Real Christmas tree

Morning guys..Could do with some advice here..Gonna go next weeekend to the garden centre and buy a 4ft living christmas tree..What one would you guys recommend..Norway Spruce,Blue Spruce,Nordman Fir,Noble fir..Advice here would be much appreciated as i want to have it to use year after year instead of wasting money buying a cut one that gets thrown away after the festive season is over..(Tree is for outside)

 

I think if you wanted one that didn't drop its needles when you bring it inside then Nordman Fir I think is the best one to buy.

I have always wanted a real one so what we did was waited until after xmas when all the really expensive cut trees and the expensive pot grown ones had all been sold and went to the garden centre just after xmas and got a lovely pot grown specimen half the price We had to pick nd choose because some of them had broken tops or had to leader tops due to the top getting broken off at some point.We now have it in its pot outside our back door which is quiet shaded and it is waiting patiently for us to bring it indoors

 

Thanks for the heads up Kandy and Fat Controller...I will let you guys know next weekend what i bought..Cheers!

 

Just to let you guys know i bought a 4ft-4.5ft Nordman fir tree at the weekend from Tesco's...at a bargain price of £20..

 

Good bargain there AB,we saw them as well in Tesco's and they all look good specimens

 

Yup i could not believe how good they looked for the price..Especially when homebase are charging £40 for the same tree

 

One thing to try and find out is if they are genuinely pot grown or pot pressed. Pot grown are grown from seedlings in pots that are sunk in the ground and then lifted, these of course have almost a guaranteed chance of surviving.

If they are pot pressed they are lifted by machinery and forced in to pots, damaging most of the roots, depending on the species these will have varying rates of survival, any Abies species being the most difficult and the spruces being easier. As long as there are good amount of fine roots you have a chance, don't worry too much at the site of broken thick roots they're mainly anchor roots.

We bought a 5ft pot pressed Nordman last year when it was reduced, I potted it up with an application of micorrhizal fungi and it survived and filled its pot with new roots and put on new growth in August, its now planted out in the garden