| Wow! Only five months ‘til Christmas, and it was only yesterday we were shipping trees and wreaths to our great customers all over the country!
Another year is going rapidly on busy Redrock Farm and Evergreen Nursery. Highlights of the last few months include our first brown (snow-less) Christmas in memory. That made cutting and shipping trees much easier than normal. The whole winter was almost snow-less and warmer than normal, but we still had a few of those 20 below nights. That killed and burned more small trees and seedlings than normal because there was no snow cover and the ground froze deep. Spring came early with a very warm March followed by March weather in May. No late spring frost this year so the Christmas trees are looking good at this point. This summer has been hot and fairly dry. Who knows what we’ll get from here…one thing about climate change is to expect the unexpected.
We’ve been in the evergreen seedling business for 10 years now and learn new things every year. Seedlings for weddings and other events are popular and we enjoy knowing that our seedlings are being planted all over the country. We grow as many evergreen species as we can so that we have a seedling we can send to, have planted and survive in most areas of the country. Blue spruces are our most popular seedling followed by balsam fir, Fraser fir and Norway spruce. When you know that you are going to need some seedlings it’s best to order far in advance if you can…we run out of some species every year. We grow several thousand fir transplants each year but can’t keep up with the demand. Please order well in advance so that we can supply your needs.
Some adjustments to our Christmas tree and wreath prices were necessary this year because of rising shipping costs. I could go on a long rant about shipping prices, especially on large boxes, and the fact that FedEx and UPS raise their prices 5% every year without fail, but I’ll spare you. We’ve found it easier with wreaths and smaller Christmas items to combine the price of shipping with the item. For instance, instead of charging $35 for a decorated wreath and $15 for shipping, we’ve just made the price $49, shipping included. We can’t do that with our popular sizes of trees because there is too much disparity in shipping prices from coast to coast and averaging the shipping cost would punish those in the east. Rest assured that we pass our FedEx discounts on to you…we just wish we received the discounts that the big retailers get!
As always, we’ll give a discount on any tree, wreath, and other orders we get between now and November 1st. The early order coupon code is REDROCK. And as always, our best trees will be marked for those who order the earliest. The address to our secure online store is www.christmastrees.net/shop
Trees for Troops continues to be a popular program for our customers and Redrock Farm. In 2015 we delivered 23 trees and $481 to Trees for Troops on behalf of you! Thanks again for that!
In the past year we have shipped Christmas trees or seedlings to every state in the U.S. so we have supporters everywhere. Florida, New York, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania are the most popular destinations for our Christmas trees and wreaths. The northeast is generally the destination of our seedlings, but we’ve shipped to every state except Hawaii!
We hope everyone has a wonderful fall and a joyous Christmas! Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. rich@christmastrees.net
God Bless,
Rich and Stephanie Rockwood |
