White fir (my favorite) -- blue color, soft feel, great citrus-y fragrance.
Frazier fir -- soft to the touch, easy to handle, open branching that allows space for ornaments and lights from the tip of a branch to the trunk.
The Frasier fir's open branching provides space for ornaments and lights.
(Joel M. Lerner For The Washington Post)
|
|
Scotch pine -- shears into shape easily but may have crooked trunks and awkward lower limbs that grow up through the tree.
White pine -- wide-spreading, lacy look, soft to the touch.
Blue spruce -- fragrant, blue color, classic shape, but needles are extremely sharp.
• 4. When you are shopping for a tree, keep in mind that the specimen should feel fresh, soft and pliable. Even on varieties with stiff needles, as on the spruce, needles should be flexible on the stem. You can tell if needles are ready to fall by banging the bottom of the tree onto a solid surface once or twice. It is no problem if brown and yellow needles fall, but green ones should stay firmly attached. Also, needles should not pull off easily.
• 5. Based on my own experience with trees cut at the same times, here is the order in which cut Christmas trees tend to hold their needles, from best to poorest: Frazier fir, Balsam fir, Noble fir, White (Concolor) fir, Douglas fir, Scotch pine, Eastern white pine, Blue spruce, Norway spruce, and White spruce.
• 6. After you get the tree home, use a bow saw to cut one to two inches off the bottom of the trunk (or, better yet, get the person who sold it to you to do this before you leave the tree lot). Place the tree in water, and keep checking the level. Cut trees drink a lot. Use a tree stand that is big enough to be stable and large enough to hold the water the tree will need daily.
• 7. Keep a cut tree outside where it is cold, or in an unheated structure, away from drying winds, until you are ready to bring it into the house. While it is outdoors, keep it in a bucket with water. Bring it in one day before decorating it.
• 8. When setting the tree up for display, you will probably have to prune it for a balanced presentation, not to mention making room for gifts underneath. Use a hand pruner or pruning saw. A carpenter's cross-cut saw is not an efficient pruning tool, and you don't need a chain saw. Be careful with any cutting tool. Cut away from your body and from other people.
• 9. Keep cut and live trees away from fireplaces and space heaters. Leave them indoors for as brief a period as possible. For safety's sake, be sure they don't block exit routes. When you decorate, use electrical decorations that carry a UL approved tag, and turn them off when you leave the house or go to bed.
• 10. The Christmas Tree Association advises that it is not necessary to treat the water with fertilizer, bleach, aspirin or other additives that are sometimes suggested to make trees last longer. According to the association Web site, "research has shown that plain tap water is by far the best. Some commercial additives and home concoctions can actually be detrimental to a tree's moisture retention and increase needle loss."
If you'd like to buy a living tree that can be planted outside, go to a year-round garden center that has experience with live nursery stock. Conifers are sold balled and burlapped or in a large basket with handles.
Some advance planning will help keep the tree alive and make it easy to plant later. Dig the hole as soon as you buy the tree, and keep the soil in a place where it won't freeze (in a garage, basement or under a deep layer of mulch).
To prevent the tree from drying out or breaking dormancy, keep it indoors only for three or four days, making sure the root ball is constantly moist. After Christmas, move the tree to an unheated garage or heeled into a protected location outdoors by mulching the root ball with a 6- or 7-inch layer of leaves, wood chips or bark. Give the tree one to two weeks to acclimate to colder temperatures, again keeping the root ball moist. The tree can be planted anytime after the brief holding period. It is fine if the underlying soil in the hole is moist, but the surrounding area and soil used to backfill the hole should not be soggy or frozen.
To find a farm where you actually can cut your own tree, visit the Maryland Christmas Tree Association at www.marylandchristmas trees.org. In Virginia, visit the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association online at www.vctga.com. The National Christmas Tree Growers Association site is www.christree.org.
Joel M. Lerner is president of Environmental Design in Capitol View Park, Md. E-mail or contact him through his Web site, www.gardenlerner.com.
