About:

Hacker's Tree Farm, Nursery and Greenhouse is a family owned business located near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota in the southwestern part of the state. We have a commitment to provide a quality Christmas tree and hand-made evergreen product. We have the ability to set up your retail lot with all the products needed to market Christmas trees and evergreen products. We can deliver nationwide. Dan and Lynn's journey into the Christmas tree business is unlike anybody else. In 1981, after the death of their son, Lynn's father suggested we sell some of his trees from their family farm in Wisconsin to keep ourselves occupied. He brought out 300 trees and we sold them all! Later we found out that they were White Spruce, which is a beautiful tree, but when customers took it in their homes, it lost its needles. The next year to make right with our customers, we had to sell trees again. We replaced all the trees for the customers with different varieties. And so our business of selling and raising Christmas trees began. We began a partnership with a Christmas tree grower in rice, Minnesota, just north of St. Cloud. From this experience we learned about the Christmas tree business. Each year we planted 40,000 trees. The technique of shearing was learned with a knife, once perfected we moved on to a motorized machine called a beneke. Dan's love of shearing to make the perfect tree led him to teach many young men to shear, and for 18 years we sheared millions of trees in Wisconsin and Minnesota with a custom shearing crew. Through these connections with other tree farmers we have the luxury of purchasing only top quality trees.

The number one selling tree for our business is the Fraser Fir. We also offer Balsam Fir, Canaan Fir, Douglas Fir and Natural Balsam Fir. We provide a quality selection of Scotch Pine, White Pine, Norway Pine and Colorado Blue Spruce. In 1985 Lynn decided she could make a better quality wreath than she was purchasing. That began the wreath, roping and evergreen product portion of the business. All products are hand-made on our farm. Our quality and variety that we offer has made this a very successful business. Our wreaths are a heavy quality. For instance our 26" Balsam Fir wreath weighs about 5 pounds, large manufacturer wreaths may only weigh 3 pounds. Some of the unique items we have made over the years are V's and G's for Vikings and Packer fans, and letters spelling the word JESUS for many children's Christmas programs. We love to create a unique and unusual product. We believe that's what sets us apart from our competition. The majority of our evergreen products are made from Balsam Fir. We also offer lots of upscale mixed evergreen options with greens including Noble Fir, Fraser Fir, Cedar, White Pine, Incense Cedar, Blueberry Juniper, Eucalyptus, Bear grass, Pepper berry and Red Twig Dogwood. We pitched the idea of selling our products to some local groups, like 4-H, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and School Booster programs as a fund raiser. They decided to try it and this began the fundraiser portion of our business. Now hundreds of groups sell our product, to support trips, or buy new equipment that they would like to do. Not only are these groups making money, they are spreading the joy of Christmas and fellowship with their communities. We also offer a Mail-a-wreath program that many groups like to take advantage of.

In 1987, on Mother's Day, Dan and their children, Heather, Matthew and Nicholas gave Lynn Christmas trees for her present. So for the next few years, on Mother's Day, we formed a Hacker family tradition, by planting seedling Christmas trees which started out Choose and Cut farm. Four acres on our farm are now covered in rows and rows of Choose and Cut trees. There are very few of the original trees from 1987 left, we have kept a few standing to remind us of how we got started. All of our children learned the Christmas tree business from the roots up, literally! They have all helped in every aspect of the business from planting, shearing, painting, baling, retail and wholesale. Our daughter, Heather has rejoined the business in October of 2007. We especially love the Choose and Cut portion of our business because it is very family oriented. We have had families coming out since the first years the trees were ready to cut, and every year it's wonderful to see new and young families starting their family tradition. Selecting and cutting down your own Christmas tree is a great way to prepare you and your family for the celebration of Jesus birth. Our Choose and Cut farm open the day after Thanksgiving.

Christmas only kept us busy half of the year, so in 1988 we started a small greenhouse on Dan's parent's farm. We loved growing trees, so growing bedding plants came easy to us. In 1990 we converted a hog barn on our farm into a greenhouse. Now we are at 60,000 square feet of growing space. We sell wholesale and retail. We have a retail location on our farm in rural Sleepy Eye, and we also have a location in New Ulm, Minnesota on Broadway between the Glockenspiel. Our family business had an unconventional start, but now our love for growing plants and Christmas trees has only grown stronger. Quality and service has been our goal since the beginning and we believe that it is the key to a successful operation. We take pride when we know that our fund raising groups, and wholesalers are making a profit through our product. We also enjoy our retail customers and their satisfaction when they find the perfect Geranium or when they find the perfect Christmas Tree. We at Hacker's Tree Farm, Nursery and Greenhouse thank you for visiting our site, and hope you have been informed and educated. We look forward to working with you in the future.