A cool room in your house, like a garage or conservatory, could make a good half-way house for it!
Growing a Christmas tree is an incredibly rewarding endeavour. When you buy a Christmas tree in a pot, you are making a commitment that goes well beyond this festive season - it is a tree you can keep coming back to year after year, just as long as you know how to help it grow.
In this blog we are going to be running through with you exactly how to grow Christmas trees, including some top tips on caring for pot grown Christmas trees, and answering how long do Christmas trees take to grow. We'll start with a step-by-step guide to growing your own Christmas tree, from buying it to planting it in your garden and keeping it healthy for years to come.
Step 1: Buy Your Potted Christmas Tree
Buying Christmas trees grown in pots is a real treat, and arguably more festive than a fresh cut Christmas tree. The Christmas tree that isn't just for Christmas! With a pot grown Christmas tree, it's your responsibility to keep it alive and growing for many years to come. Not only is this more eco-friendly, but it's also great for getting kids involved and will save you money over the long term, and gives that wonderful, unmistakable aroma that you just don't get with artificial trees.
But even a real mini Christmas tree requires some thought. First, you need to choose a variety. If you want a classic that's easy to grow and looks great in your home, choose the Nordmann Fir. For a flash of unique colour, try the Blue Spruce. The Norway Spruce is a classic, as is the Fraser Fir, with its dark green needles and always worth your consideration.
A good garden centre will have the most popular species - but make things easy on yourself and order online with us. Have a look through our range and pick out your favourite.
Dig a Hole
Pot grown trees can be transferred to the ground after Christmas, so once you've bought your small potted real Christmas tree, the first thing you want to do is dig a hole in your garden. In mid-December, the ground won't yet be frozen solid so it's the optimum time to dig that hole. If you leave it until early January, the ground will be much harder to dig.
Make sure the hole is much wider than the Christmas tree pot but slightly shallower. You should choose a spot that's sheltered from the wind but gets plenty of light. This will help the tree grow healthily when it is planted.
Step 2: Keep Your Small Real Christmas Tree in the Pot!
Over Christmas, with your tree indoors, you can let it enjoy the warm, dry climate inside your home. To stop the tree from dropping needles and slowly dying, make sure it is watered regularly - every couple of days throughout the holiday season, when the top soil is dry.
Keep the soil moist and top it up with water whenever it starts to dry out. Be careful not to over-water, however. If the soil is waterlogged with a puddle of water at the surface, you've gone too far.
Other tips for the Christmas period when your potted tree is inside:
- Acclimatise your tree slowly and bring it inside the porch or conservatory, then inside the house. Sudden warm temperatures can cause it to grow at the wrong time of year
- Once the tree is inside and decorated, keep it away from radiators and other sources of heat as this will cause needle drop
- Use a tray or plate beneath the pot to catch any excess water that drains out.
That's all you need to worry about in terms of Christmas tree care while it is inside your home.
Step 3: From Real Christmas Tree to Plant
Once Christmas is over, carefully remove all the decorations and store them for next year. Next, check on the hole you dug back in December and re-dig it if need be. Meanwhile, slowly acclimatise your potted Christmas tree to the outdoor temperature.
Some potted Christmas tree varieties are more sensitive than others. You may wish to take it outside during the day, then store it somewhere slightly warmer at night to avoid the frost until the weather calms. A cool room in your house, like a garage or conservatory, could make a good half-way house for it!
When you are ready to turn your real potted Christmas tree into a garden plant, start by removing the pot. You will find a mass of roots inside all clumped together with the soil. Gently untangle some of the roots at the edges to encourage them to root down and grow when they're in the ground.
Place your freed Christmas tree in the shallow hole, so it is slightly elevated. This will help with drainage and prevent it from becoming waterlogged. Once that's done, all you need to do is keep it watered throughout the year when the soil dries out.
How Much Growth to Expect When Growing a Christmas Tree
It depends on the size of your potted plant. For example, a 6ft potted real Christmas tree will grow quite fast, while the smallest potted plants (2ft or smaller) will be quite slow growing.
For medium and large potted plants, 4ft and above, you will notice some growth during the year in your garden. The tree will grow taller and produce some more branches. You might find off-shoot branches that are growing at a wide angle, ruining the classic Christmas tree silhouette. You can snip these off if desired. You can also remove any dead branches you spot during the year. Other than that, there's no pruning required for your tree.
Alternative Method: Repot the Pot
If you're short on space, you can simply move your Christmas tree from one pot to another after the festive season has ended. Each year, choose a pot that's larger than the one before, so the tree has room to grow. You can keep the potted tree outside during the year, then bring it inside for Christmas again.
At Gardeners Dream, we prefer to plant our trees outside. Access to natural, fresh soil each year helps to keep the plant healthy. It will also have better drainage planted in the ground compared to a pot. Although digging up a tree each year requires a little bit of effort, the overall health and look of the tree will be much improved.
Step 4: Dig Up Your Real Christmas Tree
When December hits and it's time to bring in your Christmas tree, make sure you have a pot ready that's larger than the year before. It's better to have the tree in a too-large pot than a too-small pot over Christmas. A pot that's too small may damage the roots.
Carefully dig up the tree, keeping the roots intact, and place it in its new pot. Then, just follow the rules as if it is a brand-new tree and acclimatise it to your indoor temperature, keep it watered, and don't expose it to too much heat.
Over the years, your pot grown Christmas tree will grow quite large until eventually, it is too large to bring inside the house. Make sure you've got the tree planted in a spot where it can grow after this stage.
But that's not the end! You can continue to decorate your outdoor Christmas tree with lights each year to enjoy the festivities. If you need help getting started, check out our real potted Christmas trees for sale at Gardeners Dream.
How Long Does It Take Christmas Trees To Grow?
Growing Christmas trees takes time, and there are a number of different factors that can impact this, like species, desired size and the conditions that they are growing in. But as a rough guide, growing a Christmas tree usually takes around 10-12 years from seed to the fresh cut tree you will have in your home. As you can imagine, a lot of planning has to go in to preparing the land, shaping the trees, meeting demand and knowing when to harvest.
The Norway Spruce and the Fraser Fir are two of the fastest growing Christmas trees around, while the Leyland Cypress can grow up to 4 feet a year, up to a maximum height of 70 feet! By contrast, the Nordmann fir will only grow around 15 cm a year.
A pot grown Christmas tree will still have plenty of growing to do after you've bought it. Mini Christmas trees are bred to grow slower to keep them small - the Korean fir, for example, takes around 20 years to reach it's maximum height of 13 feet.
Christmas tree care - conclusion
So there you have it, you now know exactly how to care for your pot grown Christmas tree, and you also know the answer to the question how long does an Xmas tree take to grow. All that remains is to point you in the direction of our Real Christmas trees and our potted Christmas trees - have a look through our range and pick the perfect tree for your home this Christmas.
