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five years, he says. Others have trees for next year already chosen. A very few Norway pines have been spoken for by special customers. They won’t be available to the general public next year because they take so long to grow, he says. They have to be 9-10 years old before he sells them, although he says some growers let them go at six or seven years old.
He points out the most stately example of these in sight. This tree is being saved for a Gaithersburg beautician. She travels from Maryland each year to buy one of McWhirt’8 trees.
"I figure I must be doing something right if they say I have the most beautiful trees,” he declared.
Retirement Hobby
What he does right amounts to spending about four months out of the year working with the trees, McWhirt says. New seedlings are planted in midMarch or early April. The stumps left from last Christmas are cut off even to the ground and left to rot. Then all the trees are primed and shaped in June.
His farm is open daily during the two weeks before Christmas while most of the county’s other growers are open only for a few days or
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