Heat Is Sapping Life From Holiday Trees

At Christmas tree lots, the problem is not so much the heat, but the humidity.

Trouble is, there isn’t much.

As much of the rest of the country digs out from under snowdrifts or sandbags against floodwaters, Christmas tree vendors across Southern California are scrambling to protect their heat-sensitive merchandise from unseasonably warm temperatures and desiccating Santa Ana winds.

The same wind that chaps lips and dusts up cars is posing a deadly hazard to unprotected Christmas trees, drying out needles in as little as a day.

“The wind just sucks the water right of them,” said Oliver Holt, a San Fernando Valley tree seller for 39 years.

Old-timers such as Holt know the first few days of the Christmas tree season can be unpredictable. So with tens of thousands of dollars at stake in each lot, the more experienced sellers prepare for the worst.

An elaborate sprinkler system keeps Holt’s trees wet and cool. Extra stock is kept covered. But less-experienced merchants are learning the hard way: by watching fragrant green trees turn brown before their eyes.

Thursday’s relative humidity reached 34%, according to the National Weather Service, up from about 15% on Wednesday. At the same time, afternoon temperatures dropped from 88 Wednesday to about 81 Thursday. Today is expected to be cooler, with highs of about 75.

It’s none too soon for Carl Hutter. He received a $50,000 shipment of about 800 Oregon trees Friday and nursed them through the weekend by dousing them with water and covering them with shade cloth.

“I don’t really foresee any real trouble right now,” Hutter said from his Granada Hills lot. “But if the weather stays hot like this for two more weeks, then I will start worrying.”

In Monrovia, trees drenched by heavy rains in Washington and Oregon arrived still wet and were well-situated to stay fresh. Tree lot workers planned to keep the trees covered and branches wrapped up until sunset and cooler evening weather.

“If the wind stays down, we should be OK,” said Kelly Stroda, who worked a tree lot on Huntington Drive and Mountain Avenue in Monrovia. “But hot sun and wind would be a big problem for us in drying out the trees.”

Wiping sweat from his sunburned brow as he unloaded dozens of noble and Douglas fir from his family’s farm in Oregon, Stroda joked that the weather is better for a tan than a tree.

Like many veteran tree merchants, George St. Johns has learned to prepare for unpredictable weather, saying the hot weather is unlikely to put a dent in his wallet.

St. Johns spreads sawdust on the ground to hold moisture and puts all of his 3,500 trees in small water buckets--a tactic Holt uses as well. At Oregon Family trees in Woodland Hills, owner Jack Price keeps his trees watered and under shade.

Tree proprietors said the hot weather also saps the Christmas spirit of buyers. Although residents of colder climates start picking up trees before Thanksgiving, Southern Californians usually put off the purchase until the second or third week of December.

“We’ve had years like this before,” said Damon Geisler, manager of a Sherman Oaks lot. “People just wait until it gets cooler to buy their trees.” Eventually, though, he said, “people want to have a tree in their house--hot or not.”

Once buyers put up their trees at home, proprietors said, the first order of business is to put them in water. Price said trees should be watered at least twice a day to keep them green through Christmas.

Holt added that trees should be kept away from south or west facing windows to minimize exposure to the sun. At the same time, trees should be placed away from fireplaces or heating vents.

“It’s like putting a hair dryer to it,” he said.

Times staff writers Beth Shuster and Erin Texeira contributed to this story.