No 10’s spruce for Santa with a Gower festive fir
A FIFTH-generation farmer from Gower brought Christmas cheer to Downing Street as the Prime Minister unveiled his tree outside the famous black door.
Robert Morgan, of Gower Fresh Christmas Trees, in Three Crosses, won a competition run by the British Tree Growers Association to have one of his trees taken to London.
He couldn’t disguise his delight at seeing the 18ft 6in specimen outside Theresa May’s residence.
In 2014 he was the runner-up in the annual competition to display outside 10 Downing Street and this year is the first time he has been successful.
He made the journey to Downing Street with his seven-year-old son, Lloyd, and said the visit was “a nice break away from the chaos at home”.
A Christmas tree farm at this time of year, he admitted, was a “monster”.
The lighting-up of the tree came as Mrs May faced the challenge of securing a breakthrough in the Brexit talks.
Mr Morgan said: “I think this is the only peace and tranquillity going on in London as we speak today... Hopefully this will bring a bit of hope and calmness to London tonight.”
The farm is one of the largest Christmas tree growers in Wales, selling 15,000 a year.
Mr Morgan planted his first tree in 1997 after diversifying the family farm and the farm now holds half a million trees.
Mr Morgan recalled the challenges he encountered two decades ago when he set out to diversify the family farm.
He said: “I had to sell all the sheep, sell all the cows, sell the sheepdog even, just to concentrate on growing real Christmas trees.”
Rabbits ate many of the first trees and he over-fertilised others, but he honed his craft and now Gower Fresh Christmas Trees is at the forefront of the industry.
He said he is not sure what his forefathers would make of the sight of Christmas trees on the land but he reckons “they would have been happy to see me survive”.
Mr Morgan has four full-time staff who work all year round, and 65 who work during the Christmas season.
“A lot of people think that we do nothing in the year and that the trees just grow naturally – all year we are very busy.
“I have four full-time staff that work all year round. The main jobs are keeping the weeds and bugs down and pruning the trees,” Mr Morgan said.
He explained that it’s not as simple as just planting a tree and hoping for the best.
“The key to producing a quality tree is just putting a lot of time and effort into shaping them.
“I work all year in the farm. I’m in the trees every week looking for bugs and I’m with the reindeer every day.
“I’m also doing leaf and soil analysis. We are out in all weather conditions.
“In January and February we plant around 40,000 trees.
“It’s a race against the season – in the summer we will label the trees ready for winter and we have got the grotto to put together.
“I import my seeds from Canada – that goes to a plant nursery for four years, then the plant goes into the ground for eight years, so from seed to sale you are looking at 12 years.
“It takes eight years for a 7ft tree to grow. People think they turn up and we plant a tree and next year it is 8ft but sadly that’s not how it works”.
And for those who have yet to buy their tree, you haven’t run out of time.
“We sell trees up until we close on Christmas Eve. The Germans celebrate Christmas a lot later so they will put their trees up last minute so they can have the perfect tree”.