Tree Care

Caring For Your Cut Christmas Tree

When you have chose your tree, the retailer will offer to wrap it in netting, making it easy to get home.  Many retailers also have plastic carry home bags, so you don't get your car dirty!  This is a great idea if it is a wet day and you have to transport the tree in the passenger compartment of your car.

The Needlefresh grower will have done everything possible to ensure your tree arrives with the retailer as fresh as can be.  Once the tree arrives, the retailer will have unpacked it and kept it well watered.  You need to continue to care for your tree to ensure it keeps fresh right through the festive period.  So when you arrive home, follow these easy to remember tips:-

• Keep your tree outside, in the open, until you are ready to put your tree up and decorate it.
• When you bring your tree in, saw a small section off the stump and then place it straight into a water holding stand, or bucket of water (a fresh cut tree can drink up to 5 litres of water a day).
• Try and keep the tree away from a source of direct heat (i.e. a fire or radiator).
• Finally, keep giving your tree a drink of water - you will be amazed at what it can drink!

Caring for your Pot Grown Tree

When you  buy a Needlefresh Pot Grown tree, you have bought a tree which is still growing.  If you look after it carefully, you can plant it out in open ground after Christmas and it may continue to grow on for future years.

Did you know that on average, an acre of growing Christmas trees absorb 1 tonne of Carbon Dioxide a year from the atmosphere?

So while our trees are growing, they are cleaning the air!  If you want your tree to continue to do its work, you need to keep it growing.  Here are some helpful tips on how to get the best out of your Pot Grown tree:-

• When you buy your tree, you will find the tree is still in it's original growing pot, which is wrapped in a special Climate Bag* The Climate Bag was put onto the pot as soon as the tree was lifted from the ground, to ensure that as much moisture as possible is retained around the root-ball.  Keep this bag on the pot for as long as possible.
• Keep the soil moist.  The Climate Bag has drainage holes in the bottom, so you can open the top of the bag and water the tree whilst it is still in the bag.
• When indoors, you may wish to place the tree within it's growing pot, into a decorative cover pot.  If you do this, you can take the tree out of Climate Bag and keep the tree watered in it's new cover pot.

If you want to try planting your tree in the garden:-

• As soon as the festive period is over, place your tree outside.  Keep it in it's cover pot, or you can put it back in the Climate Bag.
• Dig a hole the same depth as the pot and twice as wide.
• When transplanting your tree, it is important to remove the growing pot without disturbing the root system or root ball.  Because the tree roots will have grown through the holes in the pot, it may be necessary to cut the pot down one side and along the bottom, allowing it to be peeled off the root-ball.  Planting the tree in the pot may lead to slower growth in the initial few years, but it will ensure establishment.
• Loosen the soil in the bottom of the hole and backfill the hole with a 50:50 mix of soil and general purpose compost.
• Gently firm in place and water well.
• Water generously in the first few years of establishment.