If you ask Wesley Bass how long Bass Tree Farm has been chosen to provide the Christmas tree for the Governor’s Mansion, he will say he can’t remember when he didn’t. Bass Tree Farm, in the upper northeast corner of Marion County, entered into a contest and won the right to provide the tree that year and has been doing it every year since then.
On Monday, the tree for the upcoming season was chosen again. Also, as with last year, Bass will be supplying a 20-foot tree to the corporate office of Farm Bureau. Representatives from Farm Bureau came down this week and picked their tree.
Even the City of Union sent representatives to the tree farm to select a tree for what Bass said he thinks will be the town square tree. The tree picked was also around 20 feet tall.
The tree for the Governor’s Mansion tends to be around 13 feet, Bass said. This year the decorator will be Scott Reed from West Point, Miss. Three years ago Reed was one of the decorators for the White House at Christmas.
Reed and Bass have communicated back and forth on what the tree needs to look like, Bass said. He added they have been sending pictures to each other to help figure out the perfect tree.
Bass, who has retired from all of his other jobs, works the tree farm all year long. He said he shears the trees three times a year. Shearing is what gives the trees their shape. By the time he finishes one round of shearing, it is time to start over again. He also has to watch for fungi growing on them and the proper formulas to keep the trees healthy.
“Most people do not realize that a Christmas tree business is a year-round job,” Bass said.
In the last couple of years, he has started to expand some with designs of the trees. He shears some to look like giant snowballs, and this year he did a couple that are snowman-shaped. He said the first tree tagged this year was a snowball-shaped tree.
Tagging is the process where a family or business can go pick out the tree they want and come back at a later date and cut the tree down. All across the tree farm, one could see yellow tapes around the trees indicating which trees have already been tagged. Bass said people have started earlier this year in picking out trees.
While the pandemic has not affected his business so far, Bass feels like this year will be busier than usual.
“People are really wanting to go out and celebrate. This has been such a hard year on family,” Bass said.
The trees are all lined up in the field in an orderly fashion. He groups the trees by sizes and types to make it easier for someone to find what they are looking for.
With all of the rain this year, Bass said it nearly became a problem because fungi grow more then. but thankfully it was not that bad. Bass said he has had trouble with deer this year, though, so the new trees that have been planted this year had to have a fence around them to protect them from the deer.
The tree farm is closed on Mondays, but otherwise, anyone can go enjoy the trees and pick one out if they want, Bass said. He said he loves seeing the families come together to pick out the trees.
“We are seeing third generations of families coming to pick out their trees now,” he said.
