West Des Moines, Clive Customers Flocking To Christmas Tree Lot

For 34 years, Dean Lemke has been making the trek to Iowa from Merrill, Wis., for a six-week visit between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And he brings along fresh-cut Christmas trees — by the truckloads. Lemke operates Northern Holiday, a tree lot that has been in the same location north of the Cool Basil restaurant off of University Avenue, where West Des Moines and Clive meet, for more than three decades.

Trees are his full-time business, and central Iowa residents are the only direct customers he provides the balsams, pines and firs to each season. Business is so good this year, he said, that he's on his third truckload of trees and most of the pine garlands and wreaths have already been snapped up.

"Better weather brings more people out," he said. "But some people have to wait for snow to be in the mood, though the majority would still rather buy a tree when it's nice out."

David Lemke, Dean's nephew, said Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally the busiest. He and Nick Narlock are on the lot to help customers select the right size and variety of tree. They shape the trees if needed, give them a minute on the shaker to get rid of loose needles, and put them through the baler so they are wrapped up neatly for the ride atop a car or in the back of a truck.

The business opened a week before Thanksgiving and the warm weather early in the season brought many customers out early — and often in shorts and T-shirts. "I was surprised to see that," Narlock said. "This is Iowa. It's supposed to be cold."

Dean Lemke said his 800-acre tree farm plants from 6,000 to 60,000 trees a year, many of which are sold wholesale. He has 18 full-time employees who continually prune and care for the trees so they have a good "Christmas tree shape" when they are harvested. Growing time ranges from eight to 20 years, depending on the type of tree and to get a variety of sizes, up to about 8 feet tall.

Over the years, the types of trees people are looking for as shifted, he added.

"Thirty years ago it was mostly Scotch pine. Now it's a lot of balsam," he noted. His own preference is to switch varieties each year from balsam to Fraser firs, but picking the right tree, "that's my wife's job," he said.

Some years, Lemke said, Christmas has arrived and his lot has had a number of trees remaining. When that happens, he reaches out to a network of people he knows in the area and the trees that didn't make it to a home for Christmas find another purpose. He's had people use them in lakes for fish habitat, bundle them together teepee-style for pheasant habitat on a preserve, and he's given some to a goat farmer, because goats like to eat them.

But in recent years, a steady stream of customers eager for a real tree at Christmas has depleted his supply.

"There's not as many traditional people coming from north to run tree lots as in the past," Lemke said, noting that just two blocks to the north on 86th Street is another lot, also from his town but not affiliated with his business. "But I sell more here now than I did in the past."

Patch photos by Melissa Myers