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Dillard selling trees one more season
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| Members of the Brazzell family, from left, Richard, Stephanie and Joshua, 9, inspect a Canaan fir at Dillard Tree Farm in Dillard on Saturday. Farm owner Malcolm Dillard, who has planted Christmas trees since 1962, said he would sell trees one more year before calling it quits. |
By Jeremy Styron News Editor
By now, Malcolm Dillard, 73, owner of Dillard Tree Farm in Dillard, has seen all the green he can handle.
After this Christmas tree planting season and the next, Dillard said he would shut the door on his business and only supply family and friends with trees as needed. He cited old age as his main reason for ending the farm, which he has managed for more than 40 years.
"There's one bottom line to the whole thing," Dillard said. "Another man's dream becomes an old man's headache."
But the time spent with his trees has not soured his demeanor.
Dillard walks amongst his Canaan firs helping customers with a pleasantness that tells the story of a man who, from childhood, has been tied to the once seedlings.
"I'd get out in the woods and just feel a tree," he said, recalling his youth. "I'd drag it home sometimes a mile, and no matter how it looked, my mom would put it up and decorate it, and we thought it was the prettiest thing we ever saw."
Dillard, with wife Charlotte, spent 31 years in Fairburn before moving back to his home county of Rabun. Malcolm worked for the Georgia Department of Education as a forestry consultant training agricultural teachers.
Initially, he began selling spruce and white pine trees across the street from the original location of The Dillard House on Zach Dillard Lane. Malcolm and Charlotte would drive to Rabun during the holidays to tend the farm.
"Any vacation time I had, I spent on the Christmas trees," he said.
In 1996, the pair retired and moved temporarily into a house on Barnard Lane in Dillard. They then moved in 1998 to a house they built at the end of Barnard and began operating there.
Malcolm said he prefers Canaan firs, which he noted originated in the Snowshoe Mountain area of West Virginia. "They have good needle retention. No better than the Fraser, but a little better than the balsam."
The Brazzell family of Newnan spent time Saturday perusing the estimated 1,100 trees left in the farm. Richard Brazzell said he would give the Canaan firs a shot.
"They are a lot like Frasers, only they say it's a heartier tree," he said. "So, we're gonna try it this year, and if it's good, we'll be back next year."
After some searching for one tree it wanted, the family had trouble locating the other one, seemingly getting lost in a giant, green grid.
"Eeny meeny minie moe, catch a Christmas tree by its toe," Stephanie Brazzell joked.
"Everybody said we were crazy to drive all this way for a Christmas tree," Stephanie said after the family had made its pick. The family planned a day outing, including a picnic at the Tallulah Gorge.
Finding Malcolm's moderately small farm was not hard at all, Stephanie said.
"I Googled ya," she told Malcolm.
Families like the Brazzells, who come from other parts of Georgia, Florida and elsewhere would be missed, Malcolm said. "The worst thing about closing down is all the good friends I've made."
After this Christmas tree planting season and the next, Dillard said he would shut the door on his business and only supply family and friends with trees as needed. He cited old age as his main reason for ending the farm, which he has managed for more than 40 years.
"There's one bottom line to the whole thing," Dillard said. "Another man's dream becomes an old man's headache."
But the time spent with his trees has not soured his demeanor.
Dillard walks amongst his Canaan firs helping customers with a pleasantness that tells the story of a man who, from childhood, has been tied to the once seedlings.
"I'd get out in the woods and just feel a tree," he said, recalling his youth. "I'd drag it home sometimes a mile, and no matter how it looked, my mom would put it up and decorate it, and we thought it was the prettiest thing we ever saw."
Dillard, with wife Charlotte, spent 31 years in Fairburn before moving back to his home county of Rabun. Malcolm worked for the Georgia Department of Education as a forestry consultant training agricultural teachers.
Initially, he began selling spruce and white pine trees across the street from the original location of The Dillard House on Zach Dillard Lane. Malcolm and Charlotte would drive to Rabun during the holidays to tend the farm.
"Any vacation time I had, I spent on the Christmas trees," he said.
In 1996, the pair retired and moved temporarily into a house on Barnard Lane in Dillard. They then moved in 1998 to a house they built at the end of Barnard and began operating there.
Malcolm said he prefers Canaan firs, which he noted originated in the Snowshoe Mountain area of West Virginia. "They have good needle retention. No better than the Fraser, but a little better than the balsam."
The Brazzell family of Newnan spent time Saturday perusing the estimated 1,100 trees left in the farm. Richard Brazzell said he would give the Canaan firs a shot.
"They are a lot like Frasers, only they say it's a heartier tree," he said. "So, we're gonna try it this year, and if it's good, we'll be back next year."
After some searching for one tree it wanted, the family had trouble locating the other one, seemingly getting lost in a giant, green grid.
"Eeny meeny minie moe, catch a Christmas tree by its toe," Stephanie Brazzell joked.
"Everybody said we were crazy to drive all this way for a Christmas tree," Stephanie said after the family had made its pick. The family planned a day outing, including a picnic at the Tallulah Gorge.
Finding Malcolm's moderately small farm was not hard at all, Stephanie said.
"I Googled ya," she told Malcolm.
Families like the Brazzells, who come from other parts of Georgia, Florida and elsewhere would be missed, Malcolm said. "The worst thing about closing down is all the good friends I've made."
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