Dorset’s expert grower, Pete Hyde, gives The BV’s editor Laura Hitchcock an insider peek at the secret life of Christmas trees
All images: Courtenay Hitchcock
‘I started selling Christmas trees in Bristol, many years ago. I moved to Dorset, and I saw a lack of really high quality trees, so I began selling them on Trinity Street in Dorchester – and I’ve been doing it for 35 years!’
What began as a small seasonal side venture for Pete Hyde has flourished into Trinity Street Christmas Trees, known across the county for its expertly grown, beautifully shaped and locally sourced Christmas trees.
‘Initially, I purchased trees from abroad, but I soon switched to Scottish suppliers, building a strong relationship with a Danish grower. Interestingly, the majority of the expertise, equipment and knowledge for Christmas tree growing originates in Denmark.
‘Over time, I realised we needed to grow our own trees. Obviously, it’s better for stock control for us, but the biggest reason really is that it’s so much more environmentally friendly – our locally grown trees reduce ‘tree miles’ and are also FAR fresher.
‘The big problem with the UK Christmas tree market is that a lot of people flock to buy a cheap tree from the big supermarkets or a chain brand. But they were cut so early – I know all the trees for one discount supermarket were cut in the last week of October, for instance, and have been sitting on pallets since.’
Walking through Pete Hyde’s Dorset ‘big tree’ plantation – a forest of 14 and 15-year-old trees – he waves a hand at the forest and says: ‘These are our biggest trees, all destined for town councils, village squares and town halls, as well as the large country houses and estates.’
The ten touch points
Contrary to popular perception, growing Christmas trees is incredibly labour-intensive, Pete explains. ‘We plant the trees as three-year-old saplings, about eight inches tall, and they take five years just to reach waist height. But over those five years, we prune the base, manage pests like aphids, and even install bird perches near the tops of the trees to stop the birds snapping the tip off when the soft new growth starts. We use a range of skilled techniques and specialist equipment.
‘The whole game of Christmas tree growing is to achieve a dense tree. Dorset is full of small plantations in field corners where farmers have thought it’d be a great idea to grow Christmas trees … and all they’ve ended up with is a load of ugly trees, completely unsellable and unusable. They don’t realise that it is a massive amount of work.
‘Every one of our trees has ten touch points a year: once it’s four years old, every tree, every year, is touched ten times. It’s not difficult to grow a tree which is sparse, gappy and ugly – that’s just what trees do, if you don’t do something with them! People don’t realise the sheer work involved.
‘Each year, every single Nordman Fir (the popular no-drop Christmas tree) in our plantations has its outermost tips trimmed, which then leads to new sideways shoots. The next year, we cut those, causing more sideways shoots … and again the following year … that’s how we create the shape. And every single Norway Spruce (the more traditional tree) is sheared, each year, by one of the team up a step ladder. They grow new tips, and new tips and new tips … The tree you take home has likely undergone five years of trimming to get that lovely dense shape.’
(Pete points to a tree across a clearing with a very tall, straggly top stem)
‘Like that one – that’s been missed. Rubbish. We’ll sell that cheaper as a third-grade tree. Some people like them that way, of course, but it’s not what we aim for.’
While discussing the effort behind harvesting, Pete pauses to help his team wrestle a huge, dense, 20-foot tree towards a trailer – it’s destined for Dorchester town pump.
‘Customers so often underestimate how heavy these trees can be,’ he says. ‘Even a 10-foot tree is no joke.’
This particular one is a struggle for the five-man team to lift.
A fashion shift
Of course, no matter how good the grower is, trees are still living things with their own ‘personalities’. Pete explains how two trees planted next to each other, given the exact same treatment for years, cut on the same day and placed in the same house could behave completely differently: ‘One might dry out while the other stays fresh through New Year,’ he says. ‘So late cutting is great, but frost is even better – it shuts the sap down, preparing the tree for winter. That’s why we’re thrilled it snowed!’
Over the years, the market has shifted away from the traditional Norway Spruce. Now, Nordman Firs make up 90 per cent of sales, mostly due to their needle retention. ‘A lot of people do come to us and say they want a non-drop but they really miss the smell,’ he says. ‘So we have a solution for that, too – we now sell the Fraser fir, which is absolutely stunning: slightly narrower and it has a lovely, lovely smell. We do a lot of Fraser firs actually – not everybody has room for a big wide tree.’
Despite demand, Pete doesn’t offer ‘cut your own’ services. ‘Trees need to rest for 24 hours after cutting to settle,’ he says. ‘Besides, we manage our forests carefully, removing specific trees to allow others to flourish. If customers cut at will, it disrupts the cycle. Farming trees requires long-term planning – it takes seven to ten years to grow a six-foot tree.’
There’s a common perception that a real Christmas tree is quite pricy – Pete is quick to point out that among your other Christmas bills it’s easy to forget that you’re looking at seven to ten years of working those ten touch points every year, as well as the manpower required in the harvesting and delivery.
Pete’s top tips for your tree:
- ‘Buy as fresh a tree as possible. Check for some sap at the base, and try lifting it – a heavy tree will retain moisture more than the dried out, light trees which are sold at any big chain store. Buy local, buy fresh!’
- ‘Once you get your tree home, don’t put it next to a radiator! Do put it in a stand so that you can water it. What we do is trim the tree to fit the stand, and we’ll slice half an inch off the bottom to open up the channels again to allow it to drink – just the same as you’d trim the stems of a bunch of flowers from the florist.’
- ‘We offer a needle retention guarantee for non-drop trees. Every now and again, you do still get a rogue one. One in maybe 300 will just decide to go into shock and drop all its needles. It does happen. If one of our trees does that, we replace it – no questions asked.’
Trinity St. Christmas Trees are available now:
- Trinity Street, Dorchester
- Morrisons, Weymouth
- Watersports Academy, Sandbanks, Poole.
- Or order online – Pete offers deliveries throughout Dorset.
Is it greener?
Recent research shows that a real Christmas tree is more beneficial for the environment. A six foot artificial tree has a carbon footprint of around 40kg, more than ten times that of a real tree of similar size – meaning you’d need to re-use it ten times to negate its carbon footprint. Nearly 90 per cent of them are shipped across the world from China, and on average, fake trees are used only four times before they end up in landfill. Commonly made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), they are non-biodegradable and non-recyclable, and they’ll remain there for hundreds of years.
In contrast, real trees are a renewable resource – even though your Christmas tree is cut down, you’re supporting forests. On top of which, up to ten trees are planted for every six-foot tree that’s cut down for Christmas.
Your tree can also be responsibly recycled or disposed of – look out for local charity collections, where for a small donation you can guarantee your tree will be collected and disposed of correctly for composting or chipping mulch.
