Living Christmas Trees

by Eric Larusson

If you're celebrating Christmas at your mountain home and could use a beautiful, fast-growing evergreen in your landscape, or you feel compelled to save a tree from the ax, then you should consider using a potted, living tree for the holidays. The obvious benefit of a living tree is that you don't spend money that gets tossed out after a couple of weeks. And growing these trees is neither difficult nor tricky; we have friends who have literally planted forests this way.

There are some limitations to consider. You generally get a smaller tree, since moving an eight to ten foot potted tree into your house would require a forklift. Six feet is about as big as you'll want (put it up on a crate for extra height). You shouldn't keep the tree indoors for more than ten days and you need a shady spot outdoors where it can spend the winter.

I'm a Christmas tree aficionado. I grew up on the Sierra's west slope near a number of Christmas tree farms and, at age 11, started working at one—a choose-and-cut farm. Each year I was allowed to take at least one tree home and therefore decorated my basement room with a dozen different species over the years. Incense Cedar was a favorite. Scotch pine was the worst. I thought it should be called nail pine for the stiff, surgically sharp needles.

"Growing these trees is neither difficult nor tricky; we have friends who have literally planted forests this way."

Now, my favorite cut-tree for our elevation is red fir/silvertip. It is magnificent with prominently needled, dense foliage and perfect stars of evenly-spaced rigid branches. Ornaments hang in space and spin freely when a draft blows.

A beautiful cut-tree is not necessarily the best living tree, however. I've planted a few red fir in my garden, and they only grow an inch or two a year. Here are better Christmas tree species for the Sierra.

Spruce

Blue, green, Norway and Black Hills spruces are all suitable candidates for living Christmas trees. In a landscape, blue spruces appear from the distance to be fir, with evenly-spaced rigid branches and a distinctive silvery-blue color. Although an attractive tree, I always complain about their sharp needles after dealing with a truckload of them at the nursery. But I have seen no other evergreen, native or not, grow as fast as a blue spruce. Established plants with mulch, fertilization and water may grow as much as four feet in a season. They are often found growing along mountain streams, near quaking aspen and chokecherries on moist north-facing slopes.

Norway spruce is also a fast-growing tree that looks like it belongs in a Victorian Christmas scene. Black Hills spruce looks similar to Norway but is much denser and has a waxy coating on its needles.

Lodgepole Pine

These are excellent landscape trees because of their rapid growth and tolerance for a variety of soil and weather conditions. Lodgepoles have dark green needles and an open but bushy growth similar to Scotch pine (but without the pain). They grow to between 40 and 80 feet.

Subalpine Fir

The perfect Christmas tree shape, this tree serves as an excellent substitute for red or white fir in a landscape. They grow to over 60 feet in height.

Incense Cedar

As fragrant as its name suggests, this tree is native to the Sierra Nevada range. This beautiful tree likes warmer locations and can grow to 100 feet tall.

Giant Sequoia

Want to see your Christmas decor turn into the largest living tree? It might take a few miraculous medical advances for you to live that long, but Giant Sequoia can grow to over 150 feet tall. They need a shady location, particularly in winter.

Bristlecone Pine

The ancient Bristlecone pine sets an appropriate tone at the holidays. Planted outdoors, it grows to heights of 10 to 15 feet and its often-artistic shape looks great in rocky locations.

Eric Larusson is co-owner of Villager Nursery in Truckee. www.villagenursery.com or (530) 587-0771

Planting Your Holiday Tree

If you want to get your tree into the ground this winter, then it's best to dig a hole for it well prior to the ground freezing. Hole or no hole, however, the trees will have no problem surviving winter, with a bit of your help. First, choose a shady location and, if you dig a hole, cover it with boards for safety and easier access. In an early snow year, you may have to dig down to the boards, but if the soil is not frozen, the tree can still be planted. If the soil is frozen or the snow too deep, the location you've chosen will still be ideal for storing the tree.

• If you plan to transport a living (or fresh-cut) tree to your house in an open truck, bring a sheet or tarp to cover it. The rapid drop in temperature that can occur with wind chill in a speeding truck can damage your tree. Putting a snow saucer under the tree will also help with sliding it around.

• Keep the tree indoors for ten days or less! Any longer and you lower its chances of survival. If you have a particularly cold location in the house you might stretch the duration inside, but it is not a good idea. Locate the tree away from sources of heat such as wood stoves, furnaces, heat registers and sunny windows.

• Keep the soil moist and cool, ideally adding a little snow or ice daily.

• Decorate the tree carefully with cool miniature lights.

• After Christmas, slowly re-acclimate the tree to the cold outside. Move the tree from the house to a location of barely freezing temperatures (a garage or sheltered porch) for at least a week.

• After the transition, move the tree outdoors to the prepared hole (leave tree in its pot) or to a location where it will be out of the sun and receive natural snowfall. If planting, follow standard planting instructions. If not planting, cover the root ball with pine needles or bury it in the snow if possible. Keep it cold and moist all winter. Avoid repeated freezing and thawing! Then, finish planting your tree in the spring.

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