Plants We Grow

 Cedar Hill offers a wide selection of the nicest plants you are likely to have seen all grown on our farm in bright, warm greenhouses or in our outdoor fields.  We pride ourselves on having unique colors, new varieties, different and unusual plants, and great quality.  The growing season starts off in the middle of winter when the first seedlings and starter plants arrive at the greenhouse, ready to be transplanted and to soak up the sun.  One of our staple crops here are our geraniums; the biggest and bushiest that you can imagine with huge flower heads which some of our customers mistake for hydrangeas.  

We have a great selection of colors and are one of the only greenhouses in the area growing the most modern varieties bred in Europe which are bushier than the old fashion geraniums that your grandmother used to grow.   While our geraniums are always a popular item that attract lots of attention, make sure to take notice of our beautiful hanging baskets which are planted with many different varieties and colors of annuals to make a real splash on your front porch or patio.  Perennials will beautify your garden year in and year out and can be found here in all shapes and sizes.  Looking for basic garden plants like impatiens, marigolds, and petunias?  They are here also, as well as some more unique annuals like diascia, angelonia, pentas, lantana, and bacopa.  Some of these newer annuals are great for containers and window boxes and can make your patio look like a professional planting!  Or you can bring your pots, window boxes, or other containers along with you and let us plant them for you with a beautiful array of flowers that will bloom and flow out of your pots all summer. 

 We have annuals that can take the hottest, sunniest spots, as well as shady areas; we strongly suggest that before you start buying flowers and planting your gardens or containers that you take note of approximately how many hours of sun that you receive and whether it is in the morning or afternoon so that we can match you with the plants that will do the best for you and your conditions.  Great advice and information about how to take care of plants can be almost as important as buying a healthy plant and that is what we offer.  The farm generally opens around May 1 depending on the weather; we feel it is important not to plant outside too early in the spring to avoid shocking, stunting, or, even worse, frost damage.  We recommend you spend the first few warm weekends in April getting ready to plant by deciding what you want in your gardens and how many containers you want to plant and hold off on spring planting until closer to May.   Mother Nature is very unpredictable as we are constantly reminded and the "safe" outdoor planting date for this area is May 15.

 As the summer begins to wind down so begins the fall mum season, one of our favorites since it is the first crop that Paul ever grew back when he was still in junior high; as such it will always hold a special place here at Cedar Hill.  But much has changed in those many years and the mums that we offer now make the ones we used to grow seem like something out of a Charlie Brown cartoon.  That is because of the excellent breeding and hybridization that the major suppliers have done in the last ten years; that and the influence of their counterparts in Europe (who offered bushier growing mums all along) that began to make a splash here in the states.  We can state quite confidently that you will not find a better mum or a wider selection of colors and varieties anywhere in the area.  Mums as large as the one pictured above are grown in full or half size wooden bushel baskets and are truly a sight to behold.  But we also grow 3000 mums in eight, nine, and ten inch pots that will fit anywhere from the smallest front porch step to the largest open patio.  Take some time to visit Cedar Hill in the fall, you will not be disappointed.  The fall season begins Labor Day weekend most years. 

Much as we hate to see the warm weather go, we have to accept that winter is approaching by Thanksgiving weekend when we begin our last, but by no means least, season: poinsettias.  We have all seen the poinsettias for sale in the grocery stores, big box stores, and the ubiquitous school or similar group fundraiser, and we all wonder about the quality of these poinsettias because we have bought them in the past only to see them die within a week, lose all their leaves right away, or just look bad from the moment we bring them home and take off that plant suffocating plastic sleeve.  Well, if that is what you are used to, then you are in for a real treat here at Cedar Hill!  First of all, our poinsettias are not brought in on a truck and exposed to cold and dark conditions only to then be neglected and not watered at a store; ours are grown in our own greenhouses where they are always in bright light, warm conditions, and are properly watered and cared for by a horticulturist.  You can see the difference right away as soon as you step in the greenhouse in the brightness of color, the rich green of the leaves, and the sheer size and bushiness of the plants in general. 

 We are often amused when customers walk into the greenhouse and are so overwhelmed that they say the poinsettias look artificial because they have never seen a live poinsettia that looked so nice.  We always assure them that they are quite real and that this is what poinsettias are supposed to look like.  We typically get great feedback from customers in the spring along the lines of how long they lasted, or what should they do with them because they still look too nice to throw away.  We hope that you will come out during the holiday season and see the difference for yourself.  Not only do we do a beautiful crop of poinsettias, we also pride ourselves on our wreaths and roping.  Winter would not be complete without a fragrant evergreen wreath to adorn your door and greet your holiday guests. We tie our own bows and decorate the wreaths ourselves and can custom make anything you desire from the simplest wreath with red bow to the most complex williamsburg style wreath with fresh apples, lemons, and orange slices and everything in between.  From swags to loose greens to container designs of greens, Cedar Hill has what you need to make your house ready for the holidays.