ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130010
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Marketplace
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
It's getting close to Christmas, so you bundle up the kids and head out for a cold evening of family bonding.
White pine or blue spruce? Six feet or 7 feet tall? The tree you like - the one with the gaping bare spot on the side - or the perfect tree that your spouse picked out?
Surprisingly enough, people do manage to buy Christmas trees. And around Southwest Virginia, they seem to be doing it earlier this year.
"They've been going like hot cakes," said Tammy Spangler, who works at Boones Mill Nursery. Their first truckload - 250 trees - arrived Nov. 17, and, thanks to the demand, the deliveries keep coming.
Townside Gardens in Roanoke sold the last of its 250 Fraser firs this past weekend, almost a week earlier than last year, said owner David Winston.
Why the rush? Maybe the weather has had something to do with it. The early snowfall put folks in the Christmas spirit, Winston said. And when forecasters called for still more bad weather, people rushed out to buy trees so they'd have something to decorate while they were snowbound.
But don't worry about being stuck with a pathetic sapling that not even Charlie Brown would have taken home. A few tree lots may sell out early, but there's no shortage.
"There's generally an excess of trees available," said Al Thompson, who grows Fraser firs and white pines on 20 acres in Floyd County.
Some tree growers and retailers were afraid the hard freeze that last year hit the area's Fraser firs - one of the most popular varieties through the Appalachian region - would mean a shortage this year, but the trees that were tall enough to be sold were saved.
"It looked like a real doomsday scenario was going to be played out," said Richard Kreh, former president of the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association and a forestry specialist at Virginia Tech. The younger trees weren't so lucky, however, which could mean a lack of Frasers in five to six years.
Actually, the tree market is beginning to even out after about five bad years, when the market was overstocked with trees and thousands of growers were forced out of business.
Now, Thomson says, prices seem to be stabilizing. He's been growing trees for about 10 years, and selling them for five. It takes white pines seven to eight years to reach 6 feet; Fraser firs reach the same height in nine to 10 years.
That's one reason for price differences among tree varieties. At Boones Mill Nursery, for instance, a 6- to 7-foot white pine will cost around $10. But the same size Fraser will set you back $30. At other nurseries and tree lots, the perfect tree may cost upward of $60.
Seems it wasn't that long ago, you could buy a gorgeous tree for a few dollars. But the growing process has changed over the years, Thompson said. "There's a lot more that goes into trees these days," he said. People have come to expect perfect trees, so he and his crew have to prune their trees year-round.
If you want a real tree but you're reluctant to spend that much on something you'll have to throw out in a few weeks, consider buying one that can be planted outside after Christmas. You can find live trees, with roots bundled in burlap, at some nurseries. They're more expensive than cut trees - expect to pay at least $50 for a 5-foot burlap-balled Fraser fir, Spangler said - but with care they'll grow for years.
The key to a successful transplant, she says, is to give the tree time to adjust to the temperature change. After you pack away the tinsel, don't immediately stick your tree outside. Let it live in the garage or another cool, enclosed area for a few weeks so it can get used to the cold.
Be forewarned: Anyone who ever has opted for one of these live Christmas trees can tell you that they're heavy. And planting a tree in frozen ground is no picnic, either.
Still don't know your fir from your spruce? Here's a mini-guide to some of the most popular Christmas tree varieties:
Scotch pine: The best-selling Christmas tree in the nation. It has short needles and stout branches.
Fraser fir: This tree has soft, rounded needles and may appear blue. It smells, Winston says, like herbal essence shampoo. You'll probably see a lot of Frasers on tree lots around here.
White pine: A Southwest Virginia native. White pines don't usually grow in the traditional Christmas tree shape, so they're pruned into a teardrop. Usually one of the less expensive varieties.
Blue spruce: Bluish in color with thin, sharp needles.
Norway spruce: Dark green, like forest green crayons. And, like its blue cousins, it can bite.
"You run your hand up a limb on a Fraser fir and on a Norway spruce, and you'll see," Spangler said. "The Fraser will delight you, and the Norway spruce will make you wonder why you did it."
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart" Christmas tree facts. color.by CNB