Dig them holes with trowels by golly, fa-la-la-la-la...
Some New Yorkers are coughing up a lot of green for their evergreens this holiday season.
In a recent report from the New York Post, a roundup of live Christmas tree vendors around the Big Apple showed some varieties are being sold at rates as high as $6,500. Other sellers priced select trees in the $850 to $2,000 range.
And believe it or not, people are ponying up for the trees to spruce up their apartments for Christmas.
The heftiest $6,500 price tag was found at Soho Trees, which has seven stands located throughout Manhattan to service city dwellers eager to decorate their apartments with a real evergreen. Despite the cost, a sales manager told the outlet they are now sold out of the 20-foot Frasers, which went mostly to customers with penthouses or building lobbies to outfit. The price includes delivery and installation.
Fraser firs are in really short supply, and have been since the last recession, when growers cut back on planting them. It takes a decade or more for trees to grow to marketable size, which is usually seven to ten feet; even longer for the 20-footers. Plus, of course, they have to be transported to places like New York City - and that takes a lot of green as well.
Smaller trees, in the four-to-five-foot range, generally take just five years to grow, but they're hardly in high demand; even here in the Pacific Northwest they tend to be snubbed. Go to a U-Cut tree farm, and you'll find that they're not the size that are high on the hit parade. Around here, in fact, farmers generally won't even allow people onto those plots to molest the little ones. I always found it quieter, easier, and less expensive to just buy a $5 permit from the US Forest Service and go cut my own. But then, I like the Noble fir, which can be found in the national forest somewhere among the carpet of Douglas firs.
Back in NYC:
“The demand is higher than ever,” said Harold DeLucia, the owner of Tyler’s Trees and NYC Trees, which charges $1,429 for a 16-foot Fraser. “Business has already surpassed profits from last year.” Besides, said one Upper West Side shopper named Linda: “What’s Christmas without a tree?”
What, indeed?