MONROE — On a night with temperatures around freezing, Franco Montano placed branches of noble fir, cedar and juniper in a metal ring on a table.
With his foot, he pressed a pedal to clamp the branches into place. He rotated the ring and repeated the process, working quickly and methodically, until he had a finished wreath. He planned to work until about 11 p.m. in his workshop.
It’s the busy season for Montano Family Wreaths, which makes holiday wreaths, garlands, swags and centerpieces. Montano runs the business with help from wife, Danelia Rodriguez, brother-in-law Hector Rodriguez and his wife Mollie. The two families’ children also pitch in.
It was chilly, but spirits were high on a recent weekday night. The families, bundled in coats and gloves, worked in a large white tent in their driveway in Monroe.
Montano had returned from his day job running his taco truck, Tacos Monte Alban, in Snohomish. He got started on the night’s work: making 100 wreaths. He can complete the job in about three hours.
“It motivates me and I just like making wreaths,” Montano said in Spanish, with translation from his daughter Berenice, 18. “I enjoy making wreaths and being together (with family).”
Montano used to work at a wreath factory in Shelton. In 2008, he started making his own wreaths for family. He got his business license four years ago.
He now sells more than 1,500 wreaths plus thousands of feet of garland each season, filling orders Thanksgiving through Christmas. The decorations are sold at local Christmas tree farms, co-ops and Montano’s taco truck.
Montano buys the fir and cedar branches from friends who harvest them for larger wreath companies.
Inside the white tent, each family member works on a different task. Hector Rodriguez makes the garlands, feeding cedar branches into a spinning machine that wraps the leaves around a wire.
They purchased the machines from farms in Oregon and Idaho. Before the machines, Rodriguez explained, the family made the garlands manually, stretching a wire 100 feet and wrapping the branches around it.
Rodriguez said he finds the work peaceful. It’s also a chance for the two brothers to hang out.
“I think Hector and Franco have a really great time together,” Mollie Rodriguez said.
Stocker Farms in Snohomish is a main sales outlet. Montano Family Wreaths is the farm’s sole supplier of wreaths and garlands, Keith Stocker said.
“They put out an exceptional product,” he said.
The decorations don’t stay on the shelves for long. When they sell out, the business is quick to restock.
Some customers return just for the wreaths. Stocker said one repeat customer is a Lake Stevens man looking to decorate his dock. This year’s order: 24 small wreaths, one large wreath and 360 feet of garland.
While Stocker Farms has now closed for the season, the wreaths are for sale at other locations.
Montano hopes to work with more sellers in the future.
“We’re ready to grow our business,” he said.
Other family members bring their creativity to the table. Hector and Mollie Rodriguez’s daughter Luica, 12, crafts the centerpieces. She decorates them with gold pinecones and sprigs of silver berries.
“I have fun with it,” Luica said.
The materials are all natural, aside from the bows and plastic berries.
“Our biggest costs are the darn red berries; they are hard to get,” Mollie Rodriguez said, explaining how a box of plastic red berries jumped from $25 to $75 in 2020.
Berenice Montano has seen her dad pursue wreath-making since she was 4.
“I like helping my dad,” she said. “I’m just proud of him and he just finds way to expand his business.”
Does her dad get tired after making 100 wreaths in three hours?
“No, not really,” he said, as he worked on building another wreath.
