Christmas tree cultivation major Christmas tree growing region, Douglas-fir has always been the primary species grown. A full one-half of all trees produced in the Pacific Northwest are Douglas-fir. Douglas-firs typically take five to seven years before they are mature enough to sell as Christmas trees. Also common in the region are noble fir, a tree which commands a higher price than Douglas-fir, and grand fir, which accounts for about 10 percent of the annual harvest in the Northwest. Other species collectively account for only 3–5 percent of the total Northwest harvest. In North America, Fraser fir, grown in the Appalachian Mountains of
Trysting tree smooth bark. The 'Great Fraser Yew' may be as much as 700 years old and once served as the rallying point of the Clan Fraser members in times of trouble. Kelso, in the Scottish Borders has a 'trysting tree' which is connected with the annual Common Ridings. The locally famous trysting place of the 'Three Thorns of Carlinwalk', this being an old name for Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, are recorded in the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland. Robert Burns writes of a trysting thorn tree (see below) at the Mill of Mannoch at Coylton in South Ayrshire. A new