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 Tips on Buying a Live Christmas Trees
Don't wait until the last minute to purchase your Live Christmas Trees or Artificial Christmas Trees For Sale. The longer you wait, the less you will have to choose from. Don't be embarrassed to ask what kind of tree it is, and be sure to remember how you liked it. Everyone has preferences, and a little attention to what you liked or didn't like will help you get just what you want for next Christmas.
For many city dwellers and their children, the Christmas season really starts with a nostalgic walk through an evergreen "plantation," the new term for choose-and-cut tree farms. Armed with a tape measure, warm boots, and soup in a thermos, these people are on a quest for a fresh, specially selected Live Christmas Tree at something of a bargain price. Don’t forget to purchase your disposable Christmas Tree Storage Bags for easy removal.
Some bring a saw to cut down their choice; others carry a spade, burlap, and twine to dig up and bag their tree. In either case, they are benefiting the environment: Two or three new trees will be planted in the space vacated by one, and these young trees give off far more oxygen than older ones. Unlike Live Christmas Trees, Artificial Prelit Christmas Trees do not give off oxygen or that seasonal pine scent.
Cut-your-own operations are booming, providing 20 percent of the 35 million trees Americans take home every Christmas. There are more than 2,000 such farms, in every state except Hawaii and, surprisingly, Alaska.
Take your Live Christmas Trees home, cut a little off the end if the stump is long enough, and leave it outside in a bucket of water. Then cut it again before you take it inside and placing it in your Christmas Tree Stands.
Christmas trees you will find:
Norway Spruce: Very full and symmetrical with short, dark green, single needles, 1/2 to 3/4 inch long and mild fragrance. They have reddish brown bark with slightly drooping branches that make it difficult to decorate. Somewhat poor needle retention, especially if allowed to dry out.
Douglas Fir: A very symmetrical member of the hemlock family with short, yellow-green to deep green needles that is flexible and soft to touch. The Douglas Fir is easy to decorate with reddish or dark brown bark. It has very good needle retention with pungent, aromatic fragrance.
Scotch Pine: Bushy and pyramidal in shape with dark blue-green needles, 1 1/2 to 3 inches in length, that cluster in pairs. It has bright orange-red bark with excellent needle retention. Remains green even after the tree is dry and a mild fragrance.
Virginia Pine: Asymmetrical, with branches markedly separated. Grayish to yellowish green needles, two to a cluster, 1 1/2 to 3 inches long. It has purplish bark with good needle retention and mild fragrance.
Fraser Fir: This fir is symmetrical in shape, with irregular spaces between branches. Dark green, short needles, 1/2 to l 1/4 inches long. The Fraser Fir has brownish gray bark with excellent needle retention and a very pleasant fragrance.
Eastern Red Cedar: Bushy and symmetrical in shape with flattened, scale like, dark blue-green needles that are extremely short. It has reddish-brown bark with good needle retention and mild fragrance.
Eastern White Pine: Conical and symmetrical in shape with silvery, thin, flexible blue-green needles, 2 to 5 inches in length, five to a cluster. Branches are dense and horizontal with grayish to dark green bark and good needle retention. This pine has a mild fragrance.
Colorado Blue Spruce: The Colorado Blue Live Christmas Trees are almost perfectly symmetrical. Short, lush, sharp, silver-blue to blue-green needles with pale gray and sometimes reddish bark. It has very poor needle retention with mild fragrance.
Balsam Fir: This fir is symmetrical in shape with irregular spaces between branches with dark green short, flat, glossy needles that grow at right angles to the branches. Smooth bark, either gray or brown in color. It is easy to decorate with good needle retention and a strong but very pleasant fragrance.
Making the Most of Your Tree After Christmas
• Your tree and be used as Yard Garden Decor by putting your Live Christmas Trees outside with suet, peanut butter, seeds, and orange slices all over it to serve as a gigantic Christmas feeder for the birds. A couple of trees stacked together will make a whole grove for the birds, and protect them against the cold and wind while they eat.
• Place small whole trees or very big branches along the sides and on the tops of beds of perennials, roses, and other plants to protect them from the sun and wind.
• Break off some branch tips and shake off their needles for use in sachets.
• Trim the trunk and big branches down to use in your fireplace, a couple of logs at a time.
• Use trimmed trunks for stakes, tripods, and trellises in your garden.
• Put cut branches in a window box. Or use them as decorative mulch around street trees. An added plus to whole-branch mulch is the fact that the tree branches will keep flyaway loose mulch in place.
• Spread trees along beaches to encourage the development of sand dunes. If you live near the coastal waters most beach areas have programs for beach erosion. You can take your Christmas tree to a beach area location to preserve the beaches.
• Use whole or cut-up trees as filler in gullies. They will control natural erosion by holding in all kinds of organic debris.
• You can also throw the trees in a lake, the fish will use them as a hiding space.
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