Christmas tree growers face a range of problems every year that aren’t so jolly. If it’s not root rot, there’s drought to contend with. And, at the economic level, if it’s not scant labor, then it’s inflation, and sometimes, it’s all of the above.
This year, the naughty list for growers includes Hurricane Helene, which devastated much of western North Carolina, the nation’s No. 2 tree supplier. Western North Carolina is where the majority of that state’s tree farms are located.
But the good news, at least for 2024, is that most of that devastation was not this year’s crop of Christmas trees. That’s kept things on a more even keel, according to Wyoming Christmas tree sellers, and prices this year are only slightly up across the Cowboy State.
One thing that’s been helping the past three years, according to Sheridan’s Keith Kershaw, owner of Landon’s Greenhouse & Nursery, has been a drop in shipping freight costs.
That’s allowed him to keep prices even-Steven for small and large trees.
“For the in-between sizes, our price is up $5,” he said.
Price increases are being driven by several things, Kershaw said, ranging from inflation to lagging supply for increased demand.
“There’s definitely a shortage in the market,” he said. “The demand has gone up, and supply has not been able to keep up with that demand.”
Big Trees Hard To Get
Kershaw, whose operation in Sheridan draws from Casper, Montana and beyond, bases his buying on projections for demand from year to year. So far, his trend has been steadily up since the COVID-19 pandemic.
While around 80 percent of Americans still put up artificial trees, a growing number of people have become interested in live trees during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American Christmas Tree Association.
One thing Kershaw is seeing this year that he hasn’t seen in year’s past, in Sheridan at least, is more competition.
There are three more Christmas tree lots in town than we’ve had in the past several years,” he said.
Yet, Kershaw’s sales have remained constant year over year, reflecting at least some increased demand for live trees. Part of that could be a localized effect, Kershaw suggested.
“We’ve had a lot of fires up in the Bighorns, so we weren’t sure what was going to become of that for people who go up and get a Christmas tree,” he said. “I’m imagining people would have to go a bit further than they have in the past to get a tree, because of the fires that were on the face of the mountain there.”
In Cheyenne, meanwhile, Eldon Stillflew with Riverbend Nursery & Stone Company, is seeing similar trends as Sheridan.
Prices are up slightly, he said, as is demand, but good trees are getting to be like red-nosed reindeer.
“They were tough to find this year,” he said. “There’s been a dip in supply.”
Casper’s Shelby Andress agreed with that. Her sales have been consistent with previous years at Galles Greenhouse and Rock Yard. But finding the size of trees customers want has been tough. And not just this year, either.
“We’d like to get larger trees,” she said. “But we’ve been unable to order them for the last six years.”
Problems Take 10 Years To Solve
The thing about live Christmas trees is that they take a long time to grow. So, it’s not easy to solve a crisis when a supply shock comes along. And they happen all the time in the industry.
There are droughts and wildfires to contend with in some states, and hurricanes and root rot in others. Add in some inflation for a little secret sauce, and that’s pushed prices up another 10% year over year, to an average of $80 to $100 for 2024, according to American Christmas Tree Association statistics, which have been shared widely among various news media outlets.
“The Christmas tree market is definitely volatile,” Kershaw said. “And it’s not as easy as it used to be.”
Oregon, for example, the nation’s No. 1 supplier of Christmas trees, lost thousands of trees in 2021 to a record-setting heat wave that reached 116 degrees.
“That smoked a lot of Christmas trees out there,” Kershaw said.
When Oregon’s heat wave hit, the industry as whole was still recovering from shortages created after the 2008 recession, which eventually forced many tree farms to go under.
Meanwhile, what’s happened this year with Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and neighboring states like Virginia, won’t be this year’s supply problem, but subsequent years.
“If you think about it, you get maybe a foot a year of growth out of Christmas trees,” Kershaw said.
Including the time it takes to germinate seedlings and get them ready for planting outside, that makes the timeframe for a 6- to 8-foot tree around 10 years.
Tremendous Trees
Kershaw, who has been selling Christmas trees for decades now, has settled on a favorite live tree at his greenhouse. He favors the ever-popular Fraser Fir, which he does get from North Carolina.
Fraser firs have a legendary reputation. In fact, the White House tree has been a Fraser fir from North Carolina 16 times now — the most of any state in the nation.
That includes this year’s tree, which came from the Cartner Farm in Newland, North Carolina. They lost thousands of trees to Hurricane Helene. The tree they chose for the White House was among few of the required height and width that were still standing. So the Cartners settled on a special name for the tree, to reflect extraordinary hope. They called it “Tremendous.”
Kershaw thinks the Fraser fir is tremendous for Wyoming.
“There are lots of other Christmas trees that people can do,” he said. “Like Nobles, Dougs (Douglas fir), and Grands, but we have been doing the Frasers because they hold up so much better for us in our dry climate.”
Keeping a live tree fresh throughout the holiday season is not hard, but it does require daily commitment, Kershaw said.
He recommends taking 1 to 2 inches off the tree’s stump after purchase, then getting it into a bucket of tepid, room-temperature water within at least an hour.
He was not a fan of the various social media hacks out there, including one that recommends boiling water first, then using it five minutes later to water the tree so the sap doesn’t “freeze” up. Five minutes later, the water would still be pretty hot, he pointed out.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of credit to those kinds of online hacks,” he said. “We’ve had great success by just watching the water and getting the tree into water within an hour of getting that cut on there.”
Kershaw also recommends not placing the tree in locations that could be drying, such as in front of a fireplace, or by a sunny window, or near a drafty doorway.
The other thing he does for success is check the tree’s water level every morning, to make sure it’s where it should be.
“All these years we’ve not needed to do all these weird things that you see out there,” he said. “It’s not that they don’t work or that they’re harmful to the trees, and, if people think it works more power to them, but we’ve had great success all these years just by being careful with where we place the tree and making sure it doesn’t run out of water.”
After the holidays, live trees may be recycled by placing in a lake for fish habitat, or they can make good bird and small mammal habitat as well.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
