HOLIDAYS : Keeping Yuletide Spirit Alive : About seven types of living Christmas trees will be sold in the San Fernando Valley this year, each known to do well transplanted outdoors.
This year, with all the emphasis on environmental concerns, a living Christmas tree may be the perfect choice: It is anti-pollution, pro- forest, no-waste--and it eliminates the sad task of tossing one more dead Douglas fir onto the trash heap.
But what kind of living Christmas tree? And when the holidays are over, what to do with the living, breathing thing that can grow to 80 feet in fewer years than we think? Fortunately, there are now answers to all those questions.
About seven types of living Christmas trees will be sold in the San Fernando Valley this year, each known to do well when transplanted outdoors into chilly winters and blast-furnace summers. Many of them are already in stock at nurseries, in sizes ranging from 3 to 7 1/2 feet tall and priced from about $23 to $70.
The favored container Christmas tree is a pine, and this year five varieties will be widely available.
The Monterey ( Pinus radiata ) is dark green, the densest looking, with a broad cone in youth; quite popular, it is the least adaptable to life in the Valley, preferring cooler coastal summers--but it does survive.
The aleppo pine ( Pinus halepensis ), a pretty, light green, airy tree, tends to ranginess in its old age, while the Italian stone pine ( Pinus pinea ), so upright and graceful in maturity, is a dark, bushy little ball in infancy.
The Canary Island pine ( Pinus canariensis ) has long needles and a fairly open branching habit; it is much more rounded as a Christmas tree than it is as a full-grown outdoor sentinel.
A relatively new variety, the Afghan pine ( Pinus eldarica ), usually called eldarica, is a tough, heat-resistant, dark green tree.
Several nurseries also sell the giant and coast redwoods ( Sequoiadendron giganteum and Sequoia sempervirens , respectively) as Christmas trees. Both have lacy foliage and a light-textured, open look.
If you plan to transplant the tree into your garden after the holidays, the most crucial element in the plant’s outdoor survival is how well it was coddled while indoors. “Heating and cooling systems really affect trees indoors,” says Jo-Anne Groot Beall, vice president of Hines Nursery in Irvine, which supplies living Christmas trees to several Valley nurseries. “You can really dry a tree out if you don’t water it enough.” Extra insurance: “Cover the soil with ice cubes every other day.”
John Boething, owner of Boething Treeland Farms in Woodland Hills, suggests at least a pint or two of water every three or four days for a smaller tree; he also recommends putting the tree near a partially open window. “That would extend its indoor life three to four weeks.”
Before planting the little beauty in your yard, though, beware: Within 10 years--not such a long time--it could loom over an average-size house and crowd out other plants. But lack of space should not prevent you from draping tinsel on that baby pine; there are now several ways to “retire” the tree while helping the environment, beautifying Southern California, keeping people busy and enjoying a modest tax deduction along the way.
The Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department will happily take your living discards and transplant them into Valley parks. Just bring the tree to a park that has a staff, such as Balboa, Woodland Hills or Winnetka, or to a district office such as Orcutt Ranch, the Sepulveda Basin area or North Hollywood. If you want a receipt for the tax deduction, make arrangements with your district office first; not all parks keep receipt forms.
Tree-cyclers, a Hollywood organization run by ad agency copywriter John Jay, will pick up your tree free of charge and plant it in a city park or on a school campus. His number is (213) 876-8575. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts also will accept your Christmas tree and will plant it, if possible, wherever you want: school, hospital, nursing home. You can even buy the tree from a Scout, making the whole transaction a nice, tidy circle. Call your local Scout troop for locations and details.
Buying a living Christmas tree bestows the not inconsiderable benefit of a sense of well-being--virtue, even. Civic pride, too. “Cutting trees out of the forest isn’t good,” says Boething. “But planting trees in the city helps the air. One full-grown tree will offset the emissions of one car.”
Cleaner air: Now, that’s a Christmas present we could all use.
