New housing developments many times do not have many trees or natural areas in which they were carved out of.  That doesn’t mean that you must put up with all that wind, or even neighbors that are encroaching upon your home retreat.  In a short period of time, look what Green Giant Western Arborvitae can do for your property! This planting has only been in for a little over 10 years.  Even when the plants were smaller, they were trapping snow, blocking wind, or blocking unsightly views.  No pruning was done but these Green Giant were allowed to just grow naturally and why not?  Beautiful and natural. Each year they get a bit taller and wider and become more valuable as they age.  You can’t say that about a fence…lol.

It’s sold in bags at the gas station or grocery store.  It’s sold at box stores.  It’s sold in bulk at lumber yards and landscape companies.  There are all different kinds of mulches available.  Bark chunks, shredded hardwood, double shredded, chipped and dyed mulches are available in different colors, and let’s not forget arborists chips that are available for free in many areas.  Why mulch?  Plants benefit greatly from a layer of mulch over the roots of new and existing plants.  Arborist wood chips are preferred because not only does it help retain moisture, but it actually absorbs moisture and helps to prevent runoff and the water ends soaking into the soil. Mulch applied to the soil surface helps to moderate the temperature keeping it cooler during the hottest times of the season and of course holding the heat a bit when the temperatures dip.  Mulch applications are excellent for new plantings in the fall as it will encourage new roots to develop later in the season in colder regions.  Let’s not forget that applying mulch to the soil surface around your plants will prevent weed from germinating.  Less chemical use and less physical weeding it not only better for the plants but saves you time and money.  As soon as you have your plants installed and you have bare soil, if you cover that bare soil with about 4-6 inches thick you won’t see any weeds.  Remember that you should never pile any mulch up against the trunks of trees or stems of the plants.  Remember that mulch put around your ornamentals will keep your plant cleaner from the mud from splashing up on the plants preventing soil borne fungus like black spot, mildew and rust on plants that are susceptible.  That alone is an incredible reason alone to make sure you get your mulch around your plants.  Applying mulch over the soil around your landscape plants really adds the finishing touch.  It ties the whole landscape together.  It really completes the look that we all love.   There are other options available when it comes to mulching plant materials.   Many times in commercial landscapes smaller rock or stones are used in various colors.  Most of the stone mulches are applied with a landscape fabric or plastic beneath and some type of edging to keep the stone confined to the beds.  Stone is not always the best for plants as the stone heats up and hold heat in colder climates and may mess up the plants going dormant in winter or heating up causing them to start growing.  Some commercial landscapes use a mix of stones or gravel in some areas and chipped or shredded wood mulch closest to the plants for an interesting mix.  Some mulches being sold are actually chipped up rubber tires that may be dyed various colors.  This mulch will not decompose but they may be extremely flammable so be careful using a rubber product.  There are wood mulches that are options.  Bark chunks do not absorb the water and can easily move from the area that you want to keep them.  Chipped and dyed mulches are many times used for those that want a red, brown, yellow or other colors showing up in landscapes too.  Many landscape companies use shredded hardwood mulches.  The interesting thing is the arborists wood chips that chips needles, leaves, stems, twigs, branches and whatever else that gets chipped up is one of the best mulches you can use – and best of all it most communities it is free!  There is even a website you can check out to see if they do free arborist wood chip drop right to your door locally.  Check out here:  https://getchipdrop.com/ Help to keep your landscape plants weed free with fewer chemicals, stress free with better moisture retention, and reduce the runoff from your property.  Happy mulching!

Planting continues all season long with high quality container grown plants from Nature Hills with great success! As the season changes, so do our care suggestions for the types plants being delivered during the heat of the summer.  Water is crucial for the plants survival right at the start.  The key to understanding container grown plants is that they only take water from the soil that we shipped with the plants.  The plants are growing full speed now with heat and longer days at the nursery.  The roots have now filled the pots and have infiltrated all the soil within that pot.  At the nursery they are getting watered once, maybe twice each day possibly including a cool down watering during the heat of the day. This container grown plants need to be completely saturated and if you take the time to do just that, the success rate is beyond belief.  Here are a few tips for summer and fall: Summer container grown plants need to be rehydrated as soon as you can open the box!  You need to get your plant caught up on the moisture it requires to sustain the plant, and the best way to do that is to fill a large bucket with enough water so when you put that container plant into the water, it will completely cover the soil and pot completely. Now let that pot sit under water until it stops bubbling (which means it has saturated the soil completely), pull the plant out and let any excess drain away.  Now, plant your new plant by digging a hole no deeper than the pot but twice as wide.  Backfill with the soil you excavated from the hole, and one more time fill the hole with water completely saturating the soil of the plant and the soil around it.  We see a huge amount of success with this planting method!  After planting, how do you know if your plant needs water or not?  Use the finger test.  Stick your finger into the soil up to the 2nd knuckle right at the roots.  If it feels moist- skip watering that day.  If it feels dry – water thoroughly.  As soon as the roots grow out to find their own food and water they become less dependent upon you for water.  Rain does not usually generate enough moisture unless it was a soaker.  Remember that temperature, wind, and soil type will all affect how quickly a new plant dries out. Lastly, water the soil (not the leaves) of any plant.  Watering the soil and keeping the leaves dry lessens the chance of leaf spotting, foliar disease, or bacteria on the plant.  Putting mulch over the roots maintains better moisture and prevents soil borne disease on the leaves. Nature Hills is shipping quality, completely compliant plants across the U.S. all summer long.

Have you ever heard the garden saying regarding establishing perennials: “the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap”?  Nature Hills is making it easy to make the leap and create big impact with well-established perennials for your backyard oasis. Last year, we geared up our perennial production and started growing beautiful specimen perennials in big #1 container size that are 6-8 inches across and hold about a gallon of soil.  This crop is now ready for your landscape.  These #1 perennials are going to present well in your landscape and will “leap” much sooner for you. Growing perennials a year ahead gives these plants time to multiply and grow to a nice size in our pots.  Many other growers pot up small liners and force them out in a greenhouse then ship them in the same season.  These #1 plants were grown last year, overwintered, and shipped now.  Our big robust perennials travel well in our beautifully engineered boxes, arriving at your door healthy and ready for planting.  When you receive your #1 perennials, pull the root ball out of the pot, lay on its side, and cut off the bottom inch or so of soil and plant for perfect success.  Give these larger more established plants more space in your landscape because we grew them an extra year for you!

It is important to know when to prune your flowering shrubs, so you get the most flowers.   Timing your pruning is the key to success.  Many early spring flowering plants already made their flowers all hidden and tucked away in the growth from last year.  Pruning at the wrong time will eliminate those flowers.  Here are some tips to keep you in the know. Let’s take a Lilacs for example… If you are out in the yard and your Lilac looks large and you have a pruner in your hand, it is late summer - and you just cut off the tips of the branches – your lilac will not bloom in the spring.  Let’s say you pruned them in fall, the same thing would happen in spring – no flowers.  Let’s say you prune your Lilacs in early spring before they leaf out - same scenario because you are removing the flowers that formed in the growth that developed last year.  There are many different kinds of Lilacs, and the bloom times are common and hyacinthiflora types, then the French Hybrids, then the Miss Kim & Dwarf Korean types, the Canadian hybrids, and lastly…the Japanese tree Lilacs.  As each of these kinds of lilacs finish bloom – that is the perfect time to prune each of those lilacs without affecting next years flowers.  Older and overgrown Lilacs can be renewal pruned (removing the oldest stems out to the ground) and again right after bloom is done. Let’s look at some of these other early spring blooming shrubs. Flowering Quince is an early spring blooming rockstar.  Orange flowers bust out early and last for more than a month.  Then the plant breeders went to work and introduced many new varieties and new colors and some re-current blooming as well.  Trimming Quince varieties is best done immediately after the early spring blooms finish.  Then all of the new growth will make next years flower so no pruning after the initial prune is done right after the flowers are done.  Those newer varieties can and will throw some additional flowers throughout the summer but keep the pruning to that time following the early bloom always. Forsythia varieties too have increased in number over the years.  Forsythia flowers are a welcoming sunny yellow or gold flowers arranged all along the stems in early spring before the leaves appear. Forsythia varieties are typically fast growing and are all basically treated the same way for pruning.  As soon as the flowers are done (with their sometimes month-long show) in early spring – that is the time to prune!  Older and overgrown Forsythia plants can actually be cut down to the ground right after the blooms are done and all new growth will develop and still bloom the following spring.  Many of the newest selections remain much smaller and easier to incorporate into smaller landscapes. Rhododendrons and Azaleas are treated the same when it comes to pruning.  Basically, Azaleas are considered Rhododendrons and are all included under the Rhododendron group.  Some are evergreen holding their leaves all year, and some do lose their leaves.  Reblooming varieties are being introduced all of the time but most of them are hardy in some of the warmer zones.  Pruning Rhododendron and Azalea varieties is sometimes hard for many to want to do – why would anyone want to reduce the size of a plant that flowers on every tip?  Well, in some areas they can get big or need a little tweaking to keep them looking like you want them to.  Pruning Rhododendron and Azalea varieties can be done right after the first round of flowers begin to fade.  A hand pruner selectively reducing the length of any branches back into the body of the plant will allow the plant to continue in its more natural form.  Do not be afraid to prune these amazing plants.  They will respond beautifully to pruning and still form more flower buds in the new growth that happens after the pruning is complete.  Magnolias are wildly showy and highly valued landscape plants.  Some Magnolias are grown as single stem trees, and many more are grown more like large shrubs with low branching or multiple stem plants.  Both methods of production are seen across the country, and preference is up to you.  Most Magnolias are larger growing plants and are used as a specimen plant or focal point in the landscape. Pruning Magnolias may be necessary to correct the structure, tweak the form, or reduce the size a bit.  Pruning should only be done right after the amazing flowers finish.  (kind of a theme here). Weigela plants have had extensive interest with breeders also.  New selections offer new form, smaller size, great and varied leaf color & flower colors, and reblooming capabilities stronger than ever.  Flowers in spring are best on last years stems so do not trim Weigela until that first round of flowers are done blasting off in June in many areas.  Waiting will allow your plants to bloom as heavily as Azaleas do, covering the stems with trumpet shaped flowers that the hummingbirds love.  Older Weigela varieties were much larger and most likely need more pruning then the newer, smaller selections.  Larger, older selections can be renewal pruned by removing the oldest stems out to the ground leaving the thinner and smaller stems to take over.  If very overgrown you can wait until the first round of flowers finish and cut the branches all down to the ground and allow new shoots to take over and bloom on the tips in fall and the following spring too. Birch and Maple trees can bleed sap if pruned early spring, so if you wait until they have leafed out, those cuts will not bleed and heal over quickly.  Spring Flowering Bulbs are so very welcome in the landscape.  Keep your bulbs happy and healthy by pruning them the right way.  Enjoy the flowers.  When the flowers finish, remove only any seed heads that might form leaving all other green parts of the plants remain.  These green leaves and flower stems make food for the bulbs and will keep your flowers next year larger and healthy.  Many people like to cut off the leaves when the flowers are done but wait to cut any of the leaves off until they turn yellow and they have done their job of making more food for the bulbs.  We hope this help you get the most flowers out of your shrubs!  If you have specific pruning questions, you can send them to [email protected], and we would be pleased to help you.