Bert, I’ll see your live tree hunt and raise you one Bulgarian

I just can’t resist telling our Christmas tree hunting tradition.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we drive out to Monroe (about 45 minutes north of Seattle) to our favorite tree farm, where we look for the perfect noble fir.  Here, Jim demonstrates his dubious taste in trees:

Jim's tree

This year, Charlotte brought a tennis buddy home from college. Nasko lives in Bulgaria and wasn’t traveling home for a holiday they don’t celebrate.  So he got to experience the Great Scott Tree hunt for himself:

My son Jack (on the left) complained that he NEVER got to choose the tree (Mom retains veto power over all selections), and happily for all of us this year he picked the winner:

Jim does the cutting, and the kids do the carrying:

This tree farm also has hot chocolate and candy canes, which we all enjoy before returning to town (Monroe that is) and having lunch at the local Taco Bell. It’s a tradition that started when the kids were littler and you don’t mess with tradition.

Needless to say, we will ALWAYS have a real tree.

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Linda Chalker-Scott

Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott has a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State University and is an ISA certified arborist and an ASCA consulting arborist. She is WSU’s Extension Urban Horticulturist and a Professor in the Department of Horticulture, and holds two affiliate associate professor positions at University of Washington. She conducts research in applied plant and soil sciences, publishing the results in scientific articles and university Extension fact sheets. Linda also is the award-winning author of five books: the horticultural myth-busting The Informed Gardener (2008) and The Informed Gardener Blooms Again (2010) from the University of Washington Press and Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens: Good Science – Practical Application (2009) from GFG Publishing, Inc., and How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do from Timber Press (2015). Her latest effort is an update of Art Kruckeberg’s Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest from UW Press (2019). In 2018 Linda was featured in a video series – The Science of Gardening – produced by The Great Courses. She also is one of the Garden Professors – a group of academic colleagues who educate and entertain through their blog and Facebook pages. Linda’s contribution to gardeners was recognized in 2017 by the Association for Garden Communicators as the first recipient of their Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award. "The Garden Professors" Facebook page - www.facebook.com/TheGardenProfessors "The Garden Professors" Facebook group - www.facebook.com/groups/GardenProfessors Books: http://www.sustainablelandscapesandgardens.com

5 thoughts on “Bert, I’ll see your live tree hunt and raise you one Bulgarian”

  2. I’ve never celebrated Christmess [sic]. I sort of understand but it is not completely, 100% clear to me how you can cut down a ”live” tree and call it ”real”. At best shouldn’t it be a ”previously real” tree?

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  3. Sooo… when I cut a head of lettuce or a bouquet of flowers from my garden, they are no longer real? As in fake or imagined? Christmas trees are planted on farms or lots for the purpose of consumptio, no more, no less.

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  4. @Janes’ kid, I guess I’d argue that it still IS real. Theoretically, you could take cuttings and root them, creating new trees. The tree is still functional and will remain so as long as there’s water uptake.

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  5. I miss selling the noble firs. When freight really started going up and was a third of your noble order, we just couldn’t do it anymore. I wish someone would start growing a good concolor, since that’s the best noble sub I’ve seen in the east, except for the needle color and retention.

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