• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Loyal Christmas Tree Customers Keep Holiday Business Brisk for New York Nursery

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By William Murphy, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Dec. 23--None of those artificial trees for people like Yvonne Brandenberg of Shoreham, one of the stragglers buying a fresh-cut tree Monday at Baiting Hollow Nurseries in Calverton.

"I've been coming here 15 or 20 years," Brandenberg said as a worker fed her tree through a mechanical device that gently binds the branches for easier handling. "I'd never have anything different."

Brandenberg, 73, did not venture into the heart of the muddy nursery to cut her own, as a handful of other customers were doing with saws provided by the nursery.

"It's the last week. All the good ones are gone," said a woman who would identify herself only as Brigitte who emigrated from Germany about 40 years ago.

She trekked through the nursery for two hours, dismissing tree after tree. "It has to be fuller," she said as she stood in front of one possibility.

"No spitze," she declared in front of another. Her son, Peter, explained that spitze is German for "top."

She finally settled on one, which Peter bent and sawed. "I settled," Brigitte said. "It's not what I really like."

Joseph Murphy, 59, a retired Suffolk County social services employee who lives in Rocky Point, took less than half an hour to find a tree that satisfied his son, Kieran, 23, who was home for the holidays from SUNY Albany. "It's perfect," he said of his selection as he rode on the trailer pulled through the muddy paths of the nursery by a big-wheeled tractor.

At the gate of the nursery, worker Bill Darrow, 39, of Wading River, said the busy cut-your-own season starts right after Thanksgiving and essentially ends the weekend before Christmas. He said he expected a few more customers before he would shut down for the year.

"People who cut their own come earlier," he said. "They're repeat customers, and they come every year. You should have been here yesterday. We had hundreds of people."

He closed for the season Tuesday.

-----

To see more of Newsday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsday.com

Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

More News in this Category