Live Plants or Trees for the Holiday Season

[bluelacedredhead]

Last year we purchased a 3 foot tall male holly bush in a large planter and decorated it for the Holiday Season. After the decorations came down, I kept the holly in a 50F porch and withheld water for most of the winter. In spring, when
it started to lose leaves, I began watering again. Once it bloomed, we found a permanent spot for it in the yard and transplanted it. It's doing very well.
Purchasing a female holly is an option for this year.

However, today I saw the most adorable Tabletop Rosemary plants which had been pruned to a Christmas tree shape. The instructions with the rosemary suggested drying the needles after the Holiday season to save for seasoning. Or,
for the more advanced gardener, to transplant it in spring where it would thrive. I was thinking it would also make a lovely Hostess gift for those who go visiting at the Holidays.

I don't know how many here actually have luck with Rosemary overwintering indoors? I certainly never have. But considering the rosemary were $5 cheaper than the live tabletop spruce trees at the same grocer, I'm considering one. The only thing that held me back was, it's just not large enough to
accommodate all of my decorations, whereas the holly was.

Do you use a Live Tree indoors for your Holiday?
What kind? A traditional kind like a spruce or fir that can be transplanted in spring?
Or a tropical like a ficus or something more useful like the Rosemary I saw this afternoon?

[jcm05]

We have never used a live tree and I haven't tried overwintering rosemary indoors. It would be nice to be able to because it doesn't overwinter here.

[bluelacedredhead]

Jt, The rosemary is High Maintenance! I have to spritz it with water at least every other day or it begins to turn brown. But once I got into the rhythm of the rosemary, it's looking lovely and actually sending up new growth.

I roasted a chicken Wednesday night using fresh clippings from the tree. It was Chickalicious. ;D I don't know if I will continue with this regimen the entire winter, but it's certainly a useful and aromatic addition to our home at this time.

[bunkie]

blue, we keep a couple rosemarry plants growing in the house during the winter months to use for cooking and starting new plants in the spring. they were pretty easy to keep going. i only lost one when i overwtered it....they prefeer their roots to be a bit on the dry side here.

for a Christmas tree, we alwaays cut one down on our fence line where they are growing too thickly. serves two purposes...decoration and thinning! ;D

[dld]

Plastic tree serves me just fine and keeps it out of the landfill.

[bluelacedredhead]

No plastic trees allowed in this house.
And Bunkie, when we had the farm, we systematically thinned the trees out that way for 15 years. The first three came off the front lawn. Someone said to us "you can't cut trees off your front lawn for Christmas trees". To which we replied, since we owned the property and they were within it's boundaries, we could do whatever we wanted with those fir trees, like it or not.
The last two years, we had chopped down most of the trees needing thinning that were small enough to use in the house. So we progressed to clearing trees from the winter pasture. They were pretty awkward looking; a large gangly white pine and then the year after a cedar. But it made for interesting Christmas conversation.

[w8in4dave]

We used to buy a balled Blue spruce every year at xmas time ..well 23 years later ...when I say balled I mean the roots were balled..so we planted them and our house is surrounded with Blu spruce We have a fake one now ..call it lazyness if you want but it is cheaper and we don'thave to plant it and it doesn't go in a garbage can... so We like it It doesn't require watering or special care

[bluelacedredhead]

I don't understand why a cut tree would go in the landfill?

For those in urban areas, do you not have Christmas tree collection for municipal mulch programs?

One small town I used to work in has a Winter Carnival every year. Instead of collecting trees for a municipal mulching program they collect them for a big bonfire ceremy to start off the weeklong winter carnival.

And when we were on the farm, I used to feed the branches off the Christmas tree to the goats after the tree came down (no tinsel of course). Barring that, it got dried out and cut up for kindling.

[tomc]

Now I'm down to one rosemary. it is dreadfuly potbound so ask me again in the spring, on how'm I doing. Any quick draining soil will do. A saucer under the pot helps. Most window sills are a little too cold many propagating boxes (like to start tomatoes) are too warm. a table set near an east window is about right here. 60-70F.

This one is pretty young its only 5 or 6 YO.

[paulf]

I really like the Norfolk Pine. We have not purchased one and I am not sure they will live in my area, but they sure are neat looking.

As for rosemary overwintering, I asked the herb expert in the family (DW) and she agrees they are very touchy. They like a dry climate, so watering is the trick; just enough but not too much. She disagrees about the spraying or spritzing ... for her that is what kills them. It is a challenge, but there is nothing better on pork roast or pork loin than fresh rosemary.

[rintintin]

I grew up in SoCal, so rosemary was always part of the garden. I am currently in Seattle, and we have a huge one in the front yard. It seldom gets below the teens here, but we certainly have wet weather. and the bush thrives here with ZERO maintenance.

[bluelacedredhead]

So, Rin, is it decorated for Christmas??

Paul, can I ask what type of heating do you have in your house? Is it forced air? I have a gas fireplace and electric baseboard as backup. No ducting, no air movement except from a fireplace top fan. I've lost several plants since moving into this house. We are in a humid area, on the shores of Lake Erie and if I water more than once a week, plants seem to die from root rot. I had the rosemary in the same room as the fireplace for the first week and that was when it was going brown. Since moving it to the front porch, which has a total of 14 windows and a temperature of 40-50F, it's thriving.

[paulf]

Yes, we have forced air .... sort of. Our house was built in 1874 with a minimal basement. Two thirds of the house is built right on the ground level with no crawl space to put heat vents. In the room where most of the plants brought indoors are kept the vents are at least half a room away. When we remodeled we opened up the rooms so heat is not the problem, but no heated air blows on the plants. Every room has its own humidifier.

Maybe the fireplace sucked the moisture out of your plants. Maybe they like moist air but not wet feet. And while the rooms in our house are kept at about 65 degrees, the plants are up against a wall near windows and the temp there is probably more like 60. So let's see: humid, not watered often, cool and sunny; sounds like a plan.

[tomc]

Dec 19, 2010 16:16:45 GMT -5 paulf said:

I really like the Norfolk Pine. We have not purchased one and I am not sure they will live in my area, but they sure are neat looking.

Paul, Norfolk Island Pine is not winter hearty in Nebraska. So, your flirting with bonsai. A NIP will need to live indoors from October to May in NE. Somekinda sunny window is in order too.

[gardensolution12]

Your way of gardening reminded me all about my childhood memories with my late mother. It made me realize some things that I really needed to do in order to cherish my ways of living.