Hillside Nursery

What Hillside Nursery does

Hillside Nursery is a family-owned retail garden center and nursery headquartered in Derby, Kansas, with a primary retail storefront at 2200 S. Hillside in Wichita, KS and an appointment-only tree farm at 9140 S. 55th East in Derby. Founded in 1925 and under continuous McHenry family ownership since 1948, the business is now in its third generation of stewardship by Mark and Matthew McHenry. The company sells locally grown and container-grown nursery stock — trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, evergreens, succulents, hanging baskets, vegetables, bedding plants, mulch, gravel, soil, seeds, bulbs, indoor plants, and garden tools and decor — through its garden center and seasonal bare root cellar, and offers Christmas trees, wreaths, and poinsettias during the holiday season.

The company's core operations combine retail plant sales with residential and commercial landscaping services, including design, installation, delivery, seeding, sodding, renovations, and removal. A distinctive element is its vertically integrated tree farm, operating since 1950, where trees are grown from seedling to maturity by Kansas Certified Nursery specialists, enabling the business to supply plant material acclimated to south-central Kansas conditions. On-site consultations are offered for a $100 fee that is creditable toward plant purchases when the plan is implemented. The underlying technology is traditional horticulture with on-site growing facilities; the business has no digital platform, no app, no e-commerce channel, and no APIs or third-party integrations.

Hillside Nursery generates revenue through one-time retail plant sales, professional landscaping services, and seasonal holiday products, marketed primarily through its website, Google Places listing, phone-based ordering, and word-of-mouth referrals within the Wichita metro. Pricing is largely undisclosed publicly, with customers contacting the nursery directly for quotes. The company employs 13 people, is bootstrapped with no external funding or private equity involvement, and serves a geographically limited market of Wichita and surrounding Kansas communities.

Name

Hillside Nursery

Legal name

Hillside Nursery

Website

https://hillsidenurseryinc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1925

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Hillside Nursery is a family-owned retail garden center and landscaping service in Wichita, KS, selling locally grown trees, shrubs, and plants from its own tree farm while serving residential and commercial customers in the Wichita metro area.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Retail Nursery and Garden Center

NAICS

Nursery, Garden Center, and Farm Supply Retailers (44424), Nursery and Floriculture Production (11142), Landscaping Services (561730)

SIC

Retail-Building Materials, Hardware, Garden Supply (5200), Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Plants, Seeds & Nursery Retail (Garden Centers) (CRAIAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Nursery Production (Woody Ornamentals: Trees, Shrubs, Roses) (AFAGAHAF), Seasonal Color, Planting & Horticultural Services (BPABADAL)

Keywords

• Retail nursery
• Landscaping services
• Garden center
• Tree farm
• Bare root plants

Headquarters

HQ city

Wichita

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Retail Plant Sales: Sales of locally grown nursery stock including trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, evergreens, succulents, hanging baskets, vegetables, bedding plants, and seasonal flowers. Also includes container-grown stock, bare root plants, mulch, gravel, soil, seeds, bulbs, indoor plants, and garden tools and decor.
2. Landscaping Services: Complete residential and commercial landscaping services including design, installation, delivery, seeding, sodding, renovations, and removal services.
3. Consultation Services: Complimentary in-house consultations and on-site consultations for $100 that can be applied toward plant material purchase if plan is implemented.
4. Christmas Season Products: Live potted trees, freshly cut premium pine or fir trees, wreaths, greens, poinsettias, flocked trees with snow and lights.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Hillside Nursery is a family-owned retail garden center and tree farm that grows and sells locally acclimated nursery stock including trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, succulents, hanging baskets, vegetables, bedding plants, mulch, gravel, soil, seeds, bulbs, and indoor plants. The company also provides complete residential and commercial landscaping services from design to installation, with a separate tree farm operation in Derby, Kansas growing trees from seedling to maturity. Seasonal offerings include live and cut Christmas trees, wreaths, and poinsettias.

Product overview

Hillside Nursery is a traditional nursery and garden center offering a unified portfolio of retail and service products. The core offerings include the Garden Center (main retail location with plants and supplies), Landscaping Design and Installation services, a Tree Farm operation in Derby, Kansas, and a Bare Root Cellar for early spring plantings. These are complemented by seasonal products including hanging baskets, succulents, greenhouse plants, vegetables, bedding plants, perennials, evergreens, mulch and gravel, Christmas trees and holiday products, and gift cards. The business operates as a single-location retail nursery with ancillary service offerings rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Garden Center

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Lowe's Garden Centers: Big-box home improvement chain with extensive garden center operations selling plants, trees, mulches, and seasonal outdoor products nationally. Comparable to Hillside on the retail side and a key competitor on price and convenience for Wichita-area customers.
• J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. Major wholesale grower of shade and flowering trees supplying the nursery industry across North America. Directly comparable to Hillside on the tree-production side, though operating at vastly larger scale and with broader geographic distribution.
• Home Depot Garden Centers: Big-box home improvement retailer operating in-store garden centers selling plants, trees, mulches, and basic landscaping supplies at scale. A direct competitive incumbent to Hillside on the retail plant/supplies side, with material pricing pressure on commodity SKUs.
• Bailey Nurseries: Large wholesale nursery producing trees, shrubs, and plants for distribution across North America. Comparable to Hillside's Derby tree farm as a producer of nursery stock, though Bailey operates at substantially greater scale and across multiple states.

Direct peers

• Alsip Home & Nursery: Independent family-owned garden center and nursery in the Chicago suburbs offering plants, trees, landscaping services, and seasonal products. Highly comparable to Hillside as a multi-generational independent combining a garden center with on-site growing facilities and full-service landscaping.
• English Gardens: Family-owned retail garden center group in metro Detroit offering plants, trees, landscaping services, and seasonal products. Comparable to Hillside in being a multi-generational independent that combines garden center retail with full-service landscape design and installation.
• Monrovia Nursery Company: National wholesale nursery that grows and distributes premium ornamental plants, trees, and shrubs to garden centers and landscapers. Comparable to Hillside on the production/wholesale side of the tree-farm operation, supplying similar SKUs to independent garden centers.
• Calloway's Nursery: Texas-based chain of independent garden centers selling plants, trees, and garden supplies alongside landscaping services. Directly comparable to Hillside as a regional garden center operator offering locally relevant plant material plus design/installation services across multiple store locations.
• Armstrong Garden Centers: Independent retail garden center chain operating multiple locations across California, combining plant retail with landscape design and installation services. Closely comparable to Hillside as a family-anchored regional garden center that integrates retail nursery stock with professional landscaping under one brand.
• Davey Tree Expert Company: Employee-owned tree-care and landscape services company offering residential and commercial tree/landscape maintenance, design, and installation. Comparable to Hillside's landscaping services line, particularly on the tree-planting, removal, and grounds-maintenance side, though Davey is national in scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hillside-nursery

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hillside Nursery