Who We Are
Priest Trees Worldwide
Online. Ships Anywhere Plants Can Go.
We sell trees that most nurseries don't carry, haven't heard of, or decided their customers wouldn't understand. We think that's a mistake.
On Non-Native Plants
We don't organize our inventory around whether a tree came from this continent. We organize it around whether it will thrive in your climate, whether it's worth growing, and whether anyone is actually selling it.
The monkey puzzle tree is from Chile and Argentina. It grows in Zone 7–10. It's one of the most structurally interesting trees on earth. It belongs in more Texas yards and it's almost impossible to find at retail. We carry it because the gap between “available” and “worth growing” is enormous.
The baobab is from sub-Saharan Africa. It stores hundreds of gallons of water in its trunk. It lives for two thousand years. In Zone 10b and warmer, it thrives outdoors in Texas. We don't apologize for selling it.
Consider the crepe myrtle. It's from India and China. Texas grows it everywhere. Every strip mall, every driveway, every subdivision. Nobody calls it invasive. Nobody lectures you about planting it. It thrives here, it's beautiful, and it's about as non-native as a tree gets. That's the entire argument.
The one exception: we don't sell plants that are documented invasive species in Texas or the surrounding region. Invasiveness is an ecological problem. Non-native status is not.
What Are Forgotten Classics?
“Forgotten classic” means a tree that was once widely known, widely grown, or widely admired — and then the nursery industry forgot about it. Usually because it takes longer to grow, requires more specialist knowledge to sell, or simply fell out of fashion during the post-war suburban landscape boom when speed and conformity won.
The Hercules club is a perfect example. It was a known medicinal tree in the American South for centuries. Dentists used it. Pioneers used it. Today, most Texans have never seen one. It grows from Southeast Texas to East Texas, it's wildlife habitat, and it looks like something from another era entirely. Nobody sells it. We do.
Same story for the escarpment black cherry, the lacey oak, the desert willow in East Texas, and dozens of others. They exist. They thrive here. They've been forgotten by commerce, not by nature.
Who This Is For
Homeowners who have planted the standard rotation — live oak, red maple, crepe myrtle — and want something with more history, more presence, more story.
The kind of person who returns from a trip to Africa or South America or coastal Chile and spends the next two years trying to figure out if that tree they saw can grow in Texas.
People who understand that a tree is a thirty-year investment and want that investment to be in something worth explaining to your grandchildren.
Based in Texas
Texas has five distinct climate zones, three Köppen classifications, and more variation in soil types, rainfall patterns, and temperature extremes than most countries. It's one of the most challenging and one of the most rewarding places on earth to grow unusual trees.
We ship within Texas and to states where phytosanitary regulations permit. Climate matching is built into every plant we sell — if it won't work in your zone, we'll tell you that before you buy.