Stephen Wombwell and Wilf Standeven receiving their award from celebrity judge Jules Hudson (of BBC’s Escape to the Country, Countryfile)

In October every year, the British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA) holds its annual competition for the nation's best growers to bring their prize Christmas trees and wreaths to be judged and awarded. It's a great chance to meet up as an industry and speak to each other about Christmas tree farming, as well as to eye up the national competition.

This year it was in Herefordshire at Temple Court Christmas Trees. There were some terrific trees in the competition and it was a certainly a difficult choice for the judges (members of the BCTGA).

We were delighted with our Runner Up prize for our Norway Spruce. It was a true beauty, with great shape and an even spread of foliage on its branches.

Russell Parkins, Chair of BCTGA, said:
“The standard of entries has been high and very impressive and I’d like to congratulate all our winners. It’s a real accolade for our champions to supply the Christmas tree for Downing Street and the wreath for Number 10 and we hope it encourages the public in our message to support our Christmas tree growers, buy local and buy real!”

Shaping Christmas trees is a full time job

On our Christmas tree farm of 160 acres, covered by nearly 300,000 planted or pot grown trees, the shaping is done by hand, by our relatively small team. We start shaping and pruning the trees from when they are very young. This pruning takes place throughout the year and is a vital job if we are to achieve the beautiful shapes we all expect from real Christmas trees.

Learn more about how we grow our trees and view images from our farm.

Who’s in the team?

Christmas Tree Farmers Dyllan and Cam of Newburgh Christmas Trees, Yorks

Dyllan (right) is the Christmas tree manager and fully in charge of all the tree growing. He has been working on the farm for years so has almost seen some of these trees go through an entire cycle from seedling to harvest. Alongside him is Cam (left) who nurtures and feeds the trees, keeping an eye on all the differing harvests/ages and varieties to ensure each of them are growing optimally throughout the year.

North Yorkshire in winter can be cold, but the commitment and hard work our team show day in day out on the farm is commendable. So the recognition of their hard work, with this award, is great to see.

A word from Dyllan:

‘I'm really pleased this tree got an award. It is 10 years old, planted up in the furthest part of the farm. It caught my eye from early on and I have been pruning it and protecting it ever since knowing it would one day be a prize tree for someone. Little did I know that was going to be me! A great award for the farm. It really is a team effort. We're looking forward to coming back next year…and winning.’

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