Planting your Christmas tree
Published 12:00 am, Thursday, December 2, 2010
Most nurseries offer live Christmas trees. Your challenge is to find a specimen that looks the way you want it to look as a holiday tree and also is adapted to our growing conditions.
Here are some trees that usually meet the requirements.
Deodor cedar leads off my list of desirable live Christmas trees.
It has soft looking blue-green needles that resemble a Colorado blue spruce except with more of a weeping configuration. The tree is very beautiful in the landscape. Unfortunately, it is also somewhat cold sensitive and many of the Deodor cedars that lived through the 1983 and 1989 winters have killed tops.
I include the Deodor cedar in the desirable category despite this cold sensitivity, because the extreme cold we experienced in 1983 and 1989 is unusual, and more importantly, a top-killed Deodor is still an attractive landscape tree.
Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea) grows to 35 feet tall. It is a relatively slow grower and is drought tolerant. The Italian stone pine in the nursery is sheared to form a perfect conical shape, but as the tree grows into its more natural form, it forms a dense globe and eventually an umbrella crown. Plant Italian stone pine on a well-drained site. Caliche and rocky soil is ideal. If your soil is a heavy clay, select a location on a slope or upland, not a low spot.
Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) is the large pine that was planted all over Lackland Air Force Base. They are tall (40 feet or more). They grow faster than the Italian stone pine and have a more upright open-growth habit.
Two species that are still sold at some locations as live holiday trees are Afghan and Virginia pines. They make beautiful Christmas trees but are not suitable for landscape trees.
A live holiday tree is very heavy, so plan your moves ahead of purchasing the tree. Have the two-wheeled cart ready and your route to its site mapped out. Selection at the nursery is best early in December, but the tree should only be inside the house for two weeks. If you buy it early, place it in morning sun outside until you are ready to move it inside.
Keep the tree well watered. Add water when the soil dries to one inch. Use a tray under the container so that enough water can be added to reach and leave the drain holes. In the house, avoid locations in front of heat registers or air conditioning vents. In the landscape, select a final planting site in full sun. Dig the hole to the depth of the root ball and two or three times as wide. Refill the hole with the native soil. Do not waste your money on root starters or other unnecessary soil additives.
Place three to four inches of mulch over the root system and water when the soil under the mulch dries to one inch. Fertilize with a cup of slow release lawn fertilizer (19-5-9) every February. Spread it over the entire root system and beyond the root system by one foot.