Plight of the pine
June’s freeze took toll on eight out of 10 trees at Samson farm
Adrian Samson is a determined man.
Standing at the Treeland Christmas Tree Farm lot on Willow Street, he is still selling festive rs and pines to customers, despite a June frost damaging or killing 80 per cent of his trees.
“Unfortunately, that’s Mother Nature and the nature of the beast,” said Samson Saturday. “You’re discouraged about it, but there’s nothing you can do, you just keep on trudging ahead.”
His tree farm, about 10 km east of Truro was hammered by the frost six months ago, like many other growers and farmers, who lost crops from blueberries to apples.
With most of his stock damaged or destroyed, Samson urged customers to shop for trees a little earlier and many did, in the rst two weeks of December.
e frost that ravaged Samson’s stock in the rst week of June ruined trees across southwestern and parts of central Nova Scotia, including Colchester County. Tree growers in places like Annapolis and Digby were also hit hard, often losing about half of their stock.
One area not so badly a ected was around Guysborough in eastern Nova Scotia.
It is from this region seller Jamie Chisholm grows his trees, which he is currently selling in the Sobeys parking lot on Prince Street.
Chisholm, who says that sales are up this year as he lls in demand that other tree farms cannot, also enjoys a loyal customer base, with the same people returning every year.
“It’s a hit-or-miss thing. I mean, there’s some years I get hit really hard and nobody else did and it seemed like this year, I made out a little better than some other people,” said Chisholm. “I still had some damage, but it was not as bad as a lot of people.”