Santa and Sons
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The Second Life of an abandoned tree field
Can a Christmas tree field, abandoned for years become a plentiful source of trees and bows?
Mark Rholfs thought so and is making that a reality.
Looking at the photo above, you may not see it’s full potential as a crop of Christmas trees. Tall, untrimmed, unshaped, overgrown underbrush, what a mess. Mark saw all this too but he also saw how to make the most out of this long forgotten stand of Noble Firs. All his years of experience in the world of small business ownership add up to a vast pool of knowledge. Using that knowledge and some out of the box thinking, Mark and his crew were able to find multiple ways assure that this field of trees didn’t go to waste.
Mark saw the capability for these tall, crowded, trees to be sold at our Los Angeles sales lot as Natural Noble Firs. This category of tree has been quickly growing in popularity over the last decade. The natural style of tree isn’t sheared to the same traditional shape and usually they have larger branches with more space between them. People enjoy them for their rustic look and when decorating, most people either use their sturdy branches for heavier ornament or keep the adornments simple to reflect the natural beauty of the tree. Here is a link to our tagged photos on Instagram, there you can take a peek at some of the ways customers have been decorating these truly unique Christmas trees.
The secondary use of these trees is for harvesting bows that will become wreaths and garlands. Since this particular field of trees was left to grow unattended for years, the top four to eight feet of the trees are optimal for harvesting for our lot. While the lower branches can be harvested for our wreath and garland makers. Using this method we are able to let the top part of the tree continue to grow, get shaped as needed and develop into the desired natural style while cutting and regrowing bows for years to come.
There aren’t many Christmas tree farmers that would have looked at this stand of trees and though ” I can do something really cool with this!”. But if you’ve ever met Mark Rholfs, you’ll know he isn’t like many Christmas tree farmers out there, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
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