My friend and I staggered home with a living tree to decorate for Christmas, and we'd like to try and keep the poor thing living so we can plant it in the garden after Christmas.

It appears to be in good health, and is in a fairly large pot (the tree itself is just over six feet tall).

How can we best look after the tree, particularly in terms of any watering? The man at the shop where we bought it was very blase about what we did with it and wasn't much help.

Thanks,

Mercy

Has it got good roots? if not then you have no chance. The absolute
best way is to keep it in a cool place, preferably out of the house
till Christmas day, and then take it out again on boxing day. What
usually happens is they get warm in the house, and start to grow, but
the roots can't provide sufficient water, they get stressed and die.
Some will survive, but I suspect that is is a very small percentage,
and then only the smaller ones with a good root system. Yours at 6'
will probably not survive I'm afraid.

Mike

"Mercy" wrote in message
...

My friend and I staggered home with a living tree to decorate for
Christmas, and we'd like to try and keep the poor thing living so we
can plant it in the garden after Christmas.

We did this some years ago, it was the worst thing we ever did, it
grew to 80 feet high and about ten feet across, the needles killed
off most of the growth beneath it.

So, if you do take that step, cut the thing down after two or three
years, or, unless you have several acres of garden, you, and your
neighbours will suffer for many years to come, and if they do get
too large for you to cut down it will cost you about £300 pounds
to get rid of it.

Alan


It appears to be in good health, and is in a fairly large pot (the tree
itself is just over six feet tall).

How can we best look after the tree, particularly in terms of any
watering? The man at the shop where we bought it was very blase about
what we did with it and wasn't much help.

Thanks,

Mercy


--
Mercy

Mercy wrote:
How can we best look after the tree, particularly in terms of any
watering? The man at the shop where we bought it was very blase about
what we did with it and wasn't much help.

Keep the tree as cool as possible (within the limitations of having it
in the house) and WATER it. The redcommendation is at least one pint a
day, but with a tree as large as the one you have, I'd go for two pints
a day. Invest in a good size, deep, tray/saucer thing (sorry technical
term has escaped me....) to put under the pot to catch the excess water.

HTH

Sarah

Thanks to all for the advice - it seems our tree could either drop dead on the 27th or spend the rest of its life growing to beanstalk proportions (giant beanstalk, of course; the type with giants up it).

I'll keep up with the watering and see what the roots are like when Christmas is done with - fingers crossed. I'd miss him. We called him Henrik, after Ibsen.

Yeah, so we name our plants...

Thanks again,

Mercy

In message , Mercy
writes



Thanks to all for the advice - it seems our tree could either drop dead
on the 27th or spend the rest of its life growing to beanstalk
proportions (giant beanstalk, of course; the type with giants up it).

I'll keep up with the watering and see what the roots are like when
Christmas is done with - fingers crossed. I'd miss him. We called him
Henrik, after Ibsen.

Yeah, so we name our plants...

Thanks again,

Mercy


Maybe Henrik would be happy for quite a few years in a large pot?

--
Klara, Gatwick basin

Klara wrote:
In message , Mercy
writes
[...]
I'll keep up with the watering and see what the roots are like
when
Christmas is done with - fingers crossed. I'd miss him. We called
him
Henrik, after Ibsen.
[...]

Maybe Henrik would be happy for quite a few years in a large pot?

Then you could cut him up and he'd make a doll's house.

--
Mike.

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:

Klara wrote:
In message , Mercy
writes
[...]
I'll keep up with the watering and see what the roots are like
when
Christmas is done with - fingers crossed. I'd miss him. We
called
him
Henrik, after Ibsen.
[...]

Maybe Henrik would be happy for quite a few years in a large pot?

Then you could cut him up and he'd make a doll's house.

Might as well. He'll never turn into a cherry tree.

Sorry: invalid. We can't check that one off. (I just hedda say that!)

--
Mike.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Klara wrote:
In message , Mercy
writes
[...]
I'll keep up with the watering and see what the roots are like
when
Christmas is done with - fingers crossed. I'd miss him. We called
him
Henrik, after Ibsen.
[...]

Maybe Henrik would be happy for quite a few years in a large pot?

Then you could cut him up and he'd make a doll's house.

--
Mike.

In which they could keep The wild duck

Eeep! Guys! Have a little compassion. Henrik can Peer at the screen from where I'm sitting.

Mercy

Mercy wrote:
Rupert Wrote:
"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Klara wrote:
In message , Mercy
writes

Maybe Henrik would be happy for quite a few years in a large pot?

Then you could cut him up and he'd make a doll's house.

--
Mike.

In which they could keep The wild duck


Eeep! Guys! Have a little compassion. Henrik can Peer at the screen
from where I'm sitting.[/color]

Sorry: mouthing off again. I've always been a gabler.

--
Mike.

On 14/12/05 23:39, in article , "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:

Klara wrote:
In message , Mercy
writes
[...]
I'll keep up with the watering and see what the roots are like
when
Christmas is done with - fingers crossed. I'd miss him. We
called
him
Henrik, after Ibsen.
[...]

Maybe Henrik would be happy for quite a few years in a large pot?

Then you could cut him up and he'd make a doll's house.

Might as well. He'll never turn into a cherry tree.

Sorry: invalid. We can't check that one off. (I just hedda say that!)

Did you have to gabler?

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Mercy wrote:
My friend and I staggered home with a living tree to decorate for
Christmas, and we'd like to try and keep the poor thing living so we
can plant it in the garden after Christmas.

It appears to be in good health, and is in a fairly large pot (the tree
itself is just over six feet tall).

How can we best look after the tree, particularly in terms of any
watering? The man at the shop where we bought it was very blase about
what we did with it and wasn't much help.

Thanks,

Mercy


--
Mercy

This may seem a bit strange and at 6 foot I'm not sure if it'll work.
Practice some really bad pruning technique. Nip off the leader, though
in your case, cut it off. But not down to the next bud/branch. i.e.
leave a stalk/stem which will almost certainly not shoot fresh growth,
but will instead loose what ever needles are left on the stem, become
dry looking and quite, quite dormant. This will be quite ugly so invest
in some sort of ornamant which can fit down over the top whilst in the
house.
Remaining in the pot, feed and keep well watered, during the growing
season.
Ours is now 3 years old. It gets brought in a week to 10 days before
christmas and remains insitu until some day in january when we're
finally bothered to to it back out. Which we do as ; in at night for a
few days and out all day.

Well, the season is over, and Henrik had shed his last needle. We did what we could. The tree has had it. I shall attempt the above, but hold little hope. He is for the chop. At least he will be recycled.

A sad day...

Mercy