Job spotlight with Mark McGraw, owner of Mark's Christmas Trees
It was in 1984 that Mark McGraw started selling Christmas trees, wreaths and colorful poinsettia plants to boost business at Rathel's Nursery on Miller Road in Columbus.
The Kendrick High grad, at the age of 20, also thought it would be a good way to raise a little money for ski trips to the mountains.
But as the years slowly drifted by -- bringing the closure of the nursery -- the Columbus native began setting up in various parts of the city under the name, Mark's Christmas Trees. He also found the true meaning behind the hard work the lot takes each year to be successful.
"Really and truly, it's seeing the customers come back each year. That's what kept me doing this for 30 years, was the customers," said McGraw, age 50 today, at the tree lot on Whittlesey Boulevard, adjacent to the Kia Autosport dealership.
This day, the sky was bright and blue as McGraw -- with a few helpers -- put ever-popular Fraser fir trees in place for prospective customers, the sticky sap evident from his handshake.
In an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer, the Christmas tree veteran discussed his side job of sorts -- although it includes some work in the summer -- and its challenges. He also offered up a few tips for keeping that special tree fresh and aromatic in the homes of Columbus-area residents.
This interview is edited a bit for length and clarity.
First off, how important is location for Christmas tree sales?
Location is probably 50 percent of it. You figure if you have 30,000 people passing you a day, that's a little less advertising you have to do. If you're out on the edge of town, then you have to do a lot more advertising to get your people to you.
Of course, I've been doing it so long to where we have our customers sign our mailing list, so we're able to correspond with them year after year after. So if we have to relocate, we send our customers a postcard to let them know where our new location is.
Social media has to help?
It really does. We have a Facebook page, and then we're linked with Google. So if you search Christmas trees in Columbus, Georgia, we'll pop up.
Thanksgiving weekend is a big weekend for trees, one would presume?
Last weekend was our first weekend. This year, Thanksgiving falls late in the month, as it did last year. So we only really have three good weekends. Some years, when Thanksgiving falls earlier in the season, we have four good weekends.
Everybody tries to have their tree at least a week or two before Christmas?
Yeah, unless you've been busy or out of town, and then you have some late shoppers. But for the most part, for the Fraser fir, the needle retention is so good on them to where they're good for 45 days once we cut them from the roots. So you can enjoy them for the whole month of December without a problem.
Do you personally select your trees?
I do. In August, we go up (to North Carolina) and put our tags on them. We grade them and tag them, and then the farmer will go in and cut them, bale them and haul them for us ... We've been buying from the same farmer for many, many years, and they do a good job, good quality, and we're real happy.
Where are they grown?
Laurel Springs, North Carolina. It's up above Asheville, about hour and a half. It's about 30 miles south of the Virginia line.
That's the perfect place to grow them?
Well, you know, John Fraser was actually the botanist that came up with the Fraser fir. It's a native plant in the Carolinas. He modified it and grew it and gave it its name. No one ever named this plant until he discovered it. So that's why we call it the Fraser fir.
Are some years better than others for tree growth and quality, with lots of rain or drought impacting them?
We can tell a difference on our retail end of it because of the trees, if they've had a lot of stress during the summer. Once you cut a tree and it's been under stress, you can tell it.
Another thing is there's a lot of work to get them to this point. They won't just naturally grow thick and full like this. You actually have to spray them to keep the bugs off of them, keep them pruned and keep the weeds from growing under them.
Aphids are a big pest?
Yep, cinara aphids, they love Fraser fir.
What's it like selling Christmas trees year after year?
It's really a lot of fun. The funnest part about selling Christmas trees is seeing the little kids come in and running through the trees and playing and enjoying it while their parents select a tree.
And then, being in it for 30 years, what I've been able to notice is that those little kids running through my lot eventually grow up and they get their own place and they want their own tree.
That's the period of time that I'm in now, is seeing customers that have been trading with me for years and years, their kids now are grown and have their own place and are married or whatnot. Now they're having kids and buying trees. It's a wonderful cycle to experience. It really is.
People are usually in a good mood when they're shopping for a tree to put in their home?
They are. It's a family tradition ... Christmastime, regardless of the mood you're in, the financial difficulties you may be having, sometimes when you come out to look for a Christmas tree, all of that seems to go away because everybody is just so happy.
It's a bit of an escape, a little bit of entertainment, a little bit of nostalgia?
Yeah, I think it's just a tradition that people want to experience, and they want their kids to experience that.
There are other tree lots. But is part of your competition artificial Christmas trees? Do you keep up with that aspect of sales?
I don't because I don't really get involved in the artificial market. We deal straight with live trees. These are grown in the USA. Everybody we deal with is from right here and that's one good thing about it.
Artificial trees usually are made in China or Taiwan or elsewhere overseas?
Yeah, and there's so many different products that go into making an artificial tree. One time I did see a recall on artificial trees for too much lead in the paint. Just things like that.
This here, a live tree, the worst you've got to deal with is a bird's nest might be in the tree where it's been growing out in nature. Little things that just come from nature. It's a live tree.
These Fraser fir trees come in all sizes?
We start them out from tissue cultures that are about two years old. So that's about a 12-inch plant. They plant that and it will grow about a foot a year. And we don't really try to start cutting our trees until they're about five years old. So you'll have a 4- to 5-footer at that point.
We'll start cutting some then only to thin our field out to allow the one next to it to grow to the 6- to 7-foot tree. And then you go in and cut some of those out, and that allows that field to grow into an 8- to 9-foot tree.
You want a variety?
Yeah, you have to have a tree that people want, and they want them from 4 foot to 12 foot.
What's the biggest mistake people make, buying one too big for their house?
The thing is out here in the lot we don't have a ceiling. When you got a 6-foot tree standing next to an 8-foot tree, (people say) I want a bigger tree. And you get it home and you wished you would have got the 6 foot because now your tree is touching your ceiling. It's good to know how high your ceiling is and how much space you need to place your tree prior to shopping for a tree. We try to ask the questions to get the customer to that point on where they're placing it. And we try to give them tips on where to place it in the house to keep it fresh longer.
Away from heat vents?
Exactly. Away from an open window that's going to have direct sun coming through it. The heat vent is real important, the fireplace. You want to keep your live tree a good 10- to 12-foot away from any of those.
What about keeping it fresh with water, etc.?
It's good to give your tree a fresh cut. We give every tree that we sell a fresh cut. What that does is allows the pores to the chlorophyll of the plant to drink. Without that, the sap seals it up and it won't drink any water.
So we give you a fresh cut. You put it in water within 30 to 40 minutes and the tree begins to drink water. Most of these trees are only going to drink two to three gallons of water before the pores start to seal up again.
But you want to keep the water there for one reason. Because you're inside a climate-controlled house, the moisture that's in that bowl, what happens is it warms up and the moisture just kind of floats through the tree and evaporates through the tree, and that keeps it from dehydrating.
So just use water? Don't add any types of commercial solutions?
Don't add Sprite. You always get this, 'Hey someone said try this, it worked for me.' But in the South, if you put Sprite or anything sweet in your water, you're going to have ants. So avoid that. Fresh water is the best way to go.
What's the biggest challenge you face in your job as a tree sales guy?
I would say setting up (the tree lot). Finding a location is very challenging. It's all hard work. Every bit of it is hard work from day one, from the day that we walk the hundreds of acres of Fraser firs to put our tags on them, from the day that they take the chain saw out and make the first cut, and hauling them down the mountains to bale them up and put them on a semi, that's a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of people to do that.
And then there's getting the freight in and unloading them in a safe manner and storing them in a shaded facility and bringing them out as you sell them. Sunshine, like we're having here today, is OK. If we get up to 75, 80, 85 (degrees), it gets a little warm for your trees outside.
You hope for 70 degrees or lower, and no rain?
As far as people coming in to buy a tree, if it rains today, and someone had planned to buy a tree today, they're just going to postpone getting a tree until the next day. If it rains like last year, every other day, throughout our whole 25 days of selling trees, then it becomes a problem.
For the most part, you do your lot improvements and you get it to where it can accommodate customers safely. Actually we have to add gravel, whatever it takes, to get our customers in and out.
So you're seeing a lot of the same faces -- repeat customers -- that you've had through the years?
Faces, reminiscing each year, catching up, you can't beat it. There's nothing to replace it. I've been in business for a long time and I've dealt with people my whole entire career, and selling Christmas trees brings joy to people, plus you get to see them year after year after year. That's probably the most rewarding thing to me.
You do have a day job?
I do. I owned a retail garden center to start out with. And as I said, we sold threes there. And during the process of that, I started a landscape construction company. We do all new construction landscaping -- U.S. Landscape Group, based here in Columbus.
Also, we've developed some rental houses that I've added on thanks to the Christmas trees and other things. So I'm in the real-estate business in a small way.
That's the epitome of an entrepreneur?
(Laughs) It's fun. I wouldn't have changed anything.
Bio
Name: Mark McGraw
Age: 50
Hometown: Columbus
Current residence: Columbus, lives on backwaters
Education: 1982 graduate of Kendrick High School
Previous jobs: Operated a retail nursery, which led to selling Christmas trees
Family: Suzanne, wife of 15 years, son Mason McGraw, daughter Lindy McGraw, and a Basset Hound named Nick
Leisure time: Enjoys camping with his family and does so in a motor home, heading to the mountains at times. Last Christmas, the family traveled to Orlando, Fla., camping at Disney World; plays tennis regularly
This story was originally published December 6, 2014 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Job spotlight with Mark McGraw, owner of Mark's Christmas Trees."