Tips on picking the perfect Christmas tree from Baytree Garden Centre’s Mark Cox

This week, Baytree Garden Centre’s Mark Cox helps you to pick the perfect Christmas tree...

Following a very successful trawl of social media platforms including the one rhyming with placelook, I am pleased to announce that the faux Latin scourge of Quadring, Antonio the village’s Latin dance instructor, has been arrested after someone publically unmasked him as David Nigales, cousin of the mysterious Nigerian multi-millionaire, who just requires your bank account to transfer eye watering sums of money into your account, before he sadly passes away, after discovering your placelook profile.

Mrs Jones from number 48 had already booked an around the world cruise on the funds that would sadly never reach her account and the present Mrs Cox has thrown herself onto my mercy to take her back following her short dalliance with said Antonio.

Having lived with Michelle at number 9 for the past week on a diet of pot noodle and cream crackers I felt it was only right and proper, considering the time of year, to take Mrs Cox back into the bosom of my affections and more importantly the kitchen. And to demonstrate to the world that things had returned to normal in the Cox household it was time to set out on the annual Christmas tree pilgrimage. I hope these tips will help you when choosing a tree.

For many the quintessential Christmas tree is the Norway Spruce which Prince Albert introduced to Queen Victoria way back when which started the tradition in the UK of decorating a tree for Christmas. These Spruce trees have a beautiful scent of pine and dark green spiky leaves the flip side to all this Christmas loveliness is that the leaves are prone to dropping.

Nordmann Fir trees are fuller trees with thicker set branches, however they do lack the scent of a Norway Spruce, but they keep hold of their needles for longer.

As a cautionary note, not all trees are the same, those grown in the UK will last better than those shipped across Europe which are bought in bulk and sold off cheaply. If you can avoid these trees please do so and remember as with all things in life quality is worth paying that little extra.

Before making a final decision make sure that you view the tree from all sides, and importantly know the height of the room you want to put your tree into. Get to your local Garden Centre such as Baytree in good time before Christmas rather than leaving it until the last moment as you’ll find your choice of trees will be greatly reduced.

Before you bring your tree into your home cut a 2 inch slither of the bottom of the tree’s trunk. This fresh cut will allow the tree to take up water whilst inside your home.

Make sure that you buy a good quality tree stand which has a large enough reservoir to pour water into. I tell you now that you will be really surprised by how much water your tree can drink. You’ll probably have to refill this reservoir at least every couple of days to keep it looking its best.

This is important so take note - please don’t place your tree next to a heat source as this will accelerate the drying out process which will mean your tree won’t look at its best for long. You must keep your tree watered or else the tree will become dehydrated thus causing the needles to drop as it tries to conserve water.

Use LED lights on your tree as they give off next to no heat unlike traditional filament bulbs.