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Tree Lot Is A Cut Above

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By LAURA FRAZIER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2007

Updated: 12/17/2007 05:33 pm

VALRICO - When it comes to choosing a Christmas tree for her home in River Hills, Suzanne Carter has some say. Her two young daughters also declare their druthers each December, she said, but the man of the house decides which tree makes the final cut.

"He's the connoisseur," Carter said during the family's annual trip to the tree lot Dec. 1. She nodded toward her husband, Mike, as he helped a tree lot attendant strap a 7-foot-tall evergreen to the roof of the family's car.

Like hundreds of Brandon area residents each year, Mike Carter favors Fraser firs and prefers to purchase the Carolina-grown conifers at Bill Trice's Christmas tree lot, a local mainstay for more than a quarter-century.

Each year since 1981, Trice has hauled hundreds of freshly cut evergreens to Brandon from the mountains of North Carolina, where he lives and owns an 80-acre tree farm. He originally set up shop on John Moore Road north of Bloomingdale Avenue near a veterinary clinic owned at the time by his friend Henry Vildibill.

He has moved his lot to a handful of sites over the years, so he keeps a customer mailing list and sends postcards in November to announce his arrival date and whereabouts.

Trice's Snow Mountain and Stover Ridge Nursery lot is set up this year at the South Brandon Little League complex on Bloomingdale Avenue west of Lithia-Pinecrest Road. During the Carters' visit, a steady stream of customers surveyed Trice's stock of more than 600 Fraser firs, which range from 4 to 12 feet tall and are priced from $20 to $160. The most popular picks, Trice said, are 8 to 9 feet tall and sell for about $75.

Trisha and Mike Primiano glanced at the taller trees but mostly milled around the smaller selections.

"We're going smaller this year because we have two kittens in the house," Trisha Primiano said. "We figured there will be less to pick up when they knock it over."

The Bloomingdale couple discovered Trice's lot last year and made a mental note to seek him out annually.

"The tree we bought here lasted the longest of any tree we've ever had, and we've heard the same thing from a lot of our friends who buy here every year," Trisha Primiano said.

Bryan and Rebecca Crawford came to pick out a tree for their Lithia home with their twin infant daughters, Lily and Olivia, and Drew Brauneker, a neighbor's son. The Crawfords each held a baby in one arm and reached past branches with the other to check price tags.

The couple said they were so pleased with the quality and selection that they stretched their tight budget to spend $8 more than they intended to for the perfect tree.

Admiring his tree of choice, Bryan Crawford bounced his baby on his hip and said to her, "We like a wide tree, don't we?"

Trice said he has been in business in Brandon for so long that a growing number of his current customers with children in tow tell him they came to his lot with their parents when they were kids.

"We have made a lot of friends here," he said.

Many customers arrived at the lot with Trice's postcard in hand. Some, such as May Hagan, greeted their favorite tree farmer with a hug.

Hagan and her husband purchased a tree from Trice 26 years ago when he first set up shop on John Moore Road. The Brandon woman has patronized the lot every year since then.

"I'm just so delighted with the trees and the service," she said.

After her husband passed away years ago, Trice insisted on delivering a Christmas tree to her house at no charge, Hagan said.

Every year since then, Trice personally delivers the tree of her choice to her home, sets it in the stand and places it in her living room before wishing her a Merry Christmas.

"Bill really pays his customers special attention," she said.

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523 or lfrazier@tampatrib.com.

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