Christmas Tree Varieties
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, what kind of Christmas tree is best for me?
For many of us, putting up and decorating a Christmas tree is a staple of the holiday season. Gathering with the family, pulling out boxes of handmade ornaments, and finding the perfect branch to put each one on is a time-honored tradition. For the truly adventurous, choosing a tree begins with a trek into our tree field with a saw in hand and seemingly limitless choices around you. At Van Wilgen’s, we carry several varieties of Christmas trees, each with unique features. To help make the choice a little easier, we’ve compiled a few quick facts about our favorite tree options.
Fraser Fir
- Pre-cut trees range in size from 4 feet up to 8 feet tall
- Needles are short, dark green with a silver underside
- Soft to the touch
- Very fragrant with excellent needle retention
- Branches are strong, making them great for heavy ornaments
Douglas Fir
- Trees are up to 8-9 feet in height
- Needles are long and light green
- Soft to the touch
- Very full shape
- Extremely fragrant – smells like oranges!
- Best needle retention
Blue Spruce
- Up to 10 feet in height
- Needles are a frosty blue color
- Sharp to the touch…Kids and pets be careful!
- Has the strongest branches, making it the best choice for heavy ornaments
- Pleasant fragrance
- Good needle retention
Turkish Fir
- A Van Wilgen Favorite!
- Up to 7-8 feet in height (6-7 feet is average)
- Dark green needles with silvery undersides
- Needles are larger and showier than Fraser Fir
- Soft to the touch
- Best fragrance and needle retention
- Sturdy branches are perfect for heavy ornaments
Turkish Fir is quickly becoming our most popular Choose & Cut Christmas tree at Van Wilgen’s. Growing Christmas trees is a labor of love. A lot of work goes into filling our fields with premium Van Wilgen Grown trees. We all know the Fraser Fir, the most popular Christmas tree in our area. They are great for needle retention, have great color contrast, and are pretty good for holding heavy ornaments. Frasers are slow-growing and may take up to 10 years before harvesting. They are also tricky to grow. Frasers do not like hot dry summers and are prone to pests and fungal problems.
Those are many of the reasons we started looking for alternatives to Fraser Fir for our fields. We needed a tree that had all the great features of Fraser without many of the headaches. After being recommended Turkish Fir by many in the industry, we decided to try them out. At the time none of us knew much about them. All the research was positive so we started planting them in our fields. We quickly saw we had a winner! They were growing much faster and fuller than Fraser and had not suffered pest damage or root rot like Fraser either.
Turkish Fir is native to the mountains of the Black Sea. Their needles are two-tone green and silvery blue, giving off a shimmery look. They are very full and elegant and have been the top choice for Christmas trees in Europe for many years. They have sturdy branches for heavy ornaments and excellent needle retention. I invite you to walk our 15 acres of trees and see how great Turkish Fir are.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
