Retailers wishing to sell Christmas trees generally place their tree orders a year in advance. For Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market in Henrico County, he placed his annual order for 5,000-plus trees with a Canadian supplier of trees. In October, the supplier notified Leonard that they could not fulfill the order.
“Everybody wants those 7-to-8-foot trees,” Leonard said. “So, we knew we had a problem. It’s very difficult to replace so many trees in October. I might say it’s almost impossible, because they’re all sold out already.”
The Short Pump retailer reached out to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for help.
“The VDACS marketing team often receives calls for assistance, but Tom Leonard’s call was unique due to its urgency and size,” said Rob Davenport, VDACS director of marketing and development. “Wholesale Christmas trees are usually pre-sold by the end of summer. Fortunately, Virginia is home to Bottomley Farms in Grayson County, which has over 6,000 acres of trees and has grown into one of the largest shippers and suppliers of Christmas trees in the U.S.”
The VDACS team helped secure 5,000 excess Christmas trees from Bottomley.
“We saved so much on transportation that we were able to keep the price the same as last year,” Leonard said.
His trees sold out, and Leonard said his market will source Virginia trees from now on.
Bottomley cuts around 600,000 trees annually, said Carlos Taylor, Bottomley’s Christmas tree manager.
Trees go to Texas, parts of New Jersey and New York, Ohio, part of Florida and down to Puerto Rico. Now the farm will add Short Pump to the list.
“It was short notice,” Taylor said. “But we worked it out. We hope to continue doing business with them in the future.”
Virginia Christmas tree sales top $10 million annually, and the state is ranked seventh nationwide for harvest and production.
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Crystal Graham
