If you are a new owner of an elegant, white flowered Southern Magnolia, you should know this … Glossy, dark green, leathery leaves on the Magnolia are incredible, but when spring rolls around, those beautiful leaves turn yellow and spotted and fall off the tree. This is perfectly normal and is expected each year. Even though Southern Magnolias are evergreens, in spring, new leaves push off the old leaves - but not all at once.  Most deciduous trees lose their leaves in the fall, but Southern Magnolias will drop the older leaves in the spring - every spring. Fresh new foliage replaces the older, discolored leaves, giving your plant a fresh new look each spring!  Enjoy.

Arborvitae make an excellent backdrop for your perennial or shrub border and at the same time eliminate the neighbor next to you. Natural, unpruned plants are maintenance-free and offer cover for wildlife year-round. Much better than a fence, don’t you think? NO painting, no maintenance, and a friendly way to eliminate a neighbor’s camper or messy yard that you can both enjoy (maybe even split the cost??). Watch them get better each year. Arborvitae available today can be found by clicking here.

Nature Hills Nursery’s main office is in Nebraska, but did you know that we have contracted with over 16 of the best growers across the country?  Most other online plant stores ship from one location, and all the plants get shipped to that location. As Nature Hills has expanded each year, we have added classic lines of plants from growing regions that do that plant palate well.  When it comes time for you to receive that plant, it arrives directly from our grower who knows best how to grow that plant.  Not everyone can grow everything in one location under one set of growing conditions.  This is the reason we reach out to other areas across the country. Nature Hills saw a need to put some of the challenges of growing these different crops of plants in the hands of the growers that know best how to produce them. Rather than having the many kinds of plants shipped across the country to one big shipping yard like the other online e-commerce nursery companies do, we let our professional growers who are growing, trimming, fertilizing and watering the plant ship their product to your door. Why do we ship from different locations?  Simple – it lets us offer the widest variety of plants to the greatest area, without sacrificing our quality.  Imagine trying to hold southern plants and northern plants in the same location as other online e-commerce companies do.  No wonder there is disappointment with the finished product shipped from our competition.  We follow strict guidelines regarding quality and only work with growers who meet and exceed our standards.  When we say “from the fields to your door”, we mean it … literally! As Nature Hills continues to expand, we are broadening our offering with the new series of plants, new dwarf selections, new fruit and berry selections, new re-blooming shrubs, and longer blooming shrubs.  We are always bringing on the newest perennials, newest roses and new trees too.  We continue to grow the plants that are tried and true and the ones that receive the most positive feedback.  Our growers keep us updated on the newest plant material available so that in turn we can offer them to you! This is what sets us apart from other online nurseries - premier growers who are bringing new plants to market, growing and caring for them, and shipping them directly to your home. Our team has also engineered the best method of boxing plants to prevent them from becoming damaged during the short time they ship to you. Nature Hills is able to offer various sized plants, many that are nice sized landscape quality sure to please.  The days of the old “mail order” companies shipping many very small plants in the same box (the size of a shoebox) are long gone.  E-commerce purchases from Nature Hills brings a new level of quality and size to our customers who prefer shopping from the comfort of their own homes 24 hours a day.   Working with leading growers keeps us current with the nursery industry trends, keeps us compliant with invasives and other plant issues that arise across the country.  We have three top horticulturists on staff to assist us and you with everything from tropical plants, annuals, perennials, vines, evergreens, fruit trees and small fruits, citrus trees, and shade and ornamental trees that work in 48 states.  Our full-time, on staff compliance officer insures that we are on the front end of doing things right. We are constantly tweaking our plant offerings, making sure our plant descriptions and pictures are accurate.  Care and growing tips are detailed and user friendly. We are America’s largest online plant nursery.  

Is there such a thing as plants that deer will not eat? Not really, but there are plants that deer prefer not to eat – if given a choice. Let’s say you live in an area with lots of deer and you want to add some new plants from Nature Hills to your landscape. To start, choose some plants that deer do not prefer. On the day you plant them - before the end of the  very first day - spray on some deer repellent. Why spray the first day? Deer will move through an area and if there is a plant that was not there previously, they will sample it just to see if they like it.  If you have sprayed the leaves and stems of that new plant that makes it taste bad, deer will move onto something they like better. Re-apply as needed every few weeks. Fencing is another option. Homemade deer repellent spray ½ gallon water 2 raw eggs 2 tablespoons milk 2 crushed garlic cloves 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth (may need to do in 2 batches). Strain through mesh screen and put in spray bottle. Apply to the leaves and stems of your new plants. Store in fridge.

Maybe it has been a while since you went shopping for some new flowering shrubs. Maybe the last time you looked for any new flowering shrubs was at one of the big box stores that seem to roll out the same old plants from the same old growers year after year. Now is a great time to browse Nature Hills Nursery for some of our great, new, dwarf and reblooming shrubs from the comfort of your own home! Perhaps it’s time to cut out those old, tired, overgrown shrubs and revive your landscape. There is no reason you must be stuck looking at old overgrown shrubs for another year when you can easily transform your landscape with some of these incredible new and reblooming plants. These new options offer color for extended periods, and many are much smaller growing - reducing the need for pruning as they age in your landscape. Here are a few “gotta have” new shrubs that you may not have been exposed to before. New, smaller growing and re-blooming or extended blooming Hydrangeas are the ticket! Wee White and Limetta re-bloomers offer lime green blooms that mature to classic white before drying and remining on the plant for winter interest. Fire Light, Little Lime, Little Quick Fire, Diamond Rouge, and Bobo are all super hardy, start out white, and age to pinks (some to reds) before drying and remining on the plant for the winter. The Cityline Hydrangea is a whole series offering dwarf selections that don’t need pruning and have pink, blue, red, fuchsia, and purple colors. The Everlasting series is also dwarf, and the blooms transform themselves through white, pinks, blue, purples, and greens. How about our new favorite Cherry Explosion, which offers amazing red flowers that cover the plant? Try and find some of these at a big box store. The new re-blooming Azaleas are absolutely incredible in the spring, summer and again in the fall. What more could you want? Check out the Bloom-A-Thon Series offering pink, purple, red, white and lavender. And let’s not forget the new dwarf Encore Azalea Series with over 30 color options, including pinks, white, reds, oranges, salmon, purples and various shades of these colors. Our availability of the series changes as they are hard to keep in stock. Nandina Firepower has become the hot, new, red shrub that stays small and is as winner. Let’s not forget the months-long color from The Black Diamond series of Crape Myrtle, which offers a rainbow of colors for the more southern states. The flowers come in white, pink, purple, and red, and they have amazing deep purple colored foliage as a backdrop. These are big shrubs for screening and massive color displays that last and last. You may not be able to grow Lilacs in the south, but you are lucky to have Crape Myrtles that offer color for a much longer period of time. Butterfly Bushes love the heat and sun, are dwarf, and have tremendous color summer into fall - and many of the new ones produce no seed. A simple no-brainer to grow for sure. Many purples, pinks and whites dominate this group and are the flowers are huge magnets for pollinators. Simply cut these down each spring and sit back and watch them pop into action for summer and fall color. Weigela shrubs have had the interest of plant breeders and the new selections bloom with a heavy bomb of flowers in June, as well as a recurrent bloom later in summer into fall.  Check out our vast assortment in white, pink, purple, red, and even yellow. The new selections have deep purple foliage as a great backdrop to the flower color. New selections are much smaller.  You want more? How about the showiest woody shrub for summer into fall? Rose of Sharon is a woody Hibiscus that has the interest of the breeders for double flowers and being sterile plants. The flowers resemble carnations on a larger shrub. Amazing blue, purples, pinks, white, and bicolor plants are showy and hardy.  Lilacs galore! Nature Hills has some beautiful, colorful and fragrant shrubs in many sizes for those of you who can’t plant Crape Myrtles in the north. Lilacs rock and come in blue, lavender, pink, purples of many shades, white, and even a pale yellow. Check out everything that we have to offer. Punch in your zip code to find out which hardiness zone you are in so you know which plants will work for your home.