Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association EVERGREEN NEWS JOURNAL Winter 2015

Volume 5, Issue 1 Winter 2015Inside this Issue:

President’s Message ‒ 3Newsletter Help ‒ 3

Louisa Tree to Governor ‒ 4Christmas Tree Production

[part 2] ‒ 5God Made a Christmas Tree

Farmer ‒ 9VCTGA Benefit National

Christmas Tree Assoc. ‒ 10Lobbying 101 ‒11Member Profile:

Bees and Trees ‒ 12VCTGA 2014 Christmas Season

Survey - IMPORTANT ‒ 17VCTGA at State Fair ‒ 19

AdvertisersVentrac ‒ 2

Cherokee Mfg ‒ 5Alpha Nursery ‒ 7

Bosch’s Countryview Nursery ‒ 9Tim Mitchell’s

Yule Stand System ‒ 13Riverside Enterprises ‒ 15

Tree Teck ‒ 15Kelco ‒ 19

Wagoner’s Fraser Knoll ‒ 20

VIRGINIACHRISTMAS

TREEGROWERS

ASSOCIATION

Tree and Wreath Presentationsto Governor’s Mansion

Experience a Real Virginia Grown Christmas Tree

SAVE THE DATE!Saturday, March 7VCTGA WInTer

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2 | VCTGA News Journal – Winter 2015

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From the President

Recently, I took a small poll to measure our success over this past Christmas season. I am quite pleased to share that of the seven members polled, all reported in-creased sales over last year. Three sold out of wholesale stock, four set sales records and another had to re-strict business to returning custom-ers. I would like to credit our market-ing initiatives made possible by the Specialty Crop Grants but that will have to wait until we take a look at our membership survey.

What we do know is that our web-site, as measured by Google analyt-ics, reflects the same increases in activity. Comparing November 15, 2013 – December 15, 2013 to the same time frame in 2014, we enjoyed a 47% increase in visits to Virgini-aChristmasTrees.org. In hard num-bers, 10,409 sessions were recorded in 2014 as compared to 7,091 in 2013. Only 31% of the site visitors left after viewing the opening page, the others went on to view 2 or more pages. And, as you might expect, the heaviest traffic was recorded over Thanksgiving weekend with the first weekend in December a close sec-ond. In third place was the weekend of November 22-23, 2014. I am con-vinced that the maintenance of our websites, both the full version and the mobile makes good business sense.

In preparation for the VCTGA ex-hibit at the Virginia Christmas Market (Oct 31-Nov 2), our farm provided a 7’ white pine and a wreath. The tree held up very nicely

and received many compliments. But the wreath is the focus of this par-agraph. We used a 12” ring and each bundle was a mix of scotch, Fraser, cedar and white pine tips. Over half of the tips in each bundle were white pine. We do not use coloring or pre-servatives. After the show, I was pre-pared to discard the wreath, but at the suggestion of my wife, we stored it under a large Norway spruce to pro-tect it from the sun. It wasn’t until af-ter Thanksgiving that I took another look at the wreath. To my surprise, it was still green and holding needles. We displayed it on a fence post where it received full afternoon sun for the next several weeks. I finally took it down on December 26. While the white pine tips were drying out, the wreath still had a few more days of curb appeal.

I mentioned our annual member-ship survey earlier. We will be post-ing it to the website and include a copy in this newsletter. Please take the time to provide the data and re-turn the survey. It is so useful in re-porting the outcomes of the grants back to VDACS and USDA.

The Board of Directors is planning for our winter meeting, a one-day event that will be scheduled in Waynesboro at the Best Western Inn on March 7. Planning the annual summer meeting is ongoing. If you have thoughts or suggestions, please let Tim Williams, our Vice Presi-dent, know as we are always looking for good ideas and new topics.

Thanks to John and Virginia Car-roll for representing VCTGA with trees at the Illumination Light Show. The show is hosted at the Meadow Event Park and runs through January 3, 2015. We are listed as an event partner on the show’s website.

We look forward to seeing every-one at our upcoming meetings.

Greg Lemmer

TO: VCTGA Members Please send news, profiles, articles for the VCTGA Newsletter, This is your News Journal and we need in-put from you:

What does the upcoming season look like?

How was this growing season?

Is there enough production, too much?

What new techniques, products have you used this year and how did they work out? What are you doing with social media?

Any major pest/disease/weed issues this year?

How did you like the annual meeting? What did you learn?

What new activities, products, etc. do you have planned for this season?

Have you tried the new mobile farm lookup from your cell phone? Go to www.virginiachrist-mastrees.org and the new mobile version will recognize your mobile phone. What do you think?

Have you updated your mini-page? Updated it now before you get in the rush of the tree season. What type of information would you like to see in the News Journal?

What vendors would you like seeing in the News Journal?

Ideas for content, layout, pictures?

Can we do a profile on your oper-ation? Contact the VNLA Office, 540-382-7310, [email protected] It's easy and we'll give you some guidelines.

Help make Your News Journal better!

4 | VCTGA News Journal – Winter 2015Page4 VCTGANewsJournal–Winter2015

Louisa County Christmas Tree at

Executive Mansion

The Carrolls present the 2014 Executive

Mansion Christmas tree Also making presentations were Gwen

and Bill Jones presenting wreaths The Virginia Department of Forestry supplied the greens this year, most by

retiree Bill Apperson. Unfortunately Bill was not at the presentation. Greens

were delivered and presented by Lisa Deaton and David Milby of the VDOF.

State Forester Bettina Ring was on hand for the presentation as well as Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry and VDACS

Commissioner Sandy Adams.

RICHMOND, Va (WVIR) With Thanksgiving over, Virginia families are preparing for other holidays around the corner. Monday Virginia's first family welcomed the holidays by putting up the official executive mansion Christmas tree, which came from Louisa County.

John and Virginia Carroll, Tyler Car-roll and friend Melanie Poole of Claybrooke Farm traveled to Rich-mond Monday to present the official Executive Mansion Christmas tree. Not present were Matt Carroll, wife Charlie Gail and son Coley.

"Just a real honor to come out to the Executive Mansion here and present the 2014 Christmas tree," John Car-roll stated.

After winning the Grand Champion Award at the annual Virginia Christ-mas Tree Growers Association contest, the Carroll’s brought a 12-year-old, 12-foot-tall Frasier fur as the symbol of the season.

"We are so delighted to be here. We hail from Louisa County, our choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm is lo-cated there. We're just one of the many Christmas tree growing farms around the commonwealth." Virginia Carroll stated.

Governor Terry McAuliffe thanked the Carroll’s and reminded Virgini-ans of the importance of the industry to the commonwealth. "That's not only a lot of trees and wreaths, that's a lot of money, tax revenue, and jobs throughout the state," he said.

With 500 tree farms across Virginia, many located in rural communities, McAuliffe encourages Virginians to support these small businesses.

NBC29.com

Christmas Tree Production

[2nd of a series by Kyle Peer]

Site Selection

Once the grower has determined the type of farm they are going to be the next consideration is site selection. The most suitable planting areas, spacing, appropriate tree species, and logistical constraints should be deter-mined. It cannot be stressed enough the importance of proper planning. This is the time to read all of the rel-evant extension publications, talk to your local extension agent, join your local growers association and attend as many Christmas tree meetings, workshops and farm tours as possi-ble. Early mistakes in species selec-tion, road layout, spacing etc. can last for years.

Plantation Planting

Proper planning before planting en-sures the efficiency of subsequent op-erations. Planning includes determin-ing the total number of available acres to be planted, plantation layout and individual tree spacing. The most

serious mistake is excessive planting without consideration of subsequent labor requirements and marketing. It is recommended that growers plant only a portion of their land at one time, instead of all at once. For in-stance, if it takes eight years to grow trees, 1/8 of the total planned area should be planted each year.

Planting trees on a rotation basis also distributes the workload over the years and enhances marketing. When planting in rotation, markets can be built up gradually. Most new growers should plant only small acreages (1/2 to 1 acre) each year until a full rota-tion is completed. With this scheme, the grower learns the techniques and can better decide whether or not to in-vest more heavily in larger plantings. Far too many realize that Christmas tree production isn’t for them only af-ter they’ve planted many acres.

Plantation design and layout includes incorporating blocks of trees that will allow efficient operations. Often, complete fields are planted without thought of access. In this event, whole rows of trees must be removed to provide access, or excess labor must be used to resolve the problem. Farm layout is especially critical for choose and cut operations. In addi-tion to the trees, you have to consider the location of customer parking, re-strooms, a Christmas shop, measur-ing/shaking/wrapping area, etc.

Another common mistake is planting individual trees too close together (Figure 1). A typical wholesale farm can plant trees at a tighter spacing than a chose and cut operation. Fraser fir has a tighter taper than other spe-cies and the trees are typically grown and harvested in single age blocks which leads to spacing as low as 5 X 5 feet. However, unsold trees planted at too close of a spacing may not be able to be grown into the next season and the farmer may have to go in and thin or completely remove the re-maining overgrown trees.

VCTGA News Journal – Winter 2015 | 5

Cherokee Mfg. Ad


In comparison, it is recommended that the spacing on a choose-and-cut farm be much wider at 7 x7 feet or 7 x 8 feet. This wider spacing allows for the typical mix of tree species and ages in the field and accommodates better access for the customers. Choose and cut customers need to be able to easily walk through the field, look at a tree from all sides, cut it down, and carry it to the nearest pick-up location.

Site Preparation

A newly planted Christmas Tree Farm. Notice the weed control completed be-

fore planting.

Once the plans for the location and number of trees are laid out, the site can be prepared for planting. Inade-quate site preparation creates future problems, which often require exten-sive hand labor to correct, or cause plantation failure. Depending on con-ditions, site preparation may consist of any or all of these operations: erad-ication of existing trees and shrubs, removing physical obstacles (stumps, logs, etc.) to permit cultural opera-tions, and controlling grasses and other herbaceous vegetation. Re-cently cutover timberland requires the most extensive site preparation efforts. It may often be more eco-nomical to pay more for cleared land than to try growing trees on cutover lands because of reduced site prepa-ration efforts and subsequent mainte-nance efforts.

Site preparation should be completed the fall before planting; herbicide treatments should be done by late

summer to early fall. If shrubs or trees exist on the area, site prepara-tion may need to be initiated several years before. This would be the time to perform a soil test of your planting area. Your local agricultural exten-sion agent or county office can help you with soil boxes and instructions for the test. These soil tests are valu-able for determining which amend-ments to add to the soil before plant-ing. It is much easier and economical to add fertilizer or lime prior to tree planting.

Species Selection and Seedling Size

Many species of Christmas trees can be grown in Virginia. Along with species that have traditionally domi-nated the market: Fraser fir, eastern white pine, Scotch pine, Norway spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Ley-land cypress and Douglas fir, many new species are being introduced. These “exotic” species include Con-color fir, Canaan fir, Turkish fir, Car-olina Sapphire cypress, and Serbian spruce to name a few. Many of these species offer the choose and cut grower excellent alternatives for their customers if Fraser fir cannot be grown on their farm. They allow a wholesaler to diversify and to plant trees that may be less susceptible to Phytophthora root rot.

Once the grower decides on the spe-cies mix to plant they have to decide where they are going to purchase their trees from and the size of the trees to buy. Seedlings can be pur-chased from the Virginia Department of Forestry or from many private nurseries which specialize in varie-ties bred specifically for the Christ-mas tree market. Seedlings can range in size from 2-0 which is a bare-root seedling grown for two years in a nursery bed to a 2-3 which is a five year old seedling transplanted to a new nursery bed for wider spacing after two years. A much less common seedling is a p+1, in which a one year

old seedling grown in a plantable container.

There are many factors when consid-ering seedling size.

How quickly you want to get a return on your investment? Big-ger seedlings = faster returns.

What tools are you going to use to plant?

What is your soil type? What is the cost of seedlings and

shipping? What is your level of weed con-

trol? Are you planting fast or slow

growing species?

Planting

Seedlings should be ordered several months before they are to be planted. Late winter through early spring (mid-April) is usually the recom-mended time for planting. Allowing seedlings to dry, freeze, or overheat is a common cause of seedling mor-tality the first year. Most of the trees in Virginia are hand planted with some type of “dibble” or planting bar. These specific tools allow the planter to open a hole deep and wide enough to plant the seedling at or below the original nursery depth without prun-ing any roots. The dibble’s design al-lows the planter to wedge soil around the planted seedling assuring essen-tial root to soil contact. A simple tug on the seedling will confirm that it is planted properly. A grower will quickly realize why it is important to match the seedling size to their indi-vidual soil conditions. A 2-3seedling may be nearly impossible to plant properly in rocky or clay.

Weed Control

Weed control is especially important during the first few years following planting. Competition from grasses and other vegetation can kill trees or limit their growth by blocking sun-light and competing for soil moisture.


Tree quality can be reduced by vege-tation that restricts lower branch growth. Weed control requires spray-ing herbicides in early fall and/or early spring in spots around each tree or in bands along the planting row. Additionally, the area between the trees rows are usually mowed about three times each year.

Growers should use caution and fol-low label instructions when using herbicides. Determining proper herb-icides, spray volumes, and timing for controlling specific weeds can be complicated, but VCE has extensive information, including a Christmas Tree Pest Management Guide, to as-sist in determining proper herbicide application. Growers can contact their local Extension office for more information.

Shearing

Figure 3: Shearing in summer using a

motorized shearer.

Beginning about the third year after planting, trees must be sheared each year. Shearing consists of cutting branches to give the tree a desirable “upside-down cone” shape. Shearing can be accomplished with a manual shearing knife or a motorized Beneke style rotating machine (Figure 3). Re-gardless of the implement used, shearing trees can be extremely dan-gerous and proper safety equipment and methods must be used at all times. Improper shearing is the pri-mary cause of non-merchantable trees and abandoned plantations. Even with inadequate vegetation control, trees will often survive and

be marginally marketable; but, im-proper shearing usually eliminates marketability or requires extensive corrective pruning. Consequently, it is critical to learn proper shearing techniques.

Once the trees are 3 feet tall, proper shearing requires considerable man-power. Although small trees are sheared quickly, it can take 10 to 30 hours or more to shear 1,000 larger trees. In Virginia the shearing win-dow for pines typically falls around the Fourth of July weekend or when the new needles are 2/3 the length of the existing needles. Spruces and firs can be sheared any time after budset but are typically sheared before the stem becomes woody.

When shearing starts, landowners of-ten wish they had planted fewer trees. Assuming 1,200 trees per acre, and 1/8 of the plantation is in each age class from one to eight years old, an average person can shear a total of about 3 acres with a knife during three 8-hour-day weekends. Very of-ten, new growers annually plant this acreage or more and must hire out-side help (if it’s available) to shear. The costs for shearing 500 trees at age 4 and age 8 were $150 to $250 respectively (2013 data).

Fertilization

Generally, pines do not require high levels of nutrients; and on most sites, tree response to fertilizer does not justify the expense. Firs and spruces, however, are more nutrient-demand-ing and are fertilized annually in the winter or early spring. Nitrogen is commonly the primary nutrient ap-plied, but often complete fertilizers, containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, are used. Growers should contact their local Extension office for instructions and cost associated with soil sampling and fertilizer rec-ommendations.

Pest Control

Insect and disease pests can be major problems in some plantations. The VCE Pest Management Guide pro-vides growers with detailed scouting schedules for the major tree species. When present, they must be con-trolled quickly to prevent damage that often may be substantial. It is crucial that pesticides be applied at proper doses and times, as stated on the product label. One week too late or too early could waste pesticide and labor, but the ensuing damage caused by ineffective control can result in heavy tree damage. As with scouting, the VCE Pest Management Guide provides up-to-date information on specific pesticides, and local VCE agents can provide additional re-quirements.

Wildlife pests cause problems in some plantations by feeding on new growth or, in the case of deer, rub-bing their antlers on trees. In areas with high deer populations, they may feed on certain tree species, and suc-cessful control techniques are lim-ited. Voles cause damage in planta-tions by girdling the bases of trees. A control technique includes proper vegetation control, which can signif-icantly reduce their damage.

Coloring

In recent years, many growers have begun to spray their mature trees with a colorant in the fall prior to harvest. This practice imparts a deep, rich green color to the trees and masks the natural fading or yellowing common with white pine, and some varieties of Scotch pine.

Christmas tree Marketing

As trees on the farm begin to reach saleable size a farmer has to think about how to market them. In the past, typical ways to market trees in-cluded a sign at the entrance of the farm, an ad in the local paper or a spot on a local TV or radio show. Alt-hough all of these methods are still


valid and extremely useful, more Christmas tree customers are using social media to decide on where to shop. Every farm today should have an up-to-date webpage with pic-tures/videos, directions, inventories, etc., a Facebook/twitter account, be listed on search engines that can be found by mobile devises such as GPS and smartphones. Webpage visits can further be enhanced if it is linked to tree-locator devices found on the VDACS and growers association websites. Finally, the most important aspect of marketing is making sure you are creating an environment in which your customers want to return. For wholesalers it is providing the highest quality tree possible but for choose and cut and retail, is more than just a quality tree. It is good parking, a friendly staff, clean re-strooms and a holiday atmosphere.

Additional Help

Because of unknown markets and re-source requirements for growing Christmas trees, landowners may de-cide that production of other crops is more appropriate for their property. VCE offers educational programs and materials on many crops, such as berries, mushrooms, and timber. Contact your local Extension office for more information. Landowners should also recognize that their local Virginia Department of Forestry of-fice can provide many services for producing timber on private wood-lands.

Mount Rogers Area Christmas Tree Growers Assoc., Inc.

P.O. Box 127 Whitetop, VA 24292

Kyle Peer, Virginia Cooperative

Extension, Specialist -Christmas Trees, PO Box 70, Critz, VA 24082, 276-694-4135, [email protected]

God Made a Christmas Tree Farmer

Being a Christmas tree farmer is hard work and at the same time rewarding. Growing wholesale Fraser Fir Christ-mas trees has its many rewards. Lots of rewards are forthcoming just to mention a few here are… the joy that surrounds Christmas trees at family celebrations. Knowing that it is cele-brated as the symbol of the birth of Jesus Christ. I am the wife of a Christmas tree farmer this comes from my heart with a little inspiration somewhere else. Gailyn Thompson wife of Kevin Thompson Fraser Ridge Tree Farm Mouth of Wilson Virginia.

God Made a Christmas Tree Farmer

And on the next day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a tree grower one that

Ad – Bosch’s Countryview Nursery


will grow the symbol of my coming sons’ birth!” A tree that will be used in celebrations representing my love for human kind. So, God made a Christmas tree farmer!

God said I need somebody to get up before dawn and spray the tree fields while the wind isn’t blowing and work all day in the fields, mowing, shaping, planting and re-planting trees, eat supper and then go spray some more. So, God made a Christ-mas tree farmer!

I need somebody with strong arms. Strong enough to lift heavy Christ-mas trees, yet gentle enough to plant a tiny seed. Somebody to cut and bale trees, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry and have his wife make lunch for him and the extra field workers and then go back to the fields to carry on. So, God made a Christmas tree farmer!

God said “I need somebody that can start a seedling bed, build a tree load-ing yard, and barns. And…who, at planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty hour week by Tues-day noon. Then, pain-n-from “ache-n-back”, put in another seventy two hours. So, God made a Christmas tree farmer!

God had to have somebody willing to walk up and down steep hills round and around the Christmas trees, patch up the field roads filling in the ruts with dirt and gravel. Yet, take time to help with community projects for neighbors and others. So, God made a Christmas tree farmer!

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear land and clean up tree stumps, heave trees for baling and yet gentle enough to teach the young fu-ture farmers about the details of Christmas tree growing. So, God made a Christmas tree farmer!

It had to be somebody who’d line the fields straight…with precision and accuracy. Somebody to plant and weed, trim and shape…and feed and

spray and mow and pray and cut and bale the trees. Somebody to keep the spirit of Christmas alive! Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who’d laugh and then sigh…and then re-spond with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life “doing what dad does”. So, God made a Christmas tree farmer! Author Gailyn Thompson/Fraser Ridge

Tree Farm Mouth of Wilson, VA

VCTGA Benefit: How Would a “Gypsy Moth

Certificate” Affect Your Real Tree Business?

A small retail lot manager some-where in Florida tells a local TV news reporter that if people are look-ing to buy a Real Christmas Tree, they should come see him because he has a "Gypsy Moth Certificate," which assures people won't get bugs in their home.

A network news reporter in Atlanta and a CNN news reporter both see this short, local TV news piece and decide to do a national story about "this new gypsy moth invading homes through Real Christmas Trees."

They call the NCTA office to verify this information.

We tell them the truth about gypsy moths and the rarity of bugs in a Real Christmas Tree being a problem. We also tell them, consumers should not be concerned about getting a Real Christmas Tree, and they do not need to ask a farm or lot for a "Gypsy Moth Certificate."

With plenty of expert analysis to back up these claims, the national broadcast and cable news reporters decide not to do this story.

All of this takes place in about 4.5 hours. A short window of time.

So the question is: What's the value of having the national association be a "voice for the industry"? This case study is a perfect example of NCTA’s role to "protect and advo-cate" for you.

This type of protection and advocacy is mostly funded by voluntary dona-tions - not the Checkoff.

NCTA is still only at 50% of budg-eted revenue to conduct these kinds of activities for 2014. If you think having a "voice for the industry" is important, please make a Real Tree Advocacy Fund donation today!

DONATE NOW

National Christmas Tree Association,

16020 Single Ridge Rd., Ste. 300, Chesterfield, MO 63107,

636/449-5070

Save the Date:Saturday March 7, VCTGA Winter

Workshop Waynesboro


Lobbying 101

Tips and Suggestions Why Should I be a “Lobbyist”

for my Industry? What You Provide

Real-life history, insight, and impacts

Story to relate to Common-sense approach to

problems/issues Business and industry voice What’s the Risk of Doing Nothing? Opponents define you to law-

makers Laws are passed that harm your

industry Others point finger at you with-

out you to answer back to them Lawmakers don’t have a “face”

for your industry

Five “Secrets” to Success in Lobbying

1. Understand the issue/bill Research and ask questions

about the bill or issue Ask yourself, “What will the op-

ponent say?” and think through a counter to their argument

2. Understand how the issue/bill impacts you

Write down how this will make a difference to your business, way of life, etc.

Outline the advantages of sup-porting your position and the costs of not doing so

Break it down into 2-3 points that are easy to understand

3. Write, call, or meet with legisla-tor

Introduce yourself, where you are from (city, state), who you represent

Be upfront as to why you’re there (support or opposition to a bill, educate, etc.)

Briefly outline your talking points *in your own words*

Be prepared to answer the ques-tion “What would your opposi-tion say?”

Be polite, non-confrontational, and brief

Say thank you, and promise fol-low up information if needed

4. Follow up with a brief thank you email or note

Include your request and talking points one more time

5. Make a point to see your local legislator after General Assem-bly

Build connections now to utilize later; become a “grasstops” in-fluence

Key Legislative Terms in Virginia

Constituent = citizen, voter in district

Bill = proposed change to law, proposed new law, or proposed deletion of law (also referred to as legislation)

Patron = Legislator who will sponsor or introduce the bill for consideration

Only a legislator can introduce a bill

Co-Patron = Additional legisla-tive sponsor of the bill

Amend = Changes to the bill (deletions, insertions, etc.)

Body = Either full Senate or full House

Refer = Send bill to committee, floor, etc.

Bill “reading” = debate/discus-sion of a bill before the full body

Crossover = mid-point of Gen-eral Assembly session

Each body must finish action on own bills and send them to the other body

Sign = Governor’s approval of bill (final action)

Veto = Governor’s disap-proval/defeat of bill

Key Resources to Use

Who’s My Legislator? - http://con-view.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/VGAMain?openform

Virginia General Assembly - http://virginiageneralassem-bly.gov

Virginia Agribusiness Council (links to government websites) - http://www.va-agribusi-ness.org/governmentlinks

Legislative Information Services (bill tracking) – http://lis.vir-ginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=131&typ=lnk&val=02 Virginia Agribusiness Council

http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf?VGAMain?openform

http://virginiageneralassembly.gov

http://www.va-agribusiness.org/governmentlinks

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgibin/legp604.exe?ses+131&typ=link&val=02


My husband, Jeff, and I have often wondered how people decide to get in to the Christmas tree growing busi-ness and whether or not they do it on purpose. We know several Christmas tree farmers who have inherited their family’s tree farm, but so far we don’t know many who purposely started a tree farm from scratch.

Jeff and I began looking for a country home in the fall of 2012 and we looked for the better part of a year be-fore we found a property just outside Culpeper, VA. No one was more sur-prised than us to find that the home

we had fallen in love with was actu-ally a part of a Christmas tree farm--Crazy Joe’s Christmas Tree Farm!

On our first visit to the farm we met the owners, Joe and Jocelyn Lampert. Joe, for whom the farm was named (his friends told him he was crazy for starting a Christmas tree farm), wanted to move to Aiken, South Car-olina in order to pursue his retirement on the golf course. I’m not sure how good a golfer Joe is but I’ll tell you this, he and Jocelyn were both really good at growing Christmas trees.

Both Jeff and I had been lobbyists in the Virginia General Assembly for over 24 years, so I know a number of our friends found it hard to under-stand why we’d bought a Christmas tree farm. For over two decades we’d lived a fairly hectic life that focused on the ins and outs of Virginia poli-tics. We had both hosted and attended a number of fundraisers for our friends in the General Assembly, we’d had an office building that we’d bought, gutted, renovated, worked out of and rented to other lobbyists and associations for almost 10 years. But we were firm in our desire to pur-chase this property and excited at the idea of doing something completely different from what we’d been doing. For me it would be a full time pas-sion. For Jeff, it would augment his legislative lobbying—sadly farming still doesn’t pay what it’s worth.

Of the 43 acres that make up the farm, 7 acres are in trees, 12 in forest and the remainder is pasture. Joe and Jocelyn were kind enough to offer to guide us through our first year and served as our consultants. This, and the fact that Jocelyn may possibly be the most organized person I have ever met, made the idea of taking on something we knew nothing about a viable option. We purchased the farm

and all of their equipment and Joce-lyn gave us her fantastic ‘tickler’ list telling us when things needed to be done to the trees and why. They even left us a list of contacts for all the folks we might need to reach out to for help including local mentors—Donna and Tom O’Halloran of the Glengary Tree Farm. Thank the Lord for Donna and Tom, too, you really need someone local to look at your trees and tell you what their experi-enced eyes see and they did that for us routinely.

At first our goals were simple and ‘don’t screw it up’ was our mantra! We had been blessed by all the assis-tance anyone could ask for, all the equipment we needed and all the help in the world from people who knew how to operate said equipment. Still, our biggest fear was that we’d blow it. Looking back I guess it was a pretty silly fear, I mean it’d be hard for anyone to kill 7 acres of Christ-mas trees from the end of April--when we actually bought the farm--to the day after Thanksgiving when we opened to the public for our first sea-son. But hey, we were new at all of this and that was just another exam-ple of how little we knew.

With our first Christmas season be-hind us, we began the process of try-ing to see how our sales numbers compared to the previous year. Alt-hough they were not as good, we were pleasantly surprised at how close they came both in number of trees sold and overall sales from both the Christmas trees and the Christmas store that I had operated. We came close to reaching the previous year’s revenue total and yet we lost a full weekend in the calendar year due to a very late Thanksgiving and we lost one Friday and another Saturday due to heavy snow. I have to attribute a lot of that to the fact that Jocelyn and Joe had emailed their customers an

I can tell you with certainty that our retirement plan never included growing Christmas trees, but sometimes the best things in life are the gifts you

never knew you wanted.

Member Profile – Bee’s and Trees


email introducing us and had left us their email list for us to use as well. We emailed two pieces of corre-spondence prior to our season open-ing. Keeping in touch with your cus-tomers is paramount.

The best thing we did our first year

A month after the season ended we began to develop our future goals and we were aided by new a cash-register technology we had bought just prior to our first opening. Called Square Up, it works with our iPad and a re-ceipt machine and cash drawer. Us-ing it meant we had the ability to run credit cards, give receipts with our logo and it kept a running total of our complete inventory!

After inputting the wholesale and re-tail prices of all of our purchases into the iPad, along with the number of items purchased, this system could, at any given point in the day, tell us how

much money we’d made, which trees were our biggest sellers or how many single serving S’mores we had sold in our Christmas store! It could tell us how many Christmas stockings we had left in inventory or if there were any items that hadn’t sold at all! To top it all off, it also deposited credit card sales directly into our bank ac-count every single night for a small flat fee per transaction. I couldn’t wait to open my email each morning to see what Square had depos-ited…they even put the amount of your total sales from the day before in the subject line of their email!

We did some shopping before we went with Square, but we found the banks charged a number of additional fees like an equipment rental fee for their card-processing machines or monthly fees for not being open year around and their per transaction fee could be changed at any time. We

spoke with a number of small ven-dors before we made our decision and they all used Square and they all loved Square. In looking back, Square was one of the best ideas we implemented our first year. Oh, and did I mention that I was able to gen-erate an end-of-year inventory report using Square that downloaded nicely into an Excel spreadsheet in about five minutes? Voila, my 2013 inven-tory ‘counting’ was a snap to com-plete! Same with calculating the re-tail tax we had to pay the Common-wealth for both months we were open!

So, with our first year under our belt and the understanding of what had been successful for us, Jeff and I were able to identify two key goals we wanted work on in 2014 and 2015. The first was to make sure our cus-tomers return to Bees & Trees every year. We know that they have other tree farms and tree lots to choose

Ad – Tim Mitchell’s Yule Stand System


from so our goal was to be so good at what we do that our customers don’t even think about going elsewhere. The second was to review everything we were doing and selling and see where we could cut costs without af-fecting any part of the customer ex-perience. On a daily basis we make sure that we are as lean and mean as possible!

Enhancing the customer experience

Businessmen always tell you it’s eas-ier--and cheaper--to keep a customer than it is to get a new one. With that in mind, we focused on insuring our customers had a very special and pos-itive Christmas experience when they came to buy their tree.

To start, we replaced the very modest fire pit we used last year. Originally it was there so that people could warm their hands and so that kids could roast the marshmallows in the S’more kits that we sold in our store. This tiny little metal fire pit was very popular—but was never meant to have a fire in it for 8 hours a day from Thanksgiving to Christmas! So this year we have installed a beautiful stone fire pit and seating area that can handle about 4 families at a time.

We’ve also added a tent area just out-side our Christmas shop and each

weekend we will have someone demonstrating how to make wreaths and garland. The wreaths and garland that Jocelyn used to make were out-standing and, if there was one area we did not excel in last year, this was it. I had opted to work on expanding our Christmas store and worked on that full time. We added a ton of inven-tory and doing so was very lucrative, but let’s face it, there’s nothing quite like a beautiful, fresh wreath and gar-land! Now our customers will not only have more greenery to choose from, they would have a chance to see it being made.

One of our biggest “hits” last year was our purchase of a newly reno-vated Albany Cutter Sleigh. We bought it so customers could climb into it and take a Christmas picture. The sleigh was a big hit and this year we will be adding some warm plaid blankets for folks to throw over themselves, decorative shrubs around it to make the pictures prettier and a Bees & Trees sign that will remind folks where they were when they had such a great experience! And, while people are waiting to get into the sleigh, they can play a game of corn hole—one side has Christmas trees on it, the other a hive with bees!

We are also planning on having a food truck come on weekends and are in the process of arranging this now. We’ve added two picnic tables to the area near the fire pit in order to ac-commodate those who opt to have a snack or lunch at the farm.

We’ve also contacted Santa and Mrs. Claus and asked if they could, again,

work us into their schedule! Appear-ing courtesy of the State Police Be-nevolent Fund, Santa impresses all the young ones, allows photos to be taken and even welcomes little ones to give a gentle tug at his very real beard! They are quiet a treat and we make sure our customers know when they will arrive at Bees & Trees.

Smaller changes we are making this year include new saws—we had a lot of complaints about how dull they were—and large plastic sleds that people can either use to lay in and stay dry while cutting their tree or they can use to haul their tree back to the store. We still use our old Massey Ferguson and a trailer full of straw to shuttle people--and their trees--around the farm and this is also a big hit. We were sure to tell our insurance agent we planned to do this and it turned out to be a nonissue for them.

Christmas 2015 we may also add some farm animals to our operation. It would be fun to create a small pet-ting zoo for the holiday. Both Jeff and I enjoy animals and it could be a real attraction for our customers. By the way, we are also a pet friendly tree farm and actually encourage our customers to bring their pets on leashes. We have a watering station available and never had the first bit of trouble last year.

Other avenues of revenue

As we are “Bees & Trees,” we’ve had a lot of folks ask about our honey-bees. They’ll see our sign on the main road and drive all the way up our driveway to see if they can buy some honey! We anticipate that honey sales will be very strong next year as


people are beginning to understand the value of raw, local honey.

We started with five hives but lost two this summer. The three remaining look pretty stable and, if they get through the winter, they should each throw off around 60 pounds of honey by early next summer. Honey sales will defi-nitely generate new funds for the farm but it will take several years before our sales cover the purchase of all the equipment—and there’s no guarantee we won’t lose more hives. Unfortu-nately, bees travel up to five miles in search of pollen and nectar and along the way they are apt to land on crops sprayed with insecticide or worse. Farmers who grow corn and soybeans don’t need honeybees for pollination so there’s little incentive for them to use a different treatment for their crops.

With these issues in mind we are con-tinually working to find ways to keep the bees close to home. This year we planted two acres of perennial wild-flowers towards the front of the farm.

This should make our entrance look pretty and give the bees another reason to stay near their hive. We are also thinking about seeding the rows be-tween the Christmas trees with white clover--honeybees love it and it makes a delicious honey. Clover is not sup-posed to grow much taller than 8” so we hope we won’t have to mow quite as much this year. If this proves true, we may be able to significantly reduce our fuel costs.

Advertising lessons

There are a lot of small tree farms that do not advertise, but we are not one of them. I believe you constantly need to get your name in front of the public and--no matter how you do that, no matter whether you pay for it or not--that is advertising.

I think that our business in particular needs advertising. If you’re only open one month a year to sell Christmas trees then people only see you once a year. It’s hard to stay in your cus-tomer’s head if they are only on your

property one day a year, I don’t care how good of an experience you offer. All it takes is a new Christmas tree lot opening near your farm on a day when it’s pouring rain and one of your cus-tomers’ needs their tree that day…poof…you’ve lost your cus-tomer for an entire year. Their experi-ence at your farm is pushed even far-ther back in their memory.

We ‘advertise’ all the time. We have a website (www.BeesAndTrees.biz) that has a blog which helps boost our rat-ings in search engines like Google. We have a Facebook page and routinely add stories about honeybees or organic issues, things that we believe our cus-tomers care about. We send two news-letters a year to our full email list and we continue to capture email addresses through our Christmas store and online. All of that is, for the most part, free or almost free.

As for paid advertising, we have a large homeowners association nearby that publishes a newspaper twice a month.

Ad – Riverside Enterprises Ad – Tree Teck


During November, we take an ad out in each of their newsletters and we also create a poster to put up on their very popular bulletin board.

Last year we had quite a few of their members come to the farm and, that turned into an opportunity to speak to their garden club about bees—more ad-vertising! I’m not opposed to paid ad-vertising if the opportunity presents it-self and it’s not cost prohibitive, but you have to weigh each opportunity carefully.

For inexpensive advertising there’s nothing quite like Facebook where you can determine how much you want to spend on any given day of the week. With Facebook you can create the tar-get population they will use to reach out to your potential customers. Want to spend only $10 each Saturday and get Facebook to run your ad in your area of the state to a specific gender or age group that you feel will connect with your farm? They can do that. We did this our first year and ended up with upwards of 1500 friends—not our goal but a nice byproduct of the ads we ran. I wish I could tell you how that trans-lated to actual sales, but so far I haven’t figured out a way to do that. What I can tell you is that it is a very inexpensive way to get your name out there and people message me all the time with questions they have about what we of-fer, so I know that they actually follow us.

We continue to try to maximize any op-portunity for free ads and local bulletin boards are one way to do this. Many stores and some fast-food restaurants have bulletin boards and some will al-low you to post a flyer on them. We create a one-page flyer that tells who

we are, where we are, when we’re open and what we offer. Its full color and we have it printed locally for a very nomi-nal fee. About 150 of these go all over the area and we even use our Facebook page to get people near us to help iden-tify where they should be distributed. You can never underestimate the value of having your friends help you out. It not only helps your business on the short term but it also helps your busi-ness in the long term by having your friends buy into their desire to help you become successful.

Here at Bees & Trees will always look at ways we can do things better. How can we grow a prettier tree, how can we protect the environment without letting critters destroy our trees, how can we protect our bees, how can we keep cus-tomers returning year after year? I be-lieve that networking with your col-leagues is a fantastic way to learn and share new ideas. If you’re not partici-pating with other tree growers where you live, you are missing an invaluable opportunity. The tree growers in our area share equipment, ideas, war sto-ries and best of all friendship. Jeff and I feel truly blessed that we have ‘acci-dentally’ fallen into this opportunity of a lifetime!

Provided by Teresa and Jeff Gregson, 18028 Carrico Mills Farm,

Elkwood VA 22718 540-423-9020 www.BeesAndTrees.biz

[email protected]

Save the Date!

Saturday, March 7

VCTGA Winter

Workshop Waynesboro

Contributing

and Coordinating Editors

Membership Kathy Rasnic

Technical Support & Production

John Carroll & Kyle Peer

Mount Rogers Report Charlie Connor

Pathology & Disease Norman Dart

Pests Eric Day

VDACS Support & Updates Danny Neel

Dave Robishaw

Marketing, Promotion, & Social Media

Sue Bostic

Grant Updates Greg Lemmer

Editor in Chief - Jeff Miller

Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association Inc.

383 Coal Hollow Rd Christiansburg, VA 24073-6721

PH: 540-382-7310 Fax: 540-382-2716

[email protected]

www.VirginiaChristmasTreees.org

Provided by Teresa and Jeff Gregson18028 Carrico Mills Farm

Elkwood, VA 22718540-423-9020

[email protected]


383 Coal Hollow Rd, Christiansburg, VA 24073‐6721

540‐382‐7310 Fax: 540‐382‐2716 Email: [email protected]

January 15, 2015

Dear Christmas Tree Growers,

A BIG thanks to those of you who had the time to fill out our 2012 and 2013 Season Survey! Our 2012 and 2013 results are baseline surveys and we won’t know how successful our marketing initiatives have been until we conduct a survey each year. Attendees at 2014 meetings expressed the opinion that our marketing initiatives have contributed to increased sales.

We also believe we need more data. The survey form has been posted on the website, under the events tab, where it can be downloaded and completed. We are asking, that the members who didn’t complete the 2013 season survey, please complete as soon as possible prior to our winter meetings. For our grants, we have to file progress reports each year and this information is required by the USDA. Also on the website there is a link to the running totals of the survey.

Over the past four years, our association has been very fortunate to have received four USDA Specialty Crop Competitive Grants totaling $109,345. Those funds have been invested to hire marketing consultants, to redesign our logo; create a library of professional stock photos; and design brochures, displays and posters. We have redesigned our website and set it up as a mobile version, expanded our presence at agritourism activities, trade shows, vendor fairs and other public venues. We have completed winter meetings in 2013 and 2014, funded in part by the current grant, and enjoyed the opportunity to compare notes on the recent selling season, further our professional education and gain access to speakers who are not readily available during our summer meetings. The Board of Directors believes the Association is on a very positive course in promoting our Virginia Christmas trees and ultimately increasing sales for all growers.

But, in order to sustain our successes and remain competitive through the grant process, we must be able to provide measurable outcomes. Accordingly, we need to gather statistics and be able to demonstrate to VDACS and USDA that the funding translates to positive outcomes. The 2012 and 2013 survey is establishing the baseline and we need to have that baseline as complete as possible.

If you have not done so already, please complete the survey and return it to Jeff by February 15, so that the results will be available when applying for the next grant. Your response will be anonymous. Surveys may be returned by mail, email, fax or telephone.

Thanks! Greg Lemmer, VCTGA President

18 | VCTGA News Journal – Winter 2015

VCTGA Survey, Christmas Season 20141. On how many total acres are you producing Christmas trees? ___________________2. By type, how many trees do you have in production and how many did you sell during Christmas

2014. Species # In

Production # Sold

Wholesale # Sold

Off‐Farm Retail # Sold

Choose & Cut Austrian PineBlue Ice Cypress Blue SpruceCanaan FirCaroline Sapphire Cypress Concolor FirDouglas FirFraser FirLeyland Cypress Norway Spruce Scotch PineVirginia PineWhite PineWhite SpruceOther

3. How many wreaths did you sell? Retail _______________ Wholesale ___________

4. Do you make your own wreaths or purchase them for resale? Make ____ Buy ___ Both ____

5. How many feet of roping did you sell? Retail _____________ Wholesale __________

6. How much were your gross total sales? Retail ____________ Wholesale __________

7. How many customers did you have? Retail ____________ Wholesale ___________Of your wholesale customers, how many were civic organizations? _________

8. How many off‐farm retail customers did you have? ________

9. How many choose & cut customers did you have? _________

10. Cost to shear 1 acre, or 500 trees, ages 4 and 8? Age 4: $ __________ Age 8: $_______

11. Average man hours for maintenance/acre/year on trees after age 4. $ ________(One number, averaging all ages and species)

12. Current wholesale price for #1 and #2 Frasier Fir? #1 $ ________ #2 $ ________

13. In general, how did your overall sales change in comparing Christmas 2013 and 2014?

Up ____ % Down ____ % Same _____

14. Did the Association’s media promotions and marketing efforts have any bearing on your sales?

Yes ____ No ____ Don’t Know ___________________________________________________

Comments:____________________________________________________________________ 383 Coal Hollow Rd, Christiansburg, VA 24073‐6721

PH: 540‐382‐7310 Fax: 540‐382‐2716 Email : [email protected]


The VCTGA at the State Fair of VirginiaThanks to these VCTGA Members for making the Exhibit a Success!

JOHN AND VIRGINIA CARROllClaybrooke Farm

for suppling trees, ornaments and setup

JOHN HOuSTONSweet Providence Farms

for setup and staffing exhibit

JEFF AND SANDy MIllERfor staffing and take down of the exhibit

• Let other members know what you’re doing.

• Ask for solutions to your problems

• Post photos of your business operations

• offer seasonal tips and solutions that have helped you.

• Let other members know how you are using Facebook or other social media

www.facebook.com/vctga

The VCTGA is!Logon andLIKE us.

VCTGA News Journal – Spring 2013 Page 25

383 Coal Hollow Rd Christiansburg, VA

24073-6721 540-382-7310

www.Virginia

ChristmasTrees.org

SAVE THE DATES!!

VCTGA Annual Membership Meeting & Conference

August 15-16 Blacksburg

383 Coal Hollow RdChristiansburg, VA

24073-6721540-382-7310

www.VirginiaChristmasTrees.org

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Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association EVERGREEN NEWS JOURNAL Winter 2015

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