“More and more of the tree farmers are retiring with no longevity plan,” Stroshein said. While extreme heat is partly to blame, Debbie Stroshein the owner of Happy Holidays Christmas Tree Co., said there are many reasons for low inventory and high prices, including fewer local farmers. tree farms they have worked with have had some setbacks as well. Happy Holidays Christmas Tree Co., a pop-up holiday shop in Langford that sells trees and other gifts, said the two B.C. “A lot of wholesale lots, they’re having a hard time getting trees because there is a shortage because of that heat dome and those trees got scorched, whereas luckily, mine didn’t,” Fleming said. Joan Fleming said that while her Vancouver Island farm, Saanichton Christmas Tree Farm, has plenty of supply, many tree lots that import trees rather than grow them are struggling to meet demand. “Many farms are planning to open for only one or two weekends in November because they know they will be sold out by then.” “We’re talking to farmers who are telling us over a third of their trees for the season are damaged so badly they can’t sell them,” said Evergrow CEO Paige Wheaton. People looking for live Christmas trees should start shopping sooner, according to a press release from Evergrow, a Fraser Valley company that delivers potted trees and then replants them after the holidays. Christmas tree lots are reporting supply shortages and higher prices this holiday season.