PROVO -- Ladell Baum swears a Christmas tree he placed in a container of Sprite actually grew a couple of inches.
The longtime salesman doesn't guarantee that lopping off the trunk, cutting an X across the bottom and soaking it in the lemon-lime soft drink will make it taller, but he says it will help the tree remain fresh.Keeping cut pine and fir trees green might be one reason Baum, 57, has been able to run a successful Christmas tree lot from his home in Provo's Grandview neighborhood the past 28 years. Tall trees, short trees, fat trees, skinny trees chopped down in early November turn the yard into a veritable "tannenbaum" forest.
Residents on the quiet street where orchards once stood don't seem to mind Baum's holiday endeavor. Some walk over to buy their trees from him. The next-door neighbor even allows his yard to serve as the "sold" lot for a small price, often a Christmas tree.
Baum says it's not so much when but where a tree was cut that determines its staying power. Trees trucked from the humid climes of Washington and Oregon, though beautiful, don't fare well in Utah's dry air, he said.
"I always push Utah trees. I know they'll last twice as long," Baum said. "It's the kind of tree and where they've been raised. That's the biggest factor. That and I sprinkle them everyday."
He does use water for the daily shower, not Sprite.
Baum, a general contractor, only stocks four varieties of trees -- black balsam, white balsam, lodgepole pine and pinion pine. The black balsam, also called alpine fir, with its thin, supple needles lasts longer than other trees, he says.
Last year, Baum and his sons felled 1,500 trees, and sold every one of them, including several on the front porch that were part of the family's own yule decorations. The Baums expect a brisk business again this December despite recent public clamor for artificial trees.
"We don't use that kind of language around here," said Jason Baum, 22.
"That's a bad word."
The Baums cut most of their trees this year on private property and U.S. Forest Service land near Fish Lake and Beaver, going as high as 9,600 feet in search of resilient alpine firs. They also chopped a few in Wyoming and bought some from a Payson tree farm. Unseasonably warm weather spared them from battling snowstorms that have plagued past tree-cutting expeditions.
Nearly half of all the trees Baum sells are flocked. The white fiber is plastered all over the back of Baum's deck and in a 1,200 foot, two-story garage where he sprays the tall timber. Flocking the green needles actually prevents the Christmas centerpiece from drying out.
"It's just like putting insulation on the tree. It just keeps the water in it," he said.
Baum's customers, most of whom are repeats from previous years, come from as far north as Salt Lake City and as far south as Delta. He has even sold trees to Californians.
"This one guy would take one down to his daughter," Baum said.
A neighbor told south Provo resident Natalie Green about Baum's Christmas trees.
"They said they come here every year," she said while sizing up recruits for a neighborhood service project. "They look like good trees. He has quite a selection."
Baum relies on word-of-mouth advertising, although he does have three small, spray-painted signs pointing the way to his lot.
"You've got to want to do this," he says. "I do make a little money at it. It's OK, but it's not that good."