December: Christmas Trees

These days Christmas Trees come in all shapes, sizes and even colours. They can also be cut, pot grown or containerised so take your pick.

The traditional tree is the Norway spruce, the one that has a reputation for dropping its needles by Twelfth Night unless given really careful treatment. It does have a good scent, often has a nice shape and is normally the cheapest to buy. The needles are mid to dark green and slightly prickly to touch.

In recent years the Nordmann fir has overtaken the Norway spruce in terms of sales. Again they have a good symmetrical shape, strong branches and thick bright green soft needles which are rarely dropped even if neglected.

Some more unusual trees are the Noble fir which has thick broad green needles with a slivery sheen and a pleasant pine aroma. The Fraser fir is similar to the Nordmann fir but has a narrower shape so can be more suitable for smaller spaces. The Blue spruce has the same disadvantages as the Norway spruce but has an unusual metallic blue sheen to the needles, they are wide trees and very prickly but certainly make a statement.

All trees can be carefully pruned to improve the shape.

Buy your tree as late as you dare or are allowed to by your family. If buying a cut tree choose one with at least 10” of clear stem at the based of the tree. Cut the bottom 1” or so off the bottom of the stem and stand it in a bucket of water in a cool place. When ready to bring the tree indoors then clamp into a stand with a water reservoir or use any other container that can be topped up with water. Always place your tree in a cool place inside, away from radiators. After Twelfth Night don’t forget to recycle your tree.

Container grown trees are more expensive but given good care can last 2 or 3 years, they need space to live outside for the rest of the year and will need potting on into larger containers as they grow. When indoors stand in a big saucer and keep topped up with water.

Try to avoid potted or containerised trees as these often have very little in the way of roots, struggle to take up water so don’t perform that well and always cost more than cut trees!

CAF