Choosing the Right Tree For Christmas

Saturday, December 13, 2008 03:45 AM

A sure sign that Christmas is just around the corner is the arrival of the fresh cut Christmas trees that will arrive this weekend. Fresh trees are one way of celebrating a ‘green’ Christmas.

The Christmas tree industry is large, in North America with over 15,000 tree farms planting over 73 million trees each year. These tree farms provide sanctuary for birds and wildlife and every one acre of trees provides daily oxygen for 18 people. Then, after the Christmas season rather than just throwing the tree out you can place it outdoors and allow the wintering birds to shelter in it. In our home we like to place it near the bird feeders and the birds will sit in it to protect themselves from the winter weather. You can also have it chipped which is done by placing it in a chipping machine and the finished chips can be used for either mulch or compost.

There are a few different varieties of Fir trees that are the most common choices for a fresh cut Christmas tree.

The “Noble Fir”, which is a favorite of mine, ( shown at right )is a beautiful tree to decorate. It has a very nice shape and it holds onto its needles for the longest length of time compared to the other trees. The needles are an inch long and are four sided and are a blue/grey in color, but appear to look silver. The needles twist up to reveal the lower surface of the stiff branches.

Another fir is the “Grand Fir”, and this one has two rows of needles that grow up to an inch and a half in length and are dark green and glossy. The two rows of needles spread horizontally making it easy to see the upper and lower sides of the branches.

The “Fraser Fir” is a compact looking tree because of the way the branches turn slightly upwards. The tree itself has a nice uniform, pyramid shape. The needles are flattened and grow between half an inch to an inch, and are dark green on the top and lighter green underneath. The Fraser fir is known for its nice scent and is easy to transport.

The last of the firs is the ‘Douglas fir”, and this one is known for its soft inch and a half needles that are a dark green/blue green which have a nice scent when they are crushed.

When choosing a Christmas tree you want to see the tree in full display and not wrapped up so that you can see if it has a nice shape and has no big gaps. The next thing you want to do is touch the foliage to see if it is fresh by seeing if the needles are moist, flexible, and fragrant. You also want to check for needle drop by lifting the tree upright a few inches above the ground and then give the tree a good thump on the ground to see if any needles fall off. Only a few needles should fall off if the tree is fresh.

After you have chosen the tree you can either ask the sales clerk to re-cut the butt of the tree by removing a couple of inches from the bottom or you can wait and do it at home. A fresh cut Christmas tree needs to have the bottom re-cut to open up the circulatory system so that it is able to take up the water.

When transporting the tree home place it inside the vehicle if the temperatures go below -10 Celsius. If a fresh cut tree is placed in an area where the temperatures go below -10 Celsius it will freeze causing the needles to drop.

Once you have the tree home you should place it in the following solution over night which will help extend its fresh look. The solution is :

1 gallon hot water,
2 cups corn syrup,
4 tablespoons Micronized Iron or Iron Chelate which is available in the garden center and
4 teaspoons liquid bleach.

The next morning remove the tree from the solution and place it in the tree stand and fill the stand with fresh water and it is then ready to decorate. Always check daily to make sure that the tree has enough water so that it does not dry out and it should last for the season.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knap Garden Centres in Prince George: