Posted: 12/14/06
Garland, wreath-making big at Nelson Nursery
By Joel Stottrup
The people who enjoy the evergreen garland, wreaths and swags that come from Nelson Nursery in Zimmerman probably don't think of bicycle wheels, pine cones from Montana and northern Minnesota, nor an assembly line operation.
Nor do they likely know that all these decorations on the outside and inside of buildings today were made two months ago.
And they probably wouldn't know that Nelson Nursery took part in an educational campaign to make sure the gathering of the evergreen materials was done the correct way for conservation.
Nelson Nursery made enough of the evergreen garland this year that if stretched end to end would go 20 miles, or from Princeton to about two miles south of Elk River.
The nursery, which finds the Christmas holiday season a filler for this time of year when the business is no longer selling plants, also makes more than 30,000 wreaths, and specialty items like swags in cross, heart and candy cane shapes.
The making of wreaths and garlands began at Nelson Nursery long before the current owners, Mike and Jacie Lemke, bought the business in 1979 from Dick Nelson, who still lives in rural Zimmerman.
The 82-year-old Nelson had a large Christmas tree operation after starting it in 1960. Nelson had bought Nan Conifer just north of Zimmerman and Musser's Nursery operation north and east of Princeton, he said.
Nelson had at least 4,000 acres at one time in Mille Lacs, Sherburne and Isanti Counties. "It was worthless, worn-out sand and I planted [evergreen] trees on it and cultivated it into Christmas trees," he said.
The techniques for growing Christmas trees back then weren't as good as they are now so a lot of those trees never made it to market, he said. Those are now big trees and much of that land is developed, he noted.
Office manager tells history of business
Nelson said he didn't remember the exact year that he sold his business, which was called Nelson Trees Inc., at the time, to the Lemkes. But Nelson Nursery office manager Bonni Cook, who says it was 1979, should know.
She remembers that she began her job making wreaths for Nelson Trees in 1978 and then got hired on in the spring in 1979 at the office when the Lemkes bought the business.
Cook recalled how big the Christmas tree operation was back then, telling about semi-trailer loads of trees going out.
But that came to an end as Nelson sold his land and Nelson Nursery moved more into the garland and wreath business at the holiday time.
It turned out that people like going to Christmas tree growers and cutting their own trees, said Cook, so Nelson moved away from providing Christmas trees.
Dick Nelson had already started the garland, wreath, and swag part of the business. His father Nels Nelson helped by setting up an assembly line way of making the garland.
It involved a bicycle wheel with some attachments so twine could be fed through the center part of the wheel for the evergreen pieces to be placed on. Then another part on the wheel would wind wire around the evergreen parts every so often to hold it onto the twine. A motor turned the bicycle wheel to make it all work.
Dick Nelson said that Nels had gone to a Christmas tree operation in Hill City, Minn., and saw such a device to copy for Nelson Trees.
"Aw hell, I can build that," Dick remembers his father saying.
Mike Lemke, last Friday at Nelson Nursery, pointed to the nearly dozen such bicycle wheel apparatuses now stored at the nursery, and said he refined the wheels to improve their operation.
Making garlands, wreaths at business
The wheels sit silent in cold storage now. But if you had visited the old barn at Nelson Nursery between mid October and Thanksgiving week you would have seen all 10 wheels moving.
A visitor would also have seen workers at the wheels making the garland and people behind them taking the garland lengths, rolling them up and stacking them for their trip to a warehouse in St. Cloud to store for three weeks.
Like other businesses with deadlines, the product has to be ready for immediate shipment when needed, yet has to be fresh.
After the cold storage the product is shipped out to wholesale buyers.
During Thanksgiving week the workers make fresh garland and wreaths to retail locally.
The biggest part of the Christmas business for Nelson Nursery is the wholesaling of the garland, wreaths and swags.
Approximately 50 workers make the wreaths and garland, the latter made in lengths of 25, 50 and 100 feet.
The nursery has an improved way of making wreaths since the old days. It once made them by wrapping pieces of wire to hold the wreath boughs in place around the heavy wire ring.
That was hard on hands, said Cook. Now there is a metal crimping device that is run by pushing down a foot pedal.
Making all that garland and all those wreaths and swags uses up approximately 130 tons of balsam boughs harvested in northern Minnesota.
About 90,000 pine cones are used in the 30,000 wreaths, the majority of the cones coming from Ponderosa Pine in the Flathead Lake area of Montana. Some white pine cones also are used, which are obtained in northern Minnesota. A contractor sprays the tips of the Ponderosa cones white.
Workers do a lot of piece work after hours to do the final work on wreathes and swags. The ribbons are shipped separately to the wholesale outlets to be placed on at the last minute so they do not get messed up in shipment.
All the pine cones are bought a year ahead so they are immediately available when the big assembly rush begins. At any one time there are about 100,000 cones stored at the nursery, Cook said.
Conservation and the gathering of evergreen boughs
Cook and Lemke had to get involved at some point in how the balsam boughs were being harvested from trees after hearing complaints from conservation and forestry officials. Too many balsam trees were being cut back too far on their branches and in some cases entire trees were cut down and lying about as waste.
Nelson Nursery became part of the Balsam Bough Partnership in 1997. The organization works to conserve and manage the harvesting of the balsam boughs so after the cutting, the tree can grow the ends of the branches back.
If cut too far back toward the trunk, they won't grow back, Lemke said. The U.S. Forestry Service has recognized Nelson Nursery for its work in helping with seminars to teach bough harvesters the correct way of harvesting.
This had to be corrected or conservation and forestry officials were threatening to cut off allowing any more harvesting of the boughs on state land, said Lemke. The harvesters have to get permits.
Nelson Nursery has illustrated handouts showing guidelines for how to correctly harvest balsam boughs.
Among the guidelines are to harvest from trees that are greater than seven feet high. The guidelines point out that the healthy and sustainable harvesting of balsam boughs is a responsibility of all citizens.
Bough gathering is a big business up north, said Cook, noting that the boughs arrive in semi loads at Nelson Nursery. While most of it is balsam, some white pine pieces are used to trim out some of the products.
Cook buys the boughs and keeps in touch with the harvesters in northern Minnesota, arranging the transport.
Nelson Nursery ships garland, wreaths and swags throughout most of the continental U.S., according to Cook.
The big buyers of these products are groups that do fund-raising, said Cook. Some examples are a dance team, an evangelical school a preschool, Princeton Youth Hockey Association and the Knights of Columbus at St. Edward's Catholic Church in Princeton.
Some benefits
The fragrance of the balsam boughs in the barn when the garland and wreaths are made is "overwhelming," said Cook, saying it is pleasurable. "I go home with needles on my jacket," she said.
It also helps provide employment for migrant workers who are otherwise idle after the fall potato harvest in Sherburne County, says Cook. "It's a good group that comes in and they get the job done," she said.
Cook says it is also fun to go into places such as Princeton and see the finished garland decorating the buildings, and in the Elim Home in Princeton, where Nelson Nursery has donated evergreen products. This began in memory of Dick Nelson's parents Nels and Marie Nelson who once lived there, Cook said.
"It's my life," said Mike Lemke as he talked about Nelson Nursery and the fall operation that produces all these evergreen decorations. He noted that he first got involved in Christmas tree growing by shearing evergreens for Dick Nelson 40 years ago when he was 12.
"I think what makes it unique," Lemke said about the making of garland, wreaths and swags, is that they are "the real deal."
They are not made from plastic or nylon, he explained, but from a natural product that gives off a unique fragrance that is instantly associated with holiday memories.
Princeton Union-Eagle
P.O. Box 278
Princeton, MN 55371
Telephone: 763-389-1222
Fax: 763-389-1728