The Swedenburg family does not sell as many Christmas trees as they used to. You can “thank” Wallace Swedenburg for that.
Wallace, his wife, Carolyn, and their son, Cliff, have been selling Christmas trees from their small farm on South Lehmberg Road since 1978 and while they long ago made it a practice of not revealing how many trees they sell each year, Carolyn Swedenburg says they plant fewer trees than they did in the early days.
“Back then, when I was running the farm and Wallace was still working, we planted more trees,” Carolyn said. “When he retired and took over the planting, he planted less and less.”
Carolyn doesn’t seem to mind, though.
“To be honest, it doesn’t bother me,” she said. “I’d rather sell all we have than have a bunch of trees left over that we can’t sell.”
That has been much of a problem of late.
Last year, the Swedenburgs sold out of trees by the second weekend of December. Carolyn says the same should be true this year, which means the last of the trees may be gone by the time they close today. They will open at 1 p.m. and close at 4 p.m., unless, of course, the supply of trees has been exhausted before closing time.
While the Mississippi State Extension Service anticipates that the state’s Christmas tree growers will increase their sales by 7 percent this year, bad weather — heavy rains in the spring followed by a dry summer — could have a negative effect on future crops.
“The trees we planted in the spring didn’t develop a deep root system because the ground was so wet,” Carolyn said. “Then, the dry summer really kept the trees from growing as much as they normally would.”
Those conditions don’t impact the trees available this year, she noted.
“It takes four-to-five years for a tree to get to six-feet or larger,” she said.
The Swedenburgs sell two varieties to trees: California Sapphire and Leyland Spruce.
“The California Sapphire is bright green and very aromatic,” Carolyn says. “The Leyland Spruce is popular because it doesn’t dry out. It can last a long time. Of course, you have to make sure you get a fresh cut at the bottom of the tree before you put it up and you have to keep it watered. But the Leyland stays fresh and green for a long time and people really like that.”
Swedenburg’s trees sell for between $6 and $10 per foot, sometimes more for the larger, 12-to-14 foot trees.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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