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Christmas Botany (part II)- the Best Christmas Tree?

© Wesley Ford

So middle and late childhood was passed with Scotch Pines dominating the living room at Christmas. Then this young man was off to college, to forestry school in fact. There he learned how a very common forest tree, was rapidly becoming the tree of choice among tree farmers. It was easy to grow, responded well to pruning, smelled good, and was soft and supple. The needles were long, soft and didn't stick you, yet were a soft bluish green- if the tree didn't get wind burned by an early November blast of Arctic air. Yes, the budding forester returned home for Christmas and announced that in order for the family to have a proper tree, we must have a white pine tree. Nothing else would do. This would be the tree of the future and we might as well enter the future now. And a nice tree it was that we found, though not a Melita's this year. They were behind the times and if they wanted our business they would have to catch up (which they did a year later). This tree had a pleasant piney scent, a nice conical shape- nearly perfect, and was dense like a Scotch pine. Too bad its branches wouldn't support any weight what so ever. The grapes remained packed up with the glass spike ornaments. But we went out a bought wonderful paper and other light ornaments to decorate with. The stupid angel wouldn't sit up straight, but that was ok- we got a star to replace her.

And this went on through the early years of marriage as husband and wife readily agreed that white pines were best because, well because they were white pines, and we couldn't really afford more socially acceptable species. Year after year, we struggled to make Hallmark ornaments hang properly on limber, sagging branches. But the little lady of the house, was just happy that the family Christmas tree was not a eastern red cedar like the ones her rural piedmont Virginia farm family had always had when she was growing up. She cheerfully recounted stories regaling her family outings in the fields of home seeking the best tree out there...one that didn't fall in two when they cut it down. I think her favorite was the one they had to wire branches to, or maybe the one they found prostrate on the floor on Christmas morning. But she would also remember nostalgically the sharp, brisk Christmas scent the cedar brought into the home; the pretty blue berries that gave it a glow all its own; its unique shape, not conical, but evergreen like. Sure its foliage was sticky and yellow green, and the uplifted limbs were weak and hard to decorate, but it was still a home grown tree that the entire family had chosen and drug to the house. I wonder if she was pullin my leg about liking white pines?