Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

O, Christmas Tree! O, Christmas Tree!

A locally grown Fraser fir was chosen to bring holiday cheer to the Tennessee State Capitol building this holiday season.

The tree was grown at Wildwood Christmas Tree Farm in Cannon County, off La Paloma Road, by David and Dawn Gray and is featured in the main lobby of the Capitol. David Gray says they got the opportunity after an encounter with a liaison from Governor Bill Lee’s office.

“We had our annual Christmas tree meeting, and she was one of the speakers there at the meeting and she was telling the story about how the Governor wanted trees that were grown local but he wanted a Fraser and couldn’t get one,” he explained. “So afterwards, my wife went up to the lady and said ‘Yes, it’s true you can’t grow Fraser fir here, but we’ve found a way to do that by grafting them.’” 

Grafting involves joining a small branch from one tree to the trunk of another to create one plant, making it possible to grow species of trees that commonly have problems growing due to environmental factors like the Fraser fir.

“She was like “Y’all have Fraser?’ and we were like ‘We do! We have about thirty or forty of them in the field up to ten feet tall right now.’ So, they sent their crew out here and went through the fields and found one that they liked and picked it for the Capitol,” added Gray.

Gray says he thinks the Fraser fir is the most popular brand of fir tree for Christmas due to several characteristics that make them ideal such as quick growing time and phenomenal needle retention.

“They hold their needles forever so you can leave them in your house for a long, long time, and the color is perfect as far as Christmas trees go,” he says. “They’re just like the king of Christmas trees. When you think of a Christmas tree, that’s what everyone pictures in their mind.”

Getting the chance to have a tree displayed at the Capitol is an opportunity Gray says is very exciting as it comes after a decade’s worth of work learning the grafting technique.

“We learned to graft from a friend of mine that grafts a lot of trees in East Tennessee,” he explained. “They can grow Fraser over there, but they have a soil problem that’s called Phytophthora. It’s something in the soil that creates areas where the Fraser will not grow, but they can plant other varieties like the Japanese fir and Turkish fir that can handle the Phytophthora and then they can graft a Fraser over the top of that and grow Fraser where normally they wouldn’t grow. So, he taught me the grafting process so we can try the same thing here.”

Also featured at the Capitol is a 10-foot Eastern Red Cedar that was grown at Blankenship Farms and Nursery in Warren County.

“It’s definitely an honor to get to supply one,” says Jerry Blankenship, the owner of the nursery along with his wife Beth. “It’s quite a lengthy process. You have to show them pictures and then they came and looked at them to approve it.”

Blankenship says the Eastern Red Cedar was a Christmas staple for many households in the area.

“Like many people in Middle Tennessee growing up in the sixties and seventies, everybody pretty much had an Eastern Red Cedar for a Christmas tree because they were plentiful and that was just mainly the tradition,” he recalled. “You’d go out with your family and cut an Eastern Red Cedar for your Christmas tree, generally a week to ten days before Christmas.”

The tree grown at Blankenship Farms and Nursery stands next to the door of Governor Lee’s office in the Capitol.