So, we are making the Christmas Tree purchase later today and are considering getting a real one with roots.

After the festive season we would plant it in the garden and dig it up again next year and bring it into the house.

Does anyone on here do this on a regular basis? If so what do I need to be looking out for?

Our soil has a high clay content, is this going to have an impact on the tree whilst it is growing? I would hate to shell out on a live tree only for it to come to a premature end in the summer time.

Ta in advance.

Unless you keep it in a container the trick is going to be digging it up without killing it isn't it? And if its anything other than a few twigs then container is going to be a bit of a swine to move.

We tried this when I was young with a small tree in a pot. It was so small though that it hadn't really started to look xmas tree shaped. And years later it wasn't really bigger or anymore triangular.

Theres quite a bit of tweaking and pruning that goes on during the farming of trees that gives them that nice dense bushy, cone shaped look. If you forget, or do it at the wrong time of year you get dead, bald patches, gaps etc

Mmm, these are good points that you are making here.

This tree could end up being a bit of a white elephant.

Well yes, but the tree won't shit on your carpet and eat all your peanuts

If you leave it in the pot, it'll die. If you plant it in the ground and try to dig it up again, it'll die. It might take a few years to die, either way, but it'll just get scrattier and browner each year.

The key to keeping a tree from year to year, and keeping it manageable, is a bit of the ol' bonsai. The principle is quite simple: you prune the above-ground bits AND you prune the below-ground bits. Not too much in either case, just enough so that the plant doesn't get totally wrapped up with too many roots in the pot.

It's all about balance, yin and yang, Sooty and Sweep, y'know?

This is starting to sound like a lot of hard work.

not made any easier by having glove puppets on each hand

it's nigh on impossible unless you practice properly disciplined Bonsai techniques as stated above.

Don't bother with the christmas tree – simples

I'd considered planting a tree a year in the garden. Then, in a few years, we can start harvesting them each Christmas.

If you keep a potted tree indoors then just boot it into the garden in January it will die. You have to keep it well watered in the house, then slowly remove it from the hot dry temperatures indoors. Move it to a cooler room for a couple of months, then to an unheated porch for the same time, then a cold frame or unheated greenhouse. Keep watering it and by about April it should be OK to plant outdoors. Then all you have to worry about is soil preparation, and how big will the thing grow to. Ever seen a full grown pine tree?

Right, that's it. My mind is made up, this seems like a silly idea to me.

Why not rent one instead?

Price includes delivery and collection after Christmas, trees are then re-planted, ready for next year…

It's the old addage, if it depreciates rent it, if it appreciates buy it !

(This sentiment works with women too…. 😯 Though not to be used if you are married / g/f)

I'd considered planting a tree a year in the garden. Then, in a few years, we can start harvesting them each Christmas.

This would be a better approach than as followed by my mother – one year she bought six live trees, all of which spent Christmas in the house and were then planeted at the end of the garden. they were never harvested.

When my parents left the house around 20 years later all of the trees were getting on for 30 feet tall.

We have just rented one from Treesforrent.

It arrives on Sunday.

Happy Christmas.

Interesting choice, beamers.

I went to browse their site and found this:

Trees also split water vapour into hydrogen and oxygen, reducing the humidity of the space surrounding the tree thus improving the air quality.

I like their approach and setup but I would find it hard to patronise a company that spouts such utter BS.

Having said that, they're probably know how to grow trees so good luck to them!

We chose them for a couple of reasons:

1. There is an advert from them on the roundabout near our house

2. They are local

3. They were on Countryfile the other week.

Didn't read that bit of BS.

Having re-read my post it does come across as a little harsh, sorry, I didn't mean to criticise your choice of rental-tree-provider – I'm sure, of course, that it will be fine and you'll get a lovely and hassle-free tree.

It's just that the level of pseudoscience (and, in this case, just plain wrongness) that is bandied about scares me sometimes and I'm perhaps overly sensitive to it.

Happy Xmas to you too! 🙂

We (well my parents) have a Xmas tree in a pot that my grandfather grew from seed. Its wider than it is tall, and decidedly ball shaped rather than xmas tree shaped and is about 2foot tall. Size can be managed by pot size but they have a tendency not to be tree shaped if grown to a small size.

FWIW, spruce as bonsai are a bit of a pain – there's normally only one variety used as such, and you rarely see that other than in Japan AFAIA. With some conifers you can encourage back-budding with the right pruning, but I'm pretty sure spruce aren't one of them (cedars aren't great either), and eventually the older needles die off as they get bigger. You can slow growth to a degree by growing them in a pot (and as mentioned, a period root trim at the right time of the years will help) – you'd probably get several years out of it before it got too big. A plastic pot's not ideal, but the terracota-stylee things don't look too bad and are fairly light (not that it helps much with a few of the things I've got in the garden !)

One thought…yew. Looks vaguely christmas tree-like (a lot of people can't tell the difference between spruce and pine, for example), and you can trim it back to old wood and it'll regrow. Tends to grow a little upright so you'd need to wire, or hold down the branches with guy wires 'till they set, so it might take a few years to get to a more spruce-like shape…