I worked 9 years for the Texas Forest Service, doing data analysis for the reforestation department, and doing work for the Texas Christmas Tree Grower's Assoc. In Texas, the only decent tree that will grow for Christmas trees is Virgina Pine. That's what most of the local farms where you cut your own grow. They usually start getting high enough for a tree at 5 years of age (our plantations in East Texas frequently were missing trees near the roads at age 5 from people driving by and slipping over to cut their own tree from our research plantations).

Something most people don't know: they're all spray painted green, both the ones shipping in from up north, and the ones you cut yourself at commercial farms in Texas. The owners will spray paint living trees to give them a more uniform green color.