It’s time for “Into The Wild” with John McDevitt. We go Christmas Tree shopping, where we learn growers and retailers had a challenging year.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pam Scullion from North Wales was selecting the perfect Christmas tree at Hague's in Hatfield, Montgomery County.
“It’s got to be fat and bushy,” she said, as she picked out a pre-cut Fraser fir.
“I always get a fir, because they smell luscious.”
Pam was excited to take her tree home and decorate it for the holidays.
“Bring out everything I got and put it on,” she said. “My daughter is supposed to help me, but she never does. She always loses interest, so I end up doing it. I put on tinsel, you know the stringy kind, not the garland, but the old-fashioned strands.”
And on top: “An angel.”
Gary and Janet Hague have been growing Christmas trees for 50 years on their farm upstate and, for the past 40 years, selling them here at their farm in Hatfield.
“Most of them are Fraser fir this year,” said Gary.
“This is a very unusual year,” said Janet.
Gary explained.
“Before Memorial Day, we had a 29-degree morning, which froze the buds. And they just sagged. They are brown now, so most of our trees were not sellable. Therefore we had to go to buy trees,” he said.
“For the first time,” said Janet.
So this has been a tough year for the Hagues, they said. They had to buy trees from four other vendors to have enough trees on their lot to open up this year.
At the farm, there are a few acres dedicated to trees that buyers can cut for themselves, using a bow saw.
“We have a Nordmann fir. That is a dark-green, stiff-branch tree. It’s a true fir, so it has a true fir bud. And it’s the greenest tree in the field.”
The Nordmann firs cost $135 apiece.
The Scotch pines, white or blue spruce and cedars can be cut down for $90 apiece — more than customers were paying last year.
“It’s supply and demand. It’s the cost of shipping. It’s inflation. Everything that we buy to run our business costs more this year,” Gary said.
It takes about eight years to grow a Christmas tree.