The Anniston Star l Monday, November 30, 2009
MONDAY RECORD YOUR GUIDE TO PUBLIC RECORDS AND VITAL STATISTICS IN CALHOUN COUNTY
Off to work ... with a christmas tree farmer West finds profession harder than he thought it would be, but rewarding By Bill Edwards bedwards@annistonstar.com
Rick West went off to work in 2001 to make possible the product you might buy from him this week. It was about that long ago that the Anniston-raised Vietnam veteran, having read everything he could find about cultivating Christmas trees, actually started to plant them. He set out about 500 foot-high seedlings that first year, and one thing he learned is that all his reading material “way understated” the amount of work and attention the job takes. “To do this you gotta be a welder, a horticulturalist, a farmer and all sorts of stuff,” he said. “This is constant ... you never get through pruning and shaping.” West’s crop consists of cypress trees he obtains from a wholesaler in North Carolina. They’re of three varieties — Leyland cypress, Murray cypress and a species known as the Carolina sapphire. They’re “Southern trees for Southern folks,” he said, adding, “these shed less than others — a lot less than a Scotch pine.” The trees almost didn’t make it through the drought of a couple of years ago, however. About 300 had to be replaced. “I was at a point when I wasn’t sure the Lord wanted me to do this,” he said. Please see work ❙ Page 3
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Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
Rick West, owner of Westwood Plantations in Oxford, walks among his eight acres of Christmas trees.
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