Growing your fruit vertically is indeed a space-saving method to include fresh fruit in your garden! Big or small areas, porches, and even balconies can grow their own fresh treats in any
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 Hyssop in the Cutting Garden and Sensory Garden to take advantage of their floriferous flowering and aromatic nature!
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 or bright yellow Arizona Sunset Hyssop!
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!
There are so many wonderful varieties of Evergreen trees around the United States! Sometimes when you are out for a stroll, you may find yourself referring to all of them as just Pine Trees.
However, there are many different varieties of coniferous evergreen trees out there! With a bit of practice, you’ll be able to pick out the differences and tell them apart! Once you know the basics, you’ll be identifying these year-round green trees up close and from afar like a pro!
Today in Part 2 of Nature Hills Nursery’s Evergreen Tree identification series - it’s all about the heavenly Hemlock Tree!
The Hemlock Tree Basics
Hemlock Foliage & Growth
Hemlock Trees at Nature Hills!
Other Hemlocks Native To The US
Heavenly Hemlocks at Nature Hills!
The Hemlock Tree Basics
Members of the Pine tree family, Hemlock trees are lovely and often pendulous dark green beauties, the North Eastern US forests are filled with Hemlock Trees! With the genus Tsuga, these soft-needled conifers have very short foliage that lays in a flattened arrangement alongside each branch and branchlet.
Handling cold and even shade, the Hemlock Tree is a unique Conifer! Found growing natively throughout the North Eastern parts of the US and Canada, as well as Central and Eastern parts of Asia where they have cooler summers and cool, moist temperate regions that receive high rainfall, with minimal water stress.
The graceful pyramidal shape features gently drooping branches. Some say the very tops of these trees generally nod to the north out of respect for the cool and moist northern regions where they prefer to grow. The bark was used by Native Americans medicinally and for tanning leather, and dying wool because of the high amount of tannins.
Hemlock Foliage & Growth
New growth is in small tassels of bright green
Growth Rate is slow to medium, 12-24 inches per year
Soft, short, flat sprays of dark green mature needles with rounded ends - not sharp!
Two white lines down the length of the underside of each needle
Usually have conical crowns
The bark is gray to brown, scaly, deeply furrowed/fissured revealing cinnamon-red
One of the few Conifers that can handle shearing and trained into hedges
Hemlock Tree Cones
Male cones are small and yellow at the bases of needles along the branches. They almost look like little bubbly clusters and are very tiny. Female cones are marble-sized, purple when young, and brown when mature. They are sometimes called wood roses!
Cones held at the branch ends
Female cones are tiny - only 3/4ths of an inch long, round and papery
Wind pollinated
Hemlock Tree Facts
Very long lived - up to 800 years for some species
Unlike the Poison Hemlocks, Tsuga species are not poisonous
One of the few Evergreens that handle full-to-part shade
The needles have been used for producing tea and perfume
Can get to be over 100 feet or more, but typically much smaller in the urban environment.
Named for the needles' scent when crushed was supposedly similar to the unrelated Poison Hemlock plant. Eastern and Western Hemlock are not poisonous or toxic at all.
Hemlock Trees at Nature Hills!
Handling shade and loving moist, deep, highly organic soils, the Hemlock is a unique evergreen tree!
Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
Also known as the Eastern Hemlock, the Canadian Hemlock is a hardy North American native that handles partial shade. The elegant silhouette is full of short, dark green needles that are delicately arranged along the stems, and are grayish on the underside. They can be pruned and maintained in a more formal look, or allowed to grow naturally. The furrowed bark on older trees is a reddish-cinnamon color and looks fantastic. These long-lived trees can live for hundreds of years!
Alpha Upright Canadian Hemlock
Don’t have room for a large Hemlock? Look into the Alpha Upright Canadian Hemlock that is 6 - 8 feet in height and only spreads 3 - 4 feet wide! These are just as soft and fluffy as their larger cousins, but great for backdrops, as hedges and privacy, or in large planters in sun to shade!
Other Hemlocks Native To The US
Nature Hills Nursery is excitedly working to offer more variety for you every year! Check out some other great US Hemlocks that we hope will hit the website one day soon!
Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
The Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) is a native that dominates much of the Pacific Northwest. At home in rocky soil, adding to its tough adaptability, this giant can grow to 150 feet or more and live for centuries.
Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana)
Another native to the West Coast of North America is found between Southcentral Alaska and south-central California. Unlike flat-arranged Canadian Hemlock, Mountain Hemlock has whorled needles in gray-green to silvery white. The purple young cones stay small like others in the family but are a bit longer.
Carolina Hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana)
Growing along the Blue Ridge Mountains, Carolina Hemlock trees are considered endangered and love the moist, cool, shaded areas of your landscape instead of heat and sun. Having a shaggier appearance, the needles tend to be longer and have longer cones too. The stout branches are horizontal and often pendulous.
False Hemlock (Pseudotsuga macrocarpa)
Also known as Bigcone Douglas Fir, Bigcone Douglas Spruce, and Desert Fir, the Pseudotsuga macrocarpa isn’t a real Hemlock but is native to the mountains of Southern California. More similar to Douglas Fir than Hemlocks, even the cones look more like the Douglas.
Heavenly Hemlocks at Nature Hills!
There are about 10 species of Hemlock found in North America and eastern Asia. Their fragrant and drooping, deep green foliage and wood rose cones are unique in the Evergreen family! Plus their ability to thrive in the shade!
Include this fantastic Conifer variety in your windbreak, shelterbelt, or privacy hedge, as well as a fantastic front yard specimen! Hemlock Trees always add elegance all year round!
Contact your local County Extension Office to see if a Hemlock tree will perform well in your area! Check back for Part 3: Fir Trees!
Happy Planting!
The Yarrow family of hardy plants have been used by savvy gardeners for millennia, since before the Roman times as medicinal herbs and garden ornamentals! Versatile and highly adaptable sun garden plants, these summer-flowering gems fill the last half of the growing season in unique beauty and color!
Get to know more about this vivid and incredibly easy-to-grow herbaceous perennial and its long-lasting late-season flowers!
All About Yarrow
Landscaping With Yarrow
Caring For Yarrow
Lacy Leaves & Showy Blooms!
All About Yarrow
The name Achillea comes from Greek mythology in the legend of Achilles, who was dipped in the Yarrow-laced water of the River Styx by his mother when he was a baby. Holding him by his heel, this spot was missed when he was dipped, creating his so-called Achilles heel, which would prove to be his fatal weakness in battle. Achilles also used Yarrow’s extracts to treat his soldier's wounds during the Battle of Troy.
While the legend was the stuff of myth, the latter is actually quite true! The foliage has been used as nature's bandaid and helps sanitize cuts and staunch bleeding, among many other uses for digestion, treating colds and flu, brewing beer, and is even considered a symbol of good luck!
As an ornamental perennial that is native to North America, as well as Europe and Asia, Yarrow is beloved for its aromatic ferny foliage that is feathery, and lush green! The Latin name “millefolium” means “a thousand leaves”, and the lacy mounds are certainly just that! You'll love running your hand along the finely cut, deep-green foliage that is aromatic and has a spicy, medicinal, and pleasing scent.
Yarrow is a vigorous, yet compact grower, and some cultivars spread to form small colonies and act as groundcover, while others are more upright growing. Incredibly resilient and hardy, Yarrow can grow in poor, rocky soils and thrive in harsh conditions, as well as hot, humid summers and cold winters. Preferring disturbed Xeric sites, this is the perfect plant for those trickier locations and brown thumbs!
Members of the Aster family, the flat-topped to domed flower clusters are packed with tiny florets that are the perfect landing pads for both your local nectar-seeking butterflies and pollinators who adore these blooms, but also pollen-eating bees and beneficial insects will also appreciate these versatile flowering powerhouses!
Landscaping With Yarrow
The most obvious place to include Yarrow is in the Butterfly Garden! Any garden will become a Pollinator border with this floriferous perennial in its midst!
The bold hues and repeat blooms just "pop" in Cottage Gardens, too! The lovely mix of fine-textured foliage and unique flowers is a must-have for your Cut Flower gardens (the blooms even look beautiful when dried!), Wildflower borders, mixed Perennial Garden, and mixed Native or Prairie plantings! Yarrow always shows off with incredible color from summer until frost!
Let this adaptable and resilient perennial fill in around the base of taller perennials and flowering shrubs as an unforgettable groundcover and garden filler! A lacy fringe of Yarrow along the front of a garden bed as edging or along a sunny pathway will become your favorite place to stroll!
Hardy enough for that hell strip along the road or sidewalk, around sunny seating areas, or in that sunbaked garden around the mailbox, these little plants stand up to harsh conditions beautifully!
The Achillea varieties are a great choice for mass planting and are drought-tolerant! Plant this brilliant plant in your Rock Gardens and Xeric plantings. Yarrow is a must-have for defensible space planting in any firewise landscape.
Even if you don’t have a landscape, any sunny planter or mixed container around your sun-drenched porch, patio, or pool deck suits these plants just fine!
Caring For Yarrow
Yarrow is a hardy herbaceous perennial and should be planted in full sun, nothing less than 6 hours a day will do!
Tolerant to hot humid summers, Yarrow can tolerate poor soil conditions but does best in lean, dry to medium wet, well-drained soil. They can be adaptable to almost any soil with adequate drainage. Once established, allow your Yarrow to dry between waterings for best success because they despise soggy soil. Too much water or soil that is too rich can cause the plants to droop over from the weight of their own flowers.
New plants should be watered regularly and not allowed to dry out completely. Less frequent deep waterings are better than frequent surface waterings, encouraging the roots to delve deep into the ground for moisture, and making them more resilient in the long run
Top-dress with a 3-4 inch deep layer of arborist mulch to make them look better, hold moisture, and insulate the roots.
It's recommended to remove faded flowers to encourage more growth. Trim the first flush of blooms to use inside in darling fresh or dried arrangements! Deadheading enhances their overall appearance and encourages repeat blooms until frost. In spring, before you see new growth, trim away any of last year's stems to clean up the crown. Top off with a fresh layer of mulch or compost!
Keep these perennials growing vigorously by dividing the mounds every 3-4 years.
Lacy Leaves & Showy Blooms!
From brilliant yellow to rosy pinks and spicy reds, Yarrow has a broad range of hues to choose from!
Yellow Blooms
Buttery-soft yellow Sunny Seduction™ Yarrow
Brilliant and bright Moonshine Yarrow
Dwarf and bright yellow Little Moonshine Yarrow
Touchably soft Woolly Yarrow
Pink Blooms
Rosy and flirty Saucy Seduction™ Yarrow
Deep pink Milly Rock™ Rose Yarrow
Pinkish purple Proven Winners® New Vintage™ Violet Yarrow
Red Blooms
Spicy red Paprika Yarrow
Velvety red Strawberry Seduction™ Yarrow
Can’t choose just one? Look into the Summer Pastel Yarrow that has shades of white through to cream, yellow, pink, salmon, mauve and red!
When you have to feed the bees and butterflies, and fill your vases and landscape with vivid and unique flowers from summer until late in the growing season, you won’t go wrong with the incredible flower power that Yarrow has available for you!
Find these and more fast-growing, low-maintenance, and hardy perennials at NatureHills.com!
Happy Planting!
The plant world is a crazy place! For every rule that Ma Nature seems to make regarding plants, she turns around and breaks them, then twists them round to remake them…just to break them again!
The dizzying diversity, incredible survival skills and adaptability, and the extreme lengths that the plant world goes through to compete are legendary!
Get ready to have your socks knocked off with these Crazy Plant Facts in honor of National Plant Day this March 12th!
Quick Plant Facts
The Biggest and the Smallest
Be Amazed By Plants!
Quick Plant Facts
If you think about it - plants are weird!
They eat sunlight, minerals, and carbon dioxide then poop oxygen and water vapor!
Botanists have identified over 300,000 species of plants and growing! So where can you find most of the plant life on our little planet?
85% of all plant life on Earth is under the ocean!
68% of plant species are unfortunately endangered
Of the 1,750 Cacti species, the Mistletoe Cactus is the only one found outside the US!
Plant Oddities
Scientists don’t know what causes four-leafed Clovers
Marigolds were used to treat hiccups
The caffeine in Coffee, the capsaicin in Hot Peppers, and the nicotine in Tobacco are actually the plants' version of pesticides in an attempt to keep things from eating them!
Plants prefer music that is between 115Hz and 250Hz, with jazz and Classical being their favorites!
Plants recognize siblings and help each other out
Feeling Stressed? Go mow your yard! Freshly cut grass emits green leaf volatiles into the air and scientists discovered these are great stress relievers! Ironically, the smell of freshly cut grass is actually a plant distress call.
Weird Plant History
The Tulip craze in the 1600s caused the Dutch economy to collapse because Tulip bulbs became as valuable as gold!
In the 19th century, the Tomato became the center of a U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit. At the time, the Port Authority of New York classified tomatoes as vegetables, which were subject to a 10 percent import tax. A fruit importing company argued that Tomatos were actually a fruit, which at that time wasn’t taxed. In botany, the Tomato is considered a fruit because it contains seeds. However, the court eventually ruled the Tomato was a vegetable and therefore taxable.
Hottest Plant!
The hottest plant is the smelly Corpse Flower (Titan arum) warming up to 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius) when in bloom. It’s also the record holder for the tallest flower at 10 ft, 2.25 inches (just over 3 m) tall!
Tallest/Deepest Plants
Many Tallgrass Prairie Grass can grow roots 5 to 15 feet deep and survive fire and drought!
Elephant grass of Africa is so named because it can grow 14.76 (4.5 m.) high and Elephants hide in it.
The tallest Sunflower ever recorded was in Germany in 2016, measuring 9.17 meters (30 feet and 1 inch)!
The Dawsonia Superba is a large Moss growing to 23.6 inches tall and is the tallest Moss in the world. It is commonly found in New Zealand, Australia, and New Guinea.
The Oldest Plants
A Seagrass colony in the Balearic Islands, Spain has been growing for 100,000 years!
‘Pando’, a Quaking Aspen colony in Utah, is about 80,000 years old
California's White Mountains are home to a Bristlecone Pine called ‘Methuselah’ at 4,800+ years old, and another Bristlecone estimated at over 5,000 years of age!
California also has a colony of Palmer’s Oak called ‘Jurupa Oak’ alive for 13,000 years.
There’s Antarctic Moss estimated to be 5,5000 years old
Sweden is home to ‘Old Tjikko’ and ‘Old Rasmus’ Norway Spruces, both are over 9,500 years old!
There’s a Mojave Yucca estimated to be 12,000 years old
Back from the Dead
The oldest plant brought back from extinction is a fossilized Pleistocene-era flowering plant, Silene stenophylla. Native to Siberia, this type of Narrow-Leafed Campion had seeds that were found in the stomach of a fossilized Arctic Ground Squirrel estimated to be 32,000 years old and scientists got it to grow!
A Judean Date Palm tree thought to be extinct was regrown from seeds found in an ancient trash heap estimated to be 2,000 years old.
Slowest Plants
The Saguaro Cactus is among the slowest-growing plants in the world, only growing one inch each year.
The slowest-to-flower plant is the Puya raimondii which patiently waits 80-150 years before flowering, like the Century plant, this Bromeliad, unfortunately, dies as soon as its seeds are set. It makes up for taking its sweet time by also having one of the largest blooms! Its spectacular flowering spike reaches 30 feet to 49 feet (15 m) in height and is packed with 10,000 or more 2-inch white flowers!
A runner-up are some Corpse Flowers varieties, taking their sweet time to bloom every 8-20 years.
Fastest Plants
Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant - clocked at over 35 in (91 cm) per day!
With Duckweed (Wolffia) coming in at a close second.
The fastest plant to grow from seed is the Radish. The edible roots are ready to harvest in just 30 days, but the seeds germinate in as little as 3-4 days! This is the reason Radishes are used in scientific research and classroom experiments!
Giant Kelp can grow up to 2 feet (60 cm) per day!
The Biggest and the Smallest
Brown Seaweed/Kelp has some species able to reach almost 200 feet in length (60 m) and form entire underwater forests!
Speaking of Duckweed, or Water-Meal (Wolffia), it is the smallest plant in the world and also holds the record as having the smallest flowers in the world!
The leaves of the giant Amazon Water Lily can grow 8 feet across, and a child can float on them! The Coccoloba gigantifolia of the Amazon has leaves that can reach 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length.
Epiphytic Orchids (Orchidaceae) have the world’s smallest seeds, they cannot be seen by the naked eye and are only 1/300th of an inch (85 micrometers) long!
The Talipot Palm has flowering panicles 16 feet long!
Hard Hats Needed
Don’t walk under these trees at the wrong time…
The longest pinecones come from the Sugar Pine, This ‘King of Pines’ can grow cones 22 inches (55 cm) in length. The tree itself can live up to 500 years!
The Jackfruit tree has the largest fruit, growing to a whopping size and growing right on the trunk. As of today, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's heaviest Jackfruit, was found in India weighing just over 94 lbs (42.72 kg) and was 22.5 inches (57.15 cm) long with a circumference of 52 inches (132.08 cm)!
In Seychelles in the Indian Ocean grows the Double Coconut Palm, or Coco-de-Mer (Lodoicea maldivica), also known as the largest seed in the world, weighing 55 lbs (25kg)!
Triple Record Holder
The Welwitschia mirabilis is a deep Namib Desert of Namibia that can be in the oldest plant category, deepest plant category, and weirdest plant category all on their own!
Welwitschia has an estimated lifespan of between 400-1,500 years, with some specimens carbon-dated to 2,000 years old. Only producing two leaves per century, and never shedding them, Welwitschia can grow its foliage to cover a 1,312-ft (400-m) area!
Because moisture is so rare in the desert, the Welwitschia can grow its taproot 98 feet deep (30 meters) deep! It’s regarded as a plant that never dies and its two leaves never stop growing!
Largest Smelliest Flowers
The largest flower award goes to the Rafflesia arnoldii, growing 3 feet across and weighing up to 15 pounds. It’s also a smelly flower and a parasitic plant! It doesn’t even bother growing leaves because it’s parasitic. The runner-up is the equally stinky Corpse Flower.
Most Expensive Plants
You won’t find these here at Nature Hills!
Bonsai Pine Trees have sold for up to $1,300,000
Shenzhen Nongke Orchids in China can put you back $217,000
Record Veggies
If you have ever gone to a State Fair, you’ll see some huge vegetables and prize-winning produce. You won’t believe the limits that the world of competitive vegetable growing pushes! Check out some of these enormous, record-holding veggies grown by gardeners recently!
Beni Meier broke the 1-Ton mark for his 2,323 lb Pumpkin
A 350.59 lb Watermelon was grown by Chris Kent
Peter Glazebrook holds the record for a 20 lb carrot
The largest/heaviest Tomato weighed in at 8 lbs 6.5 oz., grown by Dan MacCoy
Be Amazed By Plants!
The world of plants is truly amazing! So go outside on March 12th and marvel at the green world around you! Hug a tree (or better yet - plant one!), smell a Rose, and plant some Tulips to tiptoe through!
Don’t have enough plants, or want to buy your first green plant pet? Head over to NatureHills.com to start down the road to including more greenery in your home and landscape! Then check out our Garden Blog and #ProPlantTips for Care to learn more about the amazing world of plants!
Happy Planting!
Need to tell the difference between a Pine and a Fir? How does a Hemlock differ from a Yew?
There are so many wonderful varieties of Evergreen Trees around! Sometimes when you are out for a walk, you may find yourself referring to all of them as just Pine Trees. Understandably, the layman arborist may not be able to tell each type apart!
Check out Part 1 of a series where Nature Hills explains what makes the Pine Tree unique from the rest! This quick guide will help you identify and differentiate these easiest-to-recognize needle-bearing trees on the fly and know about the many different varieties available for your landscape!
Pine Tree Basics
Pine Tree Needles
Types of Pine Trees!
Other Native Varieties of Pine Tree
Picturesque Pines at Nature Hills!
Pine Tree Basics
The gorgeous and easiest-to-identify coniferous evergreen features a shaggy pyramidal to rounded profile with long, shaggy needle-like leaves. Their fluffy appearance and motion in the wind are the usual telltale signs from a distance.
Divided into Soft Pine and Hard Pine (depending on how strong the timber is), there are 126 species of Pinus are found throughout the world and the US has about 35 varieties. Adaptable to high elevations and poor soil, Pines prefer acidic well-drained environments.
Like most Conifers, these trees are monoecious and have separate male cones and female cones on the same tree. The pollen is wind-pollinate, blowing from one tree to the next. Typically the male cones are higher up on the tree than the female cones while wind and gravity does the rest.
Pine Tree Needles
New growth is held in prominent “candles” in the spring and is typically a lighter green to yellow! Arranged in tufts around the flexible stem like a rosette, with sections of bare, flexible stem dividing each year's growth. Depending on the species - multiple needles (2, 3, or 5) are held in bunches on the stem.
White Pine has 5 needles per cluster (white has 5 letters!) compared to Red Pine which has three needles per cluster (red has three letters!)
Needle bunches are held to the stem by a papery sheath called a fascicle
Flaky reddish-brown bark, texture varies between species
Very resinous and lots of sap drips when damaged
While considered evergreens, Pines usually keep their needles for about 2 years before replacing them with new growth. The interior-most and oldest growth is light to yellowish-green and the older yellow needles that are ready to be cast off will collect beneath the tree. This Pine straw makes great mulch around the garden!
The Pine Cones
Not just for the squirrels and making craft projects out of! Many songbirds rely on the winged seeds hidden among the scales of the Pine cone.
Male cones produce pollen then fall off in the spring
Mature female cones can have a sharp spike at the end of each cone scale
Female cones have very hard scales and only open in some conditions and humidity
Other varieties only open when exposed to fire
Typically hang down from the branches
Pines typically have sharp pointed spikes on the cone scales
Male cones can be yellow to tan, sometimes reddish, and are held in clusters in the spring. While the female seed-bearing cones are long and slender for the most part.
Pine Tree Facts!
Largest Pine cones - Sugar and Coulter Pines have 2-foot-long cones
Bristlecone Pine has the smallest cones
Aptly named Longleaf Pine can have 18-inch long needles
Shortleaf Pine has needles 3-5 inches long
A Bristlecone Pine called the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) is the oldest living organism on earth - at an estimated age of 4,850 years old!
Roughly 4,600 years old, Methuselah is another Great Basin Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains of California
The tallest Pine tree is 268.35 feet tall and found in Oregon
Typical life span is 100 years or more
Most Pines live in the Northern Hemisphere except for the Sumatran Pine
Turpentine is made by distilling high-terpene resin, which is abundant in Pine trees
The resin is also used to treat insect bites, burns, and blisters
The needles can be steeped as tea for a high Vitamin C boost!
Pine nuts (Pinola nuts) are a favorite Mediterranean food addition. Get yours from Pinyon Pines.
Types of Pine Trees!
Bird-friendly, wildlife safe-havens, and so useful, the needles, bark, timber, pinecones, and seeds all have a use in our day-to-day lives! Not to mention the fast shade, curb appeal, and mighty legacies these ornamentals have on our landscapes!
Nature Hills has many types of gorgeous native Pines for you to choose from!
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)
The native Eastern White Pine tree is a hardy evergreen native to eastern North America. It is long-lived, fast-growing and vigorous. One of the most magnificent soft-needled White Pine features regular arrangements of long, bluish-green needles in bundles of five. You'll love running your hands along the foliage! The curved pine cones are used for birdseed and seasonal décor.
Want an Eastern White Pine but have no room?
Check out the Blue Shag Eastern White Pine with blue-green needles and dwarf 2-4 foot tall and wide growth!
The cultivar Tiny Kurls Eastern White Pine has unique contorted, twisting, curvy needles and grows just 3 - 6 feet tall and a bit wider!
Either of these unique cultivars can be easily made into Bonsai or planted in containers on the front porch or back patio!
Austrian Pine/Black Pine (Pinus nigra)
The fat and fluffy Austrian Pine has strong evergreen branches that will screen undesirable views, reduce sound pollution, and protect your home from strong winds. Its year-round good looks are a bonus! Fast-growing, this dark green variety, also known as the European Black Pine, can add 3 feet or more of new growth in a season in optimal conditions. These are fantastic evergreens for urban roadways and interchanges. They are salt tolerant and able to withstand dry conditions. The 5-6" long needles absorb a lot of noise and vibrations and are good plants to include along sound barriers. Cones start as conical green and hang down or in clusters, opening to brown 4-6 inch cones with pointed scales.
Scotch Pine/Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris)
The Scotch Pine, also known as Scots pine, is a fast-growing, conical to columnar, medium-sized conifer with distinctive flaking orange to red-brown bark. Once common and popular across the Midwest, until a blight began taking a toll on local populations. The pyramid form and gray-green color complement any landscape. This is one of the most cold-hardy and easy-going of all evergreens. It tolerates any soil and especially loves sandy or clay soils. It is a hardy tree that grows rapidly for a Pine tree and tolerates prolonged drought. Scotch Pine practically thrives on neglect! Cones can be 1-2 inches long and are often rounded.
Need a cute dwarf version that can replace sometimes tricky Alberta Spruce? Try the Green Penguin Dwarf Scotch Pine! Or try the regal dark blue-green French Dark Green Scotch Pine.
Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
The formidable Ponderosa Pine is one of the tallest growing Pines, sometimes called the Western Yellow Pine or Bull Pine, Ponderosa tops out at up to 80 feet on average. The Ponderosa Pine is the most frequently planted of the large, long-needled native Pines. The soft dark green needles are 6-10 inches long, arranged in bundles of three, with cones that can reach 3 to 5 inches long. Ponderosa will grow on most soils including very sandy soils and sites with very little topsoil. A major source of timber, this large evergreen can live 300 to 600 years. Ponderosa Pine develops a taproot early in life that enables the tree to survive stressful conditions such as extended drought.
Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda)
The southern giant Loblolly Pine tree is hardy throughout USDA planting zones 6 to 9 and is a fast-growing, straight-as-an-arrow tree that handles growing in most soils, including wet, acidic, and clay! Sometimes referred to as a Bull Pine for its massive size (60 - 80 feet), the resinous needles are 6-10 inches long and have a fantastic fragrance, which is why it's also nicknamed Rosemary Pine. This makes a great choice if you need to create a fast screen or windbreak, and thrives in fire-prone areas. The large cones are elongated and tapering, almost egg-like, and can be 3-6 inches long with triangular spines at the ends of each scale.
Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta var. murrayana)
A very fragrant, and easily recognizable tree, the Lodgepole Pine is a native with a perfectly vertical trunk and very narrow-growing canopy. The finer texture of the bark is very aromatic and the lumber has a long historical use because of its straight growth. The egg-shaped Pinecones can remain attached for 15-20 years, reach 1-3 inches, and appear in clusters. Also known as the Shore Pine, the needles are typically 1-3 inches long.
Similar to the Lodgepole, the Shore Pine (Pinus contorta var. contorta) is a mid-sized native along the western coast from Alaska to Northern California. Handling wind and salt spray, the name 'contorta var. contorta' should indicate the Shore Pines' contorted, twisting, wild form at maturity!
Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris)
The aptly named Longleaf Pine is well known for its especially long needles. The 80 - 100 foot mature height of these trees can be a bit slow, but they grow in the southern USDA planting zones 7 to 9. Stick-straight Longleaf Pine trunks have a soft-textured canopy that sways back and forth in the slightest breeze. New growth buds appear silvery white and are particularly attractive in the winter landscape! Aging into incredibly long, dark green needles 8 to 17 inches in length! The cones reach 5 to 12 inches in length and have an elongated oval shape.
Red Pine (Pinus resinosa)
A cold-hardy Pine with a super straight trunk, the Red Pine (sometimes called Norway Pine) is a tall, straight, majestic tree that thrives in the Northern USDA planting zones 3 to 7! It self-prunes and drops dead branches as it grows, giving mature trees a nice clean trunk as it grows older. These are perfect trees for windbreaks on large properties or for a year-round green in hard winter places. The gray flaky bark has a rusty hue and the needles are held in clusters of three. Growing 4 to 6 inches long, the needles break instead of bending. The cone is rounded to egg-shaped and around 2 inches long.
Single-Needle Piñón Pine (Pinus monophylla)
The Single-Needle Piñón Pine another native to high elevations in the southwestern US, the Piñón or Pinyon Pine is a mid-sized tree with fragrant resin and wood to perfume your landscape with the aroma of the Southwest. The thick trunk and gray-green to strongly waxy pale blue-green 1-2 inch long needles remain on the plentiful branches for many years. The Single-Needle only has one needle per fascicle and sweeps upward like a Concolor Fir. Young trees feature a compact, oval shape that eventually opens up a bit in form. Producing brown, rose-shaped cones that produce healthy, valuable, edible pine nuts in the fall. Press for oil, or add to pesto, salads, baked goods, and as a resinous flavor in sauces and savory dishes! If you don’t eat them, the wildlife and birds will!
Other Native Varieties of Pine Tree
Nature Hills Nursery is busy at work to bring in new and exciting varieties for you every year! Check out some other great Pine Trees that are native to the US and some we hope will be available on the website one day soon!
Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) aka Possum/Scrub/Jersey Pine. Is a mid-sized Pine found along the eastern US.
Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis) is found in the southwestern US and Mexico, this very flexible Pine is also called the Rocky Mountain White Pine. There are also Black Hills Limber Pines found around the Black Hills of the Dakotas.
Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) is another East Coast native that thrives in sandy, acidic, and poor soil areas from Maine to Georgia. Small to mid-sized, the name Pitch refers to its rigid or stiff growth and not the Pine pitch/resin some of these trees produce copious amounts of.
Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana), also known as the Gray or Scrub Pine, is another North American native with a spreading open to cone-shaped crown with yellow-green needles. Earning the name Scrub Pine because of the informal growth and how dead branches remain on the tree for years.
Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) are native Pines typically found throughout the American West at higher elevations, the Bristlecone is a long-lived conifer with aptly named cones with bristle-like structures. Despite being one of the longest-living trees on earth, Bristlecones pinecones themselves are among the smallest of the Pinus family! The tree features a unique twisting, contorted trunk. Surviving ice ages and volcanic eruptions, these are incredibly resilient trees!
Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana) features 2-foot-long elongated pine cones and is among the tallest Pines around. Deep-rooted natives with dark green needles, Sugar Pine have sweeping graceful branches ornamented with heavy cones pulling the branch tips down. Typically found throughout the Northwestern US and down to Mexico in higher elevations. Called Sugar Pines because Native Americans used the sweet resin as a sweetener comparable to Maple Syrup!
Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii) is a southeastern native that grows in 'slashes' which are swampy, marshes, and boggy areas. Growing upwards of 100 feet, these go by other names like Yellow Slash Pine and Florida Pine.
Shortleaf Pine (Pinus echinata) is one of the largest Southern Yellow Pines but is found from New York to Northern Florida and as far west as Texas. Going by many names including Old Field Pine, Spruce Pine, Rosemary Pine, Two-leaf Pine, and Heart Pine. As the name implies, it has very short needles.
Get the kids outside and go on a nature walk to see how many of your region's native Pines you can identify! Collect some pinecones and make some crafts and try your hand at some wildcrafting with these versatile trees! Then check out all the Native trees in your state to see what other indigenous plants should be growing in your area.
Other Non-Native Pines At Nature Hills
Japanese Black Pine (Pinus thunbergii) exquisite evergreens that can have twisted stems and an open tiered branching and an airy texture! The dark needles are contrasted by their white candles in the spring. At maturity, this Pine forms a flat-topped canopy that becomes adorned with 5-7-inch long pinecones. Able to reach 50 - 70 feet tall and 25 - 40 feet wide. For a unique smaller version, try the Thunderhead Japanese Black Pine.
Chinese Red Pine (Pinus tabuliformis) features pigmented reddish bark and small, reddish-brown cones with broad scales and edible nuts. The gray-green needles fill out a flat-topped canopy when mature, and the aromatic pulp is reminiscent of vanilla.
Chinese White Pine (Pinus armandii) initially grows conical with a dense arrangement of whorled branches but becomes rounded and irregular at maturity. Known for its very distinctive, almost prehistoric look and edible pine nuts.
Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis) is similar to the Eastern White Pine and has a well-balanced, mid-sized pyramidal canopy. Korean Pines hold onto their blue-toned needles for three years.
Mugo Pine (Pinus mugo var. mugo) is a shorter, shrub-like Pine. Its native habitat of the mountains of Germany and Poland, the Mugo Pine is a low-growing variety with a dense growth habit and rounded nature. Growing no more than 3 - 5 feet while spreading 6-10, these evergreens offer structure and sculptural accents to your landscape.
Picturesque Pines at Nature Hills!
Habitat for squirrels, raccoons, birds, and other forest animals, Pine Trees are easy-to-grow and fast-growing evergreens!
With year-round greenery and fluffy form, the lovely Pine Tree will delight you and your local wildlife! Check out all the varieties available at Nature Hills and stay tuned for How To Identify Evergreen Trees Part 2: Hemlock Trees!
Happy Planting!