A pot grown tree isn’t just for Christmas – with the right care, your Christmas tree will have a long and happy life and bring you pleasure for years to come. Find out everything you need to know about potted Christmas tree care and what to do with your tree when the decorations come down.
Pot grown Christmas trees are a sustainable, eco-friendly choice. You can reuse the same tree year after year instead of buying a new one, which is good for the planet and your wallet. Like any plant, your Christmas tree needs water, nutrients and space to thrive. In this guide, we’ll tell you how to take care of a potted Christmas tree while it’s in your home and what to do with it after Christmas.
If you’re unsure which Christmas tree to choose, read our guide to different types of Christmas trees to help you decide. You can order your pot grown Christmas tree today for delivery in the week of your choice. Get free delivery on orders over £50!
How to care for a potted Christmas tree
Grab a cup of tea and a mince pie and read through our care guide, so you know what to do with your tree when it arrives.
Step1: Acclimatise your Christmas tree
Your Christmas tree has likely spent the majority of its life outdoors, exposed to the sometimes lovely, sometimes brutal British weather. Before you bring it fully indoors, you need to acclimatise it to prevent heat shock. Let your tree stand in an unheated garage, shed or indoor porch for a few days when it first arrives before moving it inside.
Step 2: Check your Christmas tree for bugs
Bringing a tree into your home from the outdoors always comes with the risk of bugs. While bugs thrive in the summer months, some could remain on your tree into winter, and they may become active once they’re exposed to warmer temperatures indoors. You’re tricking them into thinking it’s spring! It’s best for the bugs (and for you) that they stay outside, so unpackage your tree and give it a good shake before bringing it indoors.
Step 3: Choose the right spot for your tree
Even once your tree has acclimatised to being indoors, it prefers to be kept cool. If you position it somewhere hot or with fluctuating temperatures, your tree will dry out faster and drop its needles. Remember, a pot grown Christmas tree is a long-term investment, so look after it from the start!
The ideal place for your real Christmas tree is somewhere cool, dry and shaded, away from direct heat sources like radiators and fires. This could be a conservatory or a large hall, as these rooms are often kept cooler than living rooms. In front of patio doors or a large window is another good option, as long as there isn’t a radiator under the window.
Step 4: Keep it well watered
Your Christmas tree will experience more moisture loss in your warm, dry home than outside, so it will need regular watering. Larger trees will require more water than small potted Christmas trees. Overwatering can be just as problematic as underwatering, as waterlogged soil can lead to root rot. The soil around your tree should be moist, rather than overly wet.
The best way to check if your tree needs watering is to stick your finger in the soil, an inch or two deep. If it feels moist and the soil sticks to your finger, it’s likely got enough water. If the soil feels dry and crumbly, give it a good drink. To keep your tree happy, make sure the pot has good drainage and place it on a saucer or in a larger, decorative pot to catch any excess water that drains out.
Step 5: Don’t keep your tree inside too long
Your Christmas tree is a living plant that’s used to harsh weather conditions. A cut tree only needs to survive until Twelfth Night, but you want your pot grown tree to live for years. To keep it healthy, your pot grown Christmas tree should spend no longer than two weeks indoors. Bring it inside the weekend before Christmas, decorate it and you’ve eaten the leftover turkey and there are only wrappers in the Quality Street box, put your tree back outside to keep growing.
If you really want to bring your tree inside and decorate it early, then keep it in a colder part of the house. A cool conservatory or porch would work well, especially if there’s a nearby window you can open to give it some fresh air.
Taking care of a Christmas tree after Christmas
You have two options for your pot grown tree once Christmas is over – either plant it out in your garden or keep it outdoors in its pot. There are pros and cons to each approach, but whichever you choose, make sure you acclimatise your tree to the outdoors before leaving it out there permanently. Move it to a cool, sheltered spot, such as a garage or shed, for a few days before leaving it outside. If the weather is freezing, move your tree outside during the day and bring it in at night for a few days to get it used to the cold. Christmas trees are outdoor plants, so they’re not suitable for growing indoors all year round.
How to plant out your potted Christmas tree
Christmas trees prefer to be in the ground rather than a pot, so if you have space in your garden and you have a large tree that’s outgrowing its pot, it’s best to plant it outdoors. You don’t have to do this immediately, so you can wait for a day when the ground isn’t frozen, but it’s best to get it in the ground before spring.
We don’t recommend digging up a tree from the garden to bring inside year after year, as this disturbs and damages the tree’s roots, affecting its growth. You could dig it up the year after planting and bring it indoors in a large pot, but when you plant the tree back out in the garden, it may struggle to fully recover. Better to decorate it in situ and enjoy having an outdoor Christmas tree!
Choose a planting site away from buildings and make sure your tree has plenty of space to grow. Christmas trees can reach a height of 20 m or more, though they’ll take a couple of decades to grow that tall. Fraser firs are slower growing than spruces, growing to around 7 m in twenty years.
To plant a Christmas tree, dig a hole twice the width of the tree’s root ball and the same depth. Lift your tree out of its pot and loosen the soil around the roots by hand. Place the tree in the hole and backfill with soil so that the point where the roots join the trunk is level with the surface. Firm the soil gently and water well.
How to grow a Christmas tree in a pot
If you want to bring your Christmas tree indoors again next year, the best option is to keep it in a pot. Christmas trees tend to be slow growing, but to avoid your tree becoming pot bound, move it into a larger container with some fresh compost in spring. You can increase the size of the pot annually until it reaches the maximum size that you can move.
Christmas trees are easy to look after, but like any potted tree, it will need regular watering during dry periods. Add a slow-release, general purpose fertiliser in spring, once new growth starts to appear, and fertilise it again in early summer.
Pot grown vs potted Christmas tree
There are two types of Christmas trees you can buy in pots. It’s important to understand the difference, so you can buy the right tree for you.
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Pot grown Christmas trees are grown from seedlings in pots and are moved to larger pots as they get bigger and bigger. This means the roots grow undisturbed, and there’s no trauma to the tree when it’s transported from the nursery to your home. With appropriate care, Christmas trees grown in pots will live for many years.
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Potted Christmas trees are grown in the ground, then dug up and placed in a pot. This seriously damages the tree’s roots, which affects the tree’s ability to take up water. Potted Christmas trees tend to lose their needles earlier than both pot grown and cut trees, and you can’t plant them in your garden after Christmas as they’re too damaged to survive.
The terms “potted” and “pot grown” are often used interchangeably, which can cause some confusion – if in doubt, clarify whether your tree has been grown in its pot before buying.
All our potted Christmas trees at Gardeners Dream are grown in their pots, so you can plant them in your garden after Christmas or keep them in their pot to brighten your home year after year.
FAQ
How do you care for a real Christmas tree?
Keep your pot grown Christmas tree healthy by only bringing it indoors for a short period over Christmas. Make sure the soil is moist, but not waterlogged, and place it somewhere cool, away from heat sources like radiators and fires. Once Christmas is over, acclimatise your tree before moving it permanently outdoors.
Do pot grown Christmas trees survive?
A Christmas tree grown in a pot can live for many years. To keep it healthy, move it to a slightly larger pot each year and fertilise it in spring. Once your tree grows too big for the largest size of pot, you can plant it in your garden and it will continue growing. Trees sold as potted Christmas trees may have been grown in the ground, dug up and placed in a pot to be sold. These trees have damaged roots and don’t usually survive beyond Christmas. Check before you buy! At Gardeners Dream, we sell real pot grown trees that you can reuse for many years.
How often should you water a pot grown Christmas tree?
Your pot grown Christmas tree is likely to need watering every few days, if not daily. There’s no hard and fast rule, as it depends on the size of your tree and the pot it’s in. The best way to test if your tree needs water is to stick your finger into the soil. If it feels dry and the soil doesn’t stick to your finger, your tree needs a drink.
Which trees make the best pot grown Christmas trees?
Any Christmas tree can be grown in a pot, but if you want to keep your tree in a pot for several years, it’s best to choose a slow growing variety, such as a Nordmann fir or Noble fir. When planted in the ground, Christmas trees can grow to a huge size (they are forest trees, after all). If this is a concern, then opt for a Fraser fir, which has a more manageable height. If you love the look and smell of a spruce tree, a blue spruce pot grown tree will happily grow in a container for many years.
