Porch Pot Tag Team
The Holiday decorating has begun! …At home, that is.
The outdoors has always been my responsibility...the Christmas lights, the winter porch pots, and maybe a little fresh garland on the mailbox...and of course, the Christmas tree. Technically, that one’s inside, but it starts outside. It’s mine, too. I put it in the stand, I set it up in the living room, and then I add the lights.
Kim does the rest... all the rest!
But that changed a little bit this year. This past week, we tag-teamed on all the winter porch pots for the first time. I filled them with arrangements of fresh cut greens, and then she came in with all the decorative accessories to finish them off... pinecones, berries, ornamental balls, jingle bells, and the occasional LED light spray.
The teamwork paid off, and they turned out amazing! Now, she can focus on decking out the indoors, and I can figure out when I’m going to freeze my tail off getting lights up outside... I should have taken advantage of all that nice weather we were having!
Thanksgiving has come and gone. I hope yours was wonderful! I always look forward to having family and friends together and sharing that day. I look forward to the leftovers, too!
Cameron Rees, General Manager
We’re decked in fresh and green here at the store. The greenhouse is full of fresh-cut fir Christmas trees, hanging out in a reservoir of water to keep them fresh and opened-up for full display on closer inspection.
They are joined by a wide assortment of fresh-cut greens, wreaths, roping, swags, and finished winter porch pots, all ready to make your home a little more festive through the holiday season.
Fresh and green... we’re here to help if you need it.
Happy Holidays!
—Cameron
give “green” this christmas!
Our Holiday Gift Card Deal is going on right now! From now through business hours on Christmas Eve, you’ll receive a $20 Skinner gift card FREE when you purchase $100 in Skinner gift cards. That’s a great deal! And perfect for the plant lover on your Christmas List. Or rather, the plant - tree - shrub - houseplant - flower - vegetable garden - landscaping - lawn-keeping lover on your Christmas List! They can do it all with a Skinner gift card!
Your skinner buck$ = holiday savings!
We’ve reached the final Skinner Buck$ Redemption Period of 2025. Now through December 14th, you can redeem your Skinner Buck$, using them to pay for up to 50% of your purchase. That equals holiday savings! All 2025 Skinner Buck$ expire on December 14th, so use them or lose them, as they say! Then, we’ll begin the new year with our 2026 Buck$.
plants for the holidays!
Trunk Protection: It Can Be Life or Death!
We stress the same thing all the time.
It’s not enough to purchase, plant, and water your new tree. Those are all vitally important, but you also need to provide some additional protection throughout the winter.
The good news? It doesn’t take much!
Just install a simple, inexpensive trunk guard late in the fall, and then remove it next spring. It’s really that easy.
The bad news? A lot of people don’t do it.
Maybe they haven’t heard the message, maybe they don’t really appreciate how important the advice is...or maybe it’s just one of those little things that gets forgotten in a busy life. Regardless, it’s sad because a few bucks and a few minutes can prevent a wintertime injury that can destroy all your hard work before you realize it.
Winter sunscald is what we’re trying to prevent. This is a sun-related, wintertime injury that has to do with tender trunk tissues being warmed by the afternoon sun during frigid winter temperatures. The warming rays of sunshine set trunk tissues up for cold temperature damage once the warmth of that sunshine goes away and cold reality returns. And it happens silently while you are staying inside and warm, regardless of how much money you spent on your new tree, how carefully you planted it, or how much time you have spent keeping it watered, mulched, and weeded.
Sunscald damage won’t show up right away; in fact, it often isn’t noticed for a season or two. If you have a young tree with a sunken injury to the lower portion of the trunk, and that sunken area is on the southwest side of the trunk, there’s a pretty good chance that’s from winter sunscald.
That damaged area is a wide-open door for secondary pests, especially tree borers and decay-causing organisms. These, combined with the loss of critical trunk tissues, leads to decline in health, and in most cases, eventual death.
Unfortunately, it takes several years for this process to run its course. So, in the end, not only has all your hard work and money gone to waste, but often a fair amount of your time as well. Years go by, and you’re having to start all over again. Frustrating!
And all it takes to avoid this life-threatening damage is a simple, inexpensive trunk guard.
If you’ve already got them at home, get them on...now. And if you need some, come on by, and we can get you fixed up. All newly planted trees should have trunk protection throughout the winter.
Those same truck guards also work great to help prevent trunk damage from hungry rabbits or rodents looking for a tasty winter snack, and to some extent, they can also help against damage from deer, although with deer, additional fencing/caging is highly recommended.
[Pro Tip: Keep those trunk guards somewhere you’ll be able to find them next year and reuse them on those same trees. Trees should be protected for the first few winters.]
more EVENTS, SALES & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Keep an eye on this section in the future for all the important info and extras you won’t want to miss!
Can you smell the evergreen filling up your home? Each of our trees has been given a name. Once you select your tree, our staff will put a fresh cut on the trunk, will net your tree for transportation, and will help load it into your vehicle. How easy is that?
