IN THE GARDEN
How to keep that Christmas tree-feeling all year long Gerry Daly
IF you admire the shape and evergreen colour of the Christmas tree, you might want to have a tree or trees of that shape outdoors in the garden all year round.
With the arrival of low-power LED lights, there is an increasing trend for lighting trees outdoors. There are some trees of similar shape that could be used but the standard species grow much too big for gardens.
Several different tree species are used as Christmas trees, mainly fir, with some spruces and pines. Preferences have changed markedly over the years. A few decades ago, Christmas trees were mostly Norway spruce with some Sitka spruce and pine. But these species were notorious for dropping their needles well before the 12 days of Christmas were over.
Few spruces are used now and the firs are by far the most popular. Fir has soft needles with no spines at the tips. The most popular tree now is Nordmann fir, having taken over from the Noble fir, which was very popular at one time. Some people still like its blue-green colour, while many others prefer the bright glossy green of the Nordmann fir. Both are non-shed varieties, which means they will still look full, if a little dried-out, at the end of the festive season.
None of these species used at Christmas is suitable for planting in any but the largest gardens. These are big forest trees, capable of being over 30m tall when mature. They are chosen for Christmas tree growing because they have pretty, non-shed needle foliage, and because they produce, with some pruning, a tree of the required shape and density within seven to 10 years of planting.
Occasionally, small specimens of Christmas tree species, often spruces, are offered for sale in pots. These specimens are usually small trees lifted quite recently. Most of them struggle to survive, often turning brown to some degree, although some get going again.
There are a few garden conifers of good Christmas tree shape with needle foliage. One such is Korean fir, Abies koreana, which forms a cone shape of dense, dark green, needle foliage and quite often sets its own decorative upright cones and produces white resin on the buds.
The blue spruce, Picea pungens koster, has silvery-blue pointed needles. The dwarf spruce, Picea albertiana conica, forms a dense cone of small green needles.
The Serbian spruce forms a narrow pillar of green branches, descending but upturned at the tips. Planted from pots, these garden trees grow in any reasonably good soil that is well-drained in winter.
With the exception of the dwarf form Albertiana conica, which only grows to 3-4m, the others can make 6-10m, smaller than the forest giants but still quite sizeable!