It’s December 1st! Have you put your Christmas tree up yet? Is it a fake one – or is your tradition a REAL Christmas tree?
I love real Christmas trees but there are a few things you need to think about before purchasing a real Christmas tree. Before you run out to the tree lot think about going to a tree farm in your community to support local farmers.
The other thing to think about is one very important tool you want to bring to a tree farm, a tape measure! A tape measure is really important to measure the height and width of the tree.
To measure a tree you are going to go into the trunk of the tree and measure half of the tree out down to the outer branches. You can also make this tree work for your space by pruning your Christmas tree.
When you are looking for your tree at the tree farm look in and make sure that your branches are healthy and green before you start cutting. When you prune cut on an angle, with the longest part of the branch on top and the shortest on the bottom so that you don’t see the exposed edge when you hang ornaments on it.
The good thing about real trees is that they can be composted by your municipal program and become fertilizer for future trees for your family to use down the road.
A big trend for the 2021 Holidays is potted Living trees. Unfortunately, these are not as rosy as you might think! People forget that potted trees need more water, especially evergreens. To protect your floors don’t be afraid to get a liner like this to protect your floor from water leaking out of the pot.
Also, after the holiday people assume that the trees can be set outside until spring when they can be planted which is totally false. These trees need to be watered every 3 days because they do not have a lot of soil in the pot. The trees need to be kept indoors until spring…OR…you need to put them in a dormant state. If you put it outside in the cold after being inside it will freeze and die.
To put it in a dormant state you need to have a transition period. The tree needs to be in a solid ice ball. What that means is you are going to put it outside for a little bit, cool it off, and put lots of water in there so that this whole area becomes frozen solid like an ice cube. After this then it can go outside!
In the spring when the sun hits the tree it will have water access to the roots allowing it not to dry out and turn brown. It is a fairly easy process, however, you have to also pay attention to the type of tree you bought.
Here are three types of trees popular for potted Christmas trees so you can figure out what type of tree is best for you.
If you have a big space outdoors, the best choice tree is:
Colorado Baby Blue Spruce
- Grow 40-60’ tall as adults and 30-40 wide.
- NOT suited for a small backyard
- If you do put it outside put it in the back of the property not near the house because they grow to be massive
A large Colorado Spruce
A tree that needs to be wrapped for the winter:
Dwarf Alberta Spruce
- Will get to 6′-8′ tall
- The fastest of the landscaping trees to get winter burn or desiccation
- Can’t go outside after the holidays
- Transition it overtime to go outside and wrap in burlap
A tree for indoors only:
Norfolk Pine
- Can grow 5′ to 8′ tall indoors
- Tropical tree from Australia’s Norfolk Island
- Can’t survive outside
- An indoor houseplant that more people are using as a Christmas tree
- The good news about Norfolk pine is they can handle cooler climates, do not need a ton of sunlight and only minimal watering.
The issue with potting Christmas trees is that they may not grow as much as you would like them to before Christmas. For this, we have to get creative and put them on a stand and put lots of presents around it to give it the illusion of being bigger. I love using wooden spindles to give my tree a lift.
All of our product suggestions are independently researched and sourced by Cityline. However, if you purchase something through cityline.tv, we may earn commission. Thanks for visiting us!
