We bought this land to raise kids on it.
The trees came later. Twenty-some years on, two generations run the farm, and the kids who grew up in these rows now bring their own.
From livestock to Fraser Fir.
When John Paul and Rainey Houston bought the farm in 1999, the plan was a place for the family, not a business. They tried chickens, turkeys, hogs and cattle. The Christmas trees were almost an afterthought, a few rows of Fraser Fir on a hillside that turned out to be exactly what the soil and the altitude wanted.
By 2005 the trees were big enough to sell, and the Roanoke Valley turned out to want them. In 2011 their son John William joined as a partner; three years later he took over. The whole family still shows up for the season, and so does a crew of neighbors who have been with us for years.
Every tree we sell was grown here. We think that matters, and we think you can tell.
- 1999John Paul and Rainey Houston buy the farm in Floyd County to raise their kids on the land.
- Early 2000sChickens, turkeys, hogs and cattle all get a turn. The first Fraser Fir seedlings go in the ground.
- 2005The first trees are big enough to sell. We open our first lot to serve the Roanoke Valley.
- 2011Son John William comes on as a partner.
- 2014John William takes over the farm. The whole family still works the season together.
- 2022We make the wreaths for the Virginia Executive Mansion.
- 2023Our Fraser Fir wins the VCTGA “prettiest tree” contest and goes to the Executive Mansion.
- 2025Blue spruce join the fields, sold as Christmas and landscaping trees.
- 2026A new nursery of potted evergreens, and a new season ahead.
A 1951 Dodge, in the family for fifty years.
The pickup in the rows is not a prop. A grandfather decided not to sell it so he could teach his grandson auto mechanics on it when the boy was old enough. Years later, the grandson grew Christmas trees, and the truck came out to the field.
It has been in the family for more than fifty years and in a lot of family photos for the last ten.
Neighbors, cousins, and one very large dog.
Cutting, baling and loading a season’s worth of trees takes a lot of hands. Ours come back every year.
High, cool and a little bit out of the way.
Floyd sits on the Blue Ridge Plateau at about 2,500 feet, which is why Fraser Fir, a tree that grows wild only on the highest peaks of the southern Appalachians, is so happy here. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs past the county, and the Crooked Road music trail runs through the town.
We are members of the National Christmas Tree Association, the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association, the Virginia Grown (VDACS).
