My LIVE Christmas Tree

Well, everyone, I decorated for Christmas for my birthday. I just couldn't stand it another day, and my mother was in town, so it made me especially feel like being creative and crafty and sharing it with her. So on my special day we went shopping and I picked out a wreath for our front door and picked up a few new ornaments.

Still, the tree I had been using in recent years was pitifully small for our new rental house (less than 2 feet tall), so I asked Ken if we could get a bigger tree. He asked if we would get a live one or a fake one. I couldn't really decide, but I felt like it was frivolous to splurge on a cut tree when 'technically' my old fake tree from Peoria was still in storage at my parents house and could be transported to Kansas City somehow, I was sure.

Then one of our room mates suggested a brilliant alternative, and one I love especially as a horticulturalist. He suggested a live tree. You know, one with roots still attached and in a pot, one which was natural looking for it had never been shorn at the tree farm. Oh I loved the idea of it, and the best part being that if it survives the winter in our heated house we can plant it out in the yard and enjoy it forever (or at least as long as we live at the house).

So, it being early November, all the nurseries around here are trying to sell off their tree stock at up to 50% to make way for all the cut Christmas trees that they ship in for the season. After looking at was available in the pot size however, we decided they were pretty dinky, so we splurged on a 5' Norway Spruce in the balled and burlaped section. If you don't know what balled and burlapped means, picture a 5 foot evergree with a root ball too big for a pot, so they wrapped it in burlap.

We got a great deal on it, but it was interesting to see them load it in the van and then when we got home, I was dismayed to find it would not fit in one of my 20" fiberglass pots. The top of the root ball was 26" wide and 30" deep. When we found a make shift pot (a plastic rain barrel cut in half), it was quite a chore for Ken and our room mate, Tad, to get it in the back door.

Still, once it was all said and done, it was a gorgeous result, and better than any tree lot cut tree. It had a naturally open form with nice branching and with the windows behind it, you can see the sun shining through. It is amazingly beautiful and I don't know if I will ever be able to go back to fake/cut trees again. It stand roughly 6.5' tall (pot and all) and is decorated with ornaments starting 2.5' off the ground (to keep them away from our 1 year old's reach).

Pictures will hopefully be posted soon. Be inspired.