tighter mounds and dense, domed clumps with shorter, more even growth, or for taller flowers, you’ll get bigger blooms by elimitaing side shoots and smaller flowers forming along the main flowering stem.
Asters
Chrysanthemums
Dahlia
Sedum
Delphinium
Foxglove
Scabiosa
Hollyhock
Geraniums
Salvia & Russian Sage
Tall Garden Phlox
Annuals, Herbs & Vegetables
For annual plants, pinch the first year to keep them from bolting, hold of flowering in some types of foliage plants, as well as the many other perks that pruning brings. For Herbs and lettuce for instance, nipping them back creates more leaves and you can toss these pruned bits into your soup, salads, or dried and ground for later use!
For Tomatoes, you want to also nip out the suckers that form in the branching notches (the ‘V’ or ‘axil’ between the branches) and you can pinch back the tops to encourage the energy going into the fruit and existing branches once they reach the desired height.
Vegetable plants like Peppers, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Broccoli, Greens, and Potatoes
Bedding Plants - Marigold, Coleus, Petunia, Snapdragons, Zinnia, Cosmos, Phlox, Celosia, Begonia, and Annual Geranium/Scented Geranium
Tall Plants that usually only have 1 flower - Don’t want 10 foot tall single Sunflowers? Pinching causes them to stay shorter and produce multiple smaller blooms!
Many Herbs - Like Basil, Oregano, Mints, Rosemary, Thymes, Tarragon, and Sage
Brambles can sometimes benefit from tip pruning depending on the variety. It can make them easier to pick by eliminating thorny non-fruiting ends
Pine trees benefit from a form of pinching called ‘Candling’.
How to Pinch Back Plants
To pinch back, you will want to make sure that the plant is at least 2-4 inches tall, or at least 3-4 sets of leaves. While it seems harsh, you will be removing up to a third of the leaves/growth.
You can literally pinch back plants using your fingers and fingernails, or you can use small sterile scissors or garden snips if you are wearing garden gloves or want to save your manicure.
For bushiness and increased flowering, nip back your plants stems by a third down to just above a leaf node along the stem. Soon new shoots will develop on either side of the cut stem. If you can resist waiting for flowers, you can wait until 3-4 new leaf sets have grown on these new shoots and pinch them back again for a denser, bushier plant!
To encourage a single flower to grow larger and more prominently, limiting side shoots and reducing smaller flowers that may form along the stem. This pushes all the plants energy into the main stem and flower.
Pinch back suckers and side shoots that you don’t want sapping energy from the main plant at any time.
Water your plants well and wait to fertilize until you see those new buds forming.
Once those blooms begin to fade, pinch back the old flowers back to a leaf node and watch as new blooms quickly replace the old! Even if your plants don’t rebloom, deadheading forces the plant to put its energy into its roots for next year instead of seed or fruit.
This also prevents self-seeding and cleans up the entire plant.
Even If They’re Wearing Green, Pinch Them!
So don’t feel bad about pinching and instead have some fun and holler “Off with their heads!” while you are working in the garden! (You may want to whisper it if the neighbors are a bit judgemental.)
It will be a meditative and fulfilling, productive and enjoyable practice while spending time in the garden! It’s also a great chore for small hands and gets the kids involved in the great outdoors!
Happy Planting!
There are so many wonderful varieties of Evergreen Trees available! While the layman may find themselves referring to all of them as just Pine Trees, you don’t have to be a trained arborist to tell each kind apart!
There are many varieties of Conifers out there and with a bit of closer inspection, you will see differences and be able to tell them apart like a pro!
Today in Part 3 of Evergreen ID - It’s all about the Fir Tree!
Fir Tree Basics
Other Fir Trees Native To The US
Non-Native Fir Trees Around The World
Fabulous Fir Trees at Nature Hills!
Fir Tree Basics
With names like Grand and Noble, you know the Fir tree family holds some prestigious members!
In the genus Abies, and members of the Pine Tree family, Fir Trees differ from Pines because of their shorter, stiff, needle-like leaves that aren’t sharp.
You can tell a Fir from a Spruce by its needles easily because Spruce needles are attached to the stems by small, stalk-like woody projections and are square and Fir are flat. While Pines carry their blunt needles in clusters, Firs have individual needles that grow out in a whirl all around the stem, along the entire branch.
Even where there are no needles along the branch, you’ll still see the little brown nubs left behind where the needles used to be. Giving the branches a stubbled texture.
Think of the three ‘F’ with these trees - Fir are Fat and Flat! You can’t roll them easily between your fingers.
Fir trees are your typical Christmas Trees and have that beautiful pyramidal shape as they grow! Typically featuring upright to horizontal branches (Spruce can have a drooping appearance).
Flat needles are tightly packed, whirled along the entire stem in individual needles
The needles are directly attached to the stem
A citrusy scent when crushed
Upright-held female cones, when mature the scales fall away leaving bare stalks
From the Douglas, to Fraser, Balsam, and White (or Concolor), the Fir Tree family has some beautiful variety and range!
Fraser Fir (Abies fraseri)
Fraser Fir trees are filled with dense needles that form in short spiked bottlebrushes around the stems. Dark green with grooved needles, the undersides have two silver rows. Typically having a more narrow crown, with a silver brown bark that can become scaly with age. Male cones can be yellow to purple and young female cones can be purple too. Mature female cones are held upright on the stems and have densely packed scales with papery tongues curling out from between each scale.
Short dark green needles with grooves
Two silver lines on the undersides
Yellow to purple male cones
Purple young female cones
Cones are held upright on the branches with papery ‘tongues’ curling out between each
Silver-brown bark becomes scaly with age
Mature trees have a uniformly pyramidal profile
Their aromatic bark and needles, plus their strong limbs make the Fraser a quality choice for a Christmas tree!
Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)
Balsam Firs are among the most aromatic of the Firs. Growing dense, dark-green, pyramidal Evergreens that have smooth bark with resin-filled blisters. The green needles seem to be attached to the stems by ‘suction cups’ and can sometimes have a bluish tone. The narrow cone-shaped canopy is typically found only in the furthest Northeastern parts of the US and Canada and demands abundant soil moisture and a humid environment.
Incredibly aromatic!
Green-blue needles seem attached to the branch by suction cup-like structures
Male cones can range from red to purple, to blue, green, or even orange
Young female cones are dark blue-gray, green-gray, purple, gray-brown, or violet-brown
Female cones are highly resinous and also held vertically from the stems
The smooth bark has resin-filled blisters along the trunk
Pyramidal to conical at maturity
The dramatic upright bluish-purple cones can be covered in crystalized white sap and turn brown when ready to fall apart. One of the most fragrant of the Fir trees!
Concolor Fir (Abies concolor)
Concolor Fir trees are lighter, almost ghostly green to silvery white. The upward-curved twigs have a citrus scent, featuring little suction cups holding curved, sometimes upright sweeping needles like the Balsam. Male cones are red/violet and female cones have very resinous, shiny-looking immature cones in green to yellow and stand vertically from the stems like the Balsam. The flat scales form concentric layers that look like they have been stacked like those fancy hasselback potatoes!
Longer upward sweeping green to silvery powdery white needles
Much coarser-looking texture
Citrus-scented needles and bark
Male cones can be red to violet
Immature female cones are shiny resinous green to yellow
Cones held upright on the stems and have concentric stacked layers
The bark is ashy gray when young but turns gray-brown and furrowed when older
Horizontal branching forms a tidy pyramidal form with a domed crown
Also known as White Fir, you’ll find most Concolor Fir growing in the western US and Canada. A ghostly blue cultivar of the White Fir is the Blue Cloak White Fir, featuring hazy blue-green foliage and a unique layered and tiered branching pattern.
Douglas Fir Tree (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
While not technically a true Fir, the Douglas is named a Fir but is closer related to Hemlocks (Tsuga). Douglas Fir trees feature a very symmetrical, upright pyramidal shape and look great in every season. It even smells wonderful! The soft, blue-green needles aren't stiff and pokey like other evergreens. Douglas Firs grow tall and straight, with bottlebrush-like needles, pointed new growth buds, and deeply furrowed gray/brown bark.
Blue-green needles aren’t stiff and spikey, form bottlebrush around the entire stem
Fragrant needles are the same color on top and bottom
Male cones are orange-red and about a half-inch in size
Female cones when immature are purple or red-green
Mature female cones have 3-pronged papery ‘tongues’ that stick out between each layer
Deeply furrowed gray-brown bark
Forming an open pyramidal silhouette when mature
Lower branches droop while upper branches point up
Douglas Fir has looser scaled cones that drop in the fall with either ‘snake tongues’ flicking out from beneath each scale, while others see ‘mice’ hiding beneath each scale with their feet and tails sticking out!
Other Fir Trees Native To The US
Noble Fir (Abies procera)
The Noble Fir has blue-green needles shaped like hockey sticks that stick out from the branch and then angle away from the stems. The scale-like cones and each tightly packed scale have a downward curved bract.
Blue-green needles that have a bend
Immature male cones are reddish and are held on the underside of the branches
Upright-held female cones are yellow and turn purple
Mature cones are long egg-shaped with many tightly packed scales
Each scale has a downward-facing bract, giving them an almost shaggy appearance
Smooth pale-gray bark that can have a purple tone
Clean columnar form with a blunted round crown
Typically found in the Mountains of the Northwestern-most US.
Grand Fir (Abies grandis)
The Grand Fir is considered one of the tallest and fastest-growing Fir species. Also known as the Giant Fir, is native to western North America and grows to 130 - 250 feet in height. The green needles have two white lines on their underside making a two-tone effect. Laying flat on either side of the stem for a flattened stem appearance.
Green needles with two white lines on the underside
Needles lay in flat pairs and are glossy. Entire branch and branchlets are flat
Branches have round leaf scars where the old needles were with resinous blisters
Yellowish male cones clustered on the underside of the branches
Immature female cones are yellow, yellow-green, or green
Mature cones stand upright from the branch and shed their scales, rarely dropping whole
Bark becomes full of narrow furrows and flat ridges
Mature form is very tall and slender pyramidal form with branches that angle down
The layered tightly-packed scales make up the elongated cones sit upright and rarely drop onto the ground.
Santa Lucia Fir (Abies bracteata)
The Santa Lucia Fir or Bristlecone Fir, is the rarest Fir tree in North America. Exclusively found in the rocky canyons in the Santa Lucia Mountains, and the Big Sur region on the central coastal California.
Needle-like leaves are green with two bright white bands on the underside
Arranged in a spiral around the branch and tend to point forwards
Male cones cluster at the ends of branches and hang down
Female cones have very long bracts with winged seeds giving them a hairy appearance
The mature form is very skinny and slender with drooping branches
Reddish-brown bark has resin blisters and matures with many wrinkles and lines.
Also known as the Bristlecone Fir, this is one of the rarest US Fir trees due to its limited remaining habitat and fire susceptibility.
Non-Native Fir Trees Around The World
For every region of the world, there’s a Fir tree named after it and native to that area! From the Greek Fir, Spanish Fir, Bulgarian Fir, Sicilian Fir, and Algerian Fir, the list goes on with each having its very own unique characteristics. The genus Abies includes 48-56 species overall! Some of the more notable varieties include (but are not limited to)...
Silver Fir (Abies alba)
A silvery green needled Fir in the mountains of Europe, the Silver or European Silver Fir is a gorgeous glossy-needled evergreen with a conical canopy.
Korean Fir (Abies koreana)
Beautiful and short-needled bottlebrushes with silver undersides, the Korean Fir grows in alkaline soil throughout South Korea's mountains. It does like high rainfall and cool summers.
Nature Hills carries a form of the Korean Fir - the Ice Breaker™ Korean Fir which is a silvery blue-green dwarf that almost looks flocked like a Christmas tree! Growing just 18 - 24 inches tall and spreading 2 - 3 feet wide, this globe-shaped conifer is a slow-growing little specimen plant!
Siberian Fir (Abies sibirica)
The Siberian Fir grows in the taiga throughout Siberia and the surrounding regions. Handling incredible chill in the winter, it’s known for creating a powerfully medicinal and aromatic oil.
Fabulous Fir Trees at Nature Hills!
There are about 10 species of Fir Tree in North America and usually found throughout mountainous, rocky areas instead of hanging out in deep pampered forests.
It is always a great idea to check with your local County Extension Office to see which Fir Trees will perform best in your immediate area!
Include the fantastic Fir as a prominent lawn specimen, wildlife sanctuary, or as part of a windbreak, shelterbelt, or snow barrier! Get the Christmas tree look year-round in your landscape!
Check back next time for Part 4: The Juniper!
Happy Planting!
Got an unsightly compost bin, or a messy scrap pile of accumulated yard waste, or maybe just had a large tree come down in your yard? Don’t let that pile of logs, sticks, and leaves go to waste!
Turn it into something unique and beautiful - and incredibly beneficial!
What is Hügelkultur?
How To Make a Hugelkultur Raised Bed
Reasons Hügel Beds Are Great!
Get More “Mound Culture” In Your Life!
What is Hügelkultur?
Hügelkultur has been used for centuries in Eastern Europe, as part of a broader permaculture system. Literally translated as a “mound culture” or “mounded bed”, Hügelkultur is a horticultural technique where a long linear mound is constructed from decaying wood, yard debris, and other compostable biomass and plant materials.
Plus you can plant directly onto it!
How To Make a Hugelkultur Raised Bed
While large installations of Hügelkultur can be labor-intensive to build, that messy-looking compost bin or pile of dead branches in the backyard can be transformed into a smaller version and made to become part of your landscape instead of a scrap heap!
In a trench or on the ground itself, lay down larger hardwood logs in a row
On top, layer softwoods and smaller logs/larger branches parallel to the large logs
Start piling on smaller twigs, mulch chips, and leaf litter, alternating with compost until you have a large pyramidal heap that extends along the entirety of the largest logs. It can be as tall as you are able.
Cover with 10-20 inches of soil that you can plant directly into
Adding logs along the base or stones can give you a boost to continue piling more on top, or help keep the soil from washing away until the Hügelkultur outer layer settles and roots from turf or plants stabilize the soil.
Continue extending your Hügelkultur to lengthen it rather than continue making it taller than you can reach, creating a privacy berm or raised bed that decomposes naturally and slowly over time.
Hügelkultur can be either left as is, covered in turf or sod, covered in mulch, or immediately planted as a Raised Bed Garden.
Things To Be Aware Of When Creating A Hugel Bed
Avoid making the sides of your Hugelkultur bed too steep. You can cover a newly made mound in mesh netting, straw, or mulch to hold soil in place while plants work to take over. Also because of the increased exposure, plants grown on tall hügel beds may be more susceptible to wind and frost damage.
Tall plants growing on steep-sided beds may fall over or be difficult to tend. Grow shorter, sprawling plants until the hügel shrinks and breaks down further.
New Hugel Beds can be low in nitrogen, so enrich that top layer of soil with compost, fertilizer, or a cover crop of nitrogen-fixing clover if you are planting vegetables or flowers directly into a new Hügelkultur. It can take a couple of years for the natural processes to break down and the nitrogen becomes available to all layers.
You can use larger stems and branches secured into the ground to hold the logs in place while you pile on the other layers. Preventing them from rolling and eroding.
You can add earthworms to the upper layers to help speed the process.
Over time, the logs and wood break down and you will notice increased biodiversity, beneficial insects, and native pollinators frequenting your garden! You will also notice your Hügelkultur mound shrinking as plant matter breaks down.
After several years, you can remove this mound spread its contents onto your vegetable gardens, and renew them with newly created Hügelkulturs!
Reasons Hügel Beds Are Great!
Rotting wood absorbs moisture like a sponge and becomes home to beneficial insects and fungi.
Plus it becomes home for many native bees and other beneficial pollinators to overwinter!
Acting as a slow compost bin, there is no need to turn your Hugel mound as you would need to turn a compost bin! These raised beds naturally aerate themselves and won’t become rotting piles of stinky mess.
Increase the three-dimensional space of your garden and give height to a flat boring area, while disguising your compost pile as flower beds or screening!
Require less space in the garden because fewer garden paths are needed and you can create dimensional layers to your landscape!
Hügel beds warm faster in the spring, giving you a place to kick-start your spring annuals or cold-hardy veggies!
Naturally sequesters carbon into the soil.
Create planting berms if you have poor drainage areas.
Raise ground for privacy, screening, and landscape dimension.
Increase biodiversity and native insect and wildlife shelter.
Improve soil quality, improve organic matter in soil & increase microorganism presence.
Creates snow drift barriers and windbreaks when sited just right
Get More “Mound Culture” In Your Life!
Double-duty berms that solve more than one problem in the landscape, Hügel Beds disguise your messy compost pile, improve the ecosystem, elevate your landscape, and are a sneaky way to include permaculture methods right in your own backyard!
Get ready for spring sooner with the help of Nature Hills Nursery by checking out all our latest sales and promotions to get your spring garden blooming beautifully!
Happy Planting!
Hyssop plants (Agastache) are perennial and evergreen plants that are must-haves if you want butterflies and hummingbirds to stop by your landscape for a visit! It's easy to see why this plant is also called Hummingbird Mint!
Agastache originates from the Greek word 'aga' meaning 'very much' and 'stachys' meaning 'spikes', referring to the many flower spikes Hyssops produce! Members of the highly aromatic and medicinal Mint Family, these square-stemmed flowering plants are gorgeous ornamentals with a world of uses beyond the garden!
Spicy, Aromatic & Beneficial!
Easy to Grow Hyssop!
Heavenly Scented Hyssop!
Featuring colorful tubular blooms and scented foliage, the Hyssop has a long history! From flavorful and medicinal Teas to culinary flavoring, to a cleansing wash mentioned in the Bible, the beautiful Hyssop plant is a tall garden ornamental that will brighten your garden beds from spring until autumn!
The scalloped and quilted heart-shaped leaves are strongly scented and a cross between mint and licorice with a similar flavor. New growth can appear purple-blushed and form showy and tall flowering stems rising above mounds! Hyssop not only looks terrific, but it's also a mainstay for beneficial pollinators and our precious native bee populations. Attract beneficial insects galore, and send migrating Monarchs on their way south with a good nectar resource.
Anise Hyssop (Agastache) is a native Mint family plant with many cultivars and hybrids! It is not the same as the similarly named Hyssop (Hyssopus) which is a member of the Carrot family and native to Europe.
Learn about the many varieties you can find at Nature Hills!
Spicy, Aromatic & Beneficial!
Hyssops easily add color to your late-season garden, mixed-perennial borders, and Cottage gardens, because Hyssop is typically still blooming long after many other plants have finished! Pretty rosy lavender POQUITO™ Lavender Hyssop will fill your garden with its incredible flowering display!
Don't forget to snip a few for your indoor bouquets! Kudos™ Coral Hyssop and Blue Boa Anise Hyssop will add unique beauty to vase arrangements when combined with Bee Balm, Sea Holly, and vivid Coneflowers! The blooms shine in the sun and pair beautifully with various Lavenders, Sages, and Salvias!
Use fragrant Hyssop like the dramatically deep dark purple Purple Haze Hyssop or the pretty pink and orange Kudos™ Ambrosia and Kudos™ Gold Hyssop in the Cutting Garden and Sensory Garden to take advantage of their floriferous flowering and aromatic nature!Can't pick one color to add to your garden? Have them all with the Tango Hyssop and dance to all the colors of the sunset in one!
No Butterfly Garden would be complete without a Hyssop and the POQUITO™ Orange or Kudos™ Yellow Hyssop! Bring in jeweled Hummingbirds that are attracted to the tubular flowers and bright colors, especially the red flowers of Sinning Sonoran Sunset or the vibrant Kudos™ Red Hyssop!
If you have a sunny flowering border, you'll want to use these in the mid-ground for a big boost of color. Partner these wand-like flowers with other herbs for height and backdrops that look great all season. Grow the plants in-ground, or use them as 'Thrillers' and 'Fillers' in large, mixed containers! Try a dwarf Hyssop like Little Adder Anise Hyssop in a sunny porch planter or as a gift. Or have fun pairing both the sunny Arizona Sun or pastel yellow, pink and orange Arizona Sunset Hyssops together for a cheerful color combo!
Tolerant of drier soil and xeric locations once established, Hyssop can be highly drought-tolerant! This makes them perfect for the Rock Garden or in a front yard berm, Hyssops can be grown along walkways and paths to scent your journey as you stroll. Adding an important fragrance element to your landscape! Kudos™ Silver Blue Hyssop or Kudos™ Mandarin Hyssop will light up those harsh sunnier areas!
Include Hyssop in the Kitchen garden and Herb garden, Hyssop leaves have been used dried and steeped to make a delicious, refreshing tea - either hot or iced! Add the colorful edible flowers either fresh or dried to flavor fruit salad, pasta, and salad.
Medicinally, Anise Hyssop tea or essential oil has purifying benefits, and its chemical compounds display antibacterial and antifungal properties plus Hyssop can be used as a cough reliever, and expectorant. Try growing Blue Fortune or native Anise Hyssop for your medicinal herb garden.
Easy to Grow Hyssop!
Handling a wide range of USDA hardiness zones from 5 - 10, the native form of Hyssop is hardy down to Zone 4! The aromatic foliage is deer and rabbit-resistant!
Give these easy-care Perennials a place in the sun with good air circulation. When you do water, add water to the root area keeping the foliage dry. Also, try to plant these garden gems where they can enjoy the drying powers of the morning sun to further help combat possible powdery mildew.
Plant in a well-drained soil location with regular moisture access for new plants. But once Hyssop has become established in your garden, it becomes a low water-usage plant and only needs supplemental watering during extended droughts. All plants appreciate a 3-4 inch deep layer of arborist mulch to regulate moisture loss and insulate the roots.
Deadhead often (or generously snip stems for bouquets!) to keep the blooms returning until frost. Because these plants can self-seed freely, deadheading also curbs their spread. Hyssop can also spread by underground rhizomes. In areas where this plant can be a nuisance, Nature Hills employs Plant Sentry™ to protect those ecosystems. Clean the mounds up and prune Hyssop back in the fall.
Heavenly Scented Hyssop!
Incredibly vivid blooms plus fragrance and long-lasting color - check out some Hyssop available on the NatureHills.com website!
Check out all the incredible Hyssops at Nature Hills for your pollinators, your kitchen, and your landscape! Enjoy the sight and smell of Hyssop and its many visitors to your garden today!
Happy Planting!