Beautiful Christmas Trees Don't Just Happen
It It takes a lot to grow a pretty Christmas tree. It’s a long-term process taking as many as 10 years for a tree to grow to 6’tall. In that time a tree farmer has to worry about the small sapling he planted making it through; drought, pests, deer that use trees to rub the velvet off their antlers, being stepped on by little feet searching for larger trees in the snow at Christmas time and, like 2018, drowning—from way too much rain and 2019 drought from not enough rain! The rains of 2018 and drought have killed over 100 of our trees here at Bees & Trees, that’s the most trees we’ve ever lost in one year and we’re not alone. We’re actually lucky, some of Virginia’s farmers have lost as much as 80% of their Christmas tree stock.
In addition to all the issues that can kill a tree, a Christmas tree farmer puts in a lot of work caring for each tree during its lifetime. You may think that Christmas trees grow into a conical shape all on their own but nothing could be further from the truth! It is the shaping and shearing of each tree every year that gives your Christmas tree its beautiful shape. Shearing also helps increase the density of the tree. We begin shearing our trees in their third year when the leader on top of a tree (where you put your tree topper) gets around ten inches tall. Sometimes there are multiple leaders and, when that happens, we select the best one and remove the others. While there are many ways to shear a tree, we hire professionals who, using very long and very sharp knives, hand shear every single tree--beautifully. It is really an amazing thing to watch. Trees are best sheared in the summer and so it is typically very hot when this work is done. You can watch our professionals shearing our trees by clicking here. About the trees we grow
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