at area nurseries. they had, oh, my goodness, maybe a third of the supply that we ve seen in past years. they re tiny. they re cute but like charlie brown trees. so we decided to come here. reporter: here is a parking lot in centerville where mount rodgers christmas tree farm has set up shop and she s convinced this is the right spot. our tree is here. reporter: part of the reason she s struggling has to do with the shortage, something owner rodney richardson is familiar with. we ve done wholesale, but we ve cut our customers back about 10% and we re not taking on new customers because we just don t have the trees. that s pretty well the scenario for all growers now. reporter: part of the reason about a decade and a half ago growers had too many trees. then the financial crisis of 2008 hit and people weren t buying them, making it worse. growers planted less.