Reviewing the most popular Christmas tree varieties

Christmas is drawing nigh and many of you, by the time you read this, will have purchased a live tree to adorn your home for the holidays. Have you ever considered what might be the most popular Christmas trees in America? Well, according to the Steve Nix of About.com, the following are the top 10 trees selected and ranked by voter popularity.

Voted No. 1 is the Fraser fir. Very similar to the Balsam fir, the Fraser fir is a native of the South and naturally grows at elevations above 5,000 feet, from southwest Virginia through western North Carolina and into eastern Tennessee. It requires 7-10 years in the field to bring a Fraser to a height of six to seven feet.

Fraser fir has dark green one-inch needles with excellent retention, a pleasing fragrance, and is a good shipper. Fraser fir was named for Scottish botanist John Fraser, who explored the southern Appalachians in the late 1700s.

Other Fraser fir facts:

• North Carolina has an estimated 50 million Fraser fir trees growing on over 25,000 acres.

• Fraser fir represents over 95 percent of all species grown in N.C.

• There are over 1,600 N.C. growers of Fraser Firs.

• North Carolina produces over 19 percent of all live Christmas trees grown in the U.S.

• The North Carolina Fraser fir is the most popular Christmas tree grown in North America and is shipped into every state in the U.S. as well as the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, Japan, and other countries.

No. 2 is the Douglas fir. Not a true fir, the Douglas fir has its own classification. Unlike true firs, the cones of the Douglas fir hang downward. Naturally cone-shaped, this fir has one to one and one-half inch long needles which persist well and have a sweet smell when crushed. The east-west range of the Douglas fir is the widest of any commercial conifer in western North America. Its native range is from central British Columbia, south along the Pacific coast for about 1,400 miles, along the Rocky Mountains into the mountains of central Mexico for some 3,000 miles. States where the Douglas fir is prominent include Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. The Douglas fir was named after David Douglas, who studied the tree in the 1800s.

Voted third most popular is the Balsam fir. A beautiful pyramid-shaped tree with short, flat, aromatic and long-lasting needles, the Balsam fir is very similar to the Fraser fir, though their geographic ranges do not overlap. The Balsam fir requires cold winters and cool summers and is the most cold hardy and aromatic of all firs. It thrives in the Canadian cold but also seems comfortable when planted in eastern North America from northern Minnesota and eastward to Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The Balsam fir was named for the balsam or resin found in blisters on bark which was used to treat wounds in the Civil War.

The Colorado Blue Spruce is our No. 4 most popular Christmas tree. Most familiar in the landscape, this tree has a nice pyramidal shape with dark green to powdery blue needles one to three inches long. Needles are four-sided and have a very sharp point. Colorado Blue Spruce is often sold live with an entire root ball to be planted after the holidays. This spruce was chosen in 1978 as the official living White House Lawn Christmas tree. It is also the state tree of Utah and Colorado.

The blue spruce is a slow grower but is long-lived and may reach ages of 600-800 years. It occurs naturally from western Wyoming and Eastern Idaho southward to central Colorado and central Utah. Its southern limits are New Mexico and Arizona. Over 70 cultivated varieties of the blue spruce have been named.

Next: more Christmas trees.

Tim Lewis is a Georgia Green Industry Association Certified Plant Professional, gardening writer, former Perry High School horticulture instructor, and former horticulturalist at Henderson Village and Houston Springs. He and his wife, Susan, own and operate Lewis Farms Nursery located on Hwy 26 two miles east of Elko, where he was born and raised. He can be reached at (478)954-1507, timlewis1@windstream.net, or at LewisFarmsNursery.com.

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