Monessen nursery perfects the art of flocking Christmas trees
Celeste Van Kirk
Michael Joseph bags a flocked Christmas tree for a customer at Joseph’s Nursery in Monessen. The nursery is one of a very few in the area that offers the option.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Lenny Boso makes custom tree stands for the Christmas trees at Joseph’s Nursery in Monessen.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Lenny Boso attaches tree stands to all the Christmas trees at Joseph’s Nursery in Monessen.
Celeste Van Kirk
Stan Malarbi flocks a Christmas tree for a customer at Joseph’s Nursery in Monessen.
Stan Malarbi moves a flocked Christmas tree from the spraying area to dry.
Celeste Van Kirk
For more than 60 years, families have trekked to Joseph’s Nursery & Garden Center in Monessen to purchase a Christmas tree, grown on the family farm in Connellsville.
Many come for a particular tree that few other nurseries in the region offer: a flocked tree.
“It’s something different. It’s unusual,” said George Joseph Jr., the amiable owner of Joseph’s Nursery, a family business than has spanned four generations.
The nursery sells between 75 to 100 flocked trees each year, to customers who drive from as far away as Virginia. And, noted George, a woman from Australia called earlier in the Christmas season to ask if Joseph’s could ship a flocked tree to her home Down Under.
Joseph’s flocks its Christmas trees in several colors. White is the most requested color, but the nursery makes several shades – red, pink, blue and purple.
Joseph said the shade that is catching the eye of Christmas tree shoppers this year is black.
“A lot of people buy black because they want to make a Pittsburgh Steelers tree,” he said. “They’ll put a tossel cap on top for the star, string some black and gold ribbon, and decorate it with Steelers ornaments.”
James and Shelley Stokely of Wilkinsburg, who are vacationing in Jamaica after Christmas, ordered a Caribbean-blue flocked tree.
The couple adorned the tree with beach-theme ornaments – starfish, palm trees, a flip-flop-wearing Santa Claus – and blue lights.
“I love it. I’d say it’s one of the best trees we’ve ever had,” said Shelley, whose tradition of putting up a Joseph’s flocked tree began when she was a child growing up in Brownsville. “When people see our flocked trees, they’re like, wow, that’s nice, how did they do that? And then they want to touch it.”
Stan Malarbi, who has flocked trees for 33 years, demonstrated how Joseph’s flocks trees.
Malarbi places the tree on a rotating platform. He wires the tree limbs so that when the flock is applied the branches do not droop.
Next, he mists the entire tree with water, and then uses a hose attached to a flocking machine to spray the flocking material – a mix of cotton, rayon and glue – on the branches.
Finally, he sprinkles colored glitter, or mica, on the tree to give it a glistened look for customers who request it. Joseph’s also will string lights on the trees.
It takes about two days for a flocked tree to dry, and then the tree is wrapped in protective plastic until the owner picks it up or it is delivered.
Each tree comes with a specially designed, handmade stand and water bowl.
Flocking has been around since the 1930s, and is popular in some regions of the United States, including Florida and California.
Joseph said his family learned to flock by “trial and error.”
“We wanted to offer customers something different,” he said, noting the nursery still uses the same turntable and spray machine it used more than 50 years ago.
Joseph said the trees last longer than a typical cut tree and don’t shed their needles, so people keep them up and decorate them for Valentine’s Day and Easter.
While customers love the trees, it’s the friendly customer service that brings them back.
“They are amazing. They care about their customers,” said James Stokely. “It makes you feel good about America when you see a family business like that. It puts you in the Christmas spirit.”