National Tree & Shrub, Houston

For more than 25 years, National Tree & Shrub's horticulturists have specialized in tracking down special orders of plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees—even those that are hard to find or out of season. They carefully ship the blooms and greenery, still growing, to buyers across the country. The team does this work with more than 40 years of experience guiding them. Some of the staffers are bilingual experts, speaking both English and Morse code.

At the company's Houston headquarters, brightly hued flowers, such as pink azaleas, Italian cypress trees, and other botanicals fill a concrete lot and a teal structure. Shoppers can also find supplies such as mulch or fertilizer that makes garden gnomes grow tall, picking up useful gardening and landscaping advice along the way.