Douglas Fir Potted Christmas Tree

A Douglas Fir is a mountain tree that visits the house for Christmas. Keep it cool, keep it watered, and be realistic about your climate, and it will reward you.

• When It Arrives: Unpack a couriered tree straight away, take the wrapping off the root ball, stand it upright and water it until water runs from the base. A tree that has spent a few days in a carton in early summer can arrive thirsty and a little flat. Give it a deep drink and a few days outdoors in bright shade before you bring it in; a dose of seaweed tonic in the water helps it settle. If Christmas is still weeks away, leave it outside in a spot with morning sun and bring it in when you are ready to decorate.
• Indoors at Christmas: Two to three weeks is the limit. Choose the coolest, brightest position you have, and keep it away from heaters, air-conditioner vents and hot western glass. Stand the pot inside a tub, half barrel or lined basket so you can water without marking the floor.
• Watering: This tree must not dry out. Check the potting mix every day with a finger: it should feel moist a few centimetres down, never dust-dry and never sitting in water. Indoors, a slow litre or two at a time is better than a flood, and any water standing in the tub after an hour should be tipped out. A few older needles yellowing and dropping from inside the tree is normal. Yellowing or browning across the tree is a sign that the mix is too dry or too wet, so check it before you do anything else.
• Decorating: Use LED lights, which run cool. The branches are soft and flexible, so lights, ribbon and lighter ornaments go anywhere, and heavier pieces belong on the thicker wood close to the trunk. The needles are soft, so there is no need for gloves.
• Back Outside: After Christmas, do not move it straight from the lounge room into January sun. Give it about a week in a sheltered, shaded spot first. Foliage that has softened indoors will scorch if it is not eased back.
• Know Your Climate: In cool districts such as the Southern Highlands, the Blue Mountains, the tablelands and the Adelaide Hills, it can live in the open all year. In Melbourne and Canberra, it does well with shelter from hot wind and afternoon sun on the worst summer days. In Sydney and on the Adelaide plains, give it morning sun and shade from early afternoon through summer, keep the pot off hot paving, and water daily in hot weather; or send it to family in a cooler district. Queensland and other warm, humid areas do not suit a Douglas Fir: it is unlikely to thrive there after Christmas, however well it is cared for, because the summers are too warm and the winters too mild for the tree to rest.
• Through the Year: Regular water through summer; a tree in a pot dries out far faster than one in the ground, and Douglas Fir suffers in extreme heat. Feed lightly in late summer and again in late winter with a fertiliser for ornamental trees or a seaweed tonic.
• Potting Up: In autumn, move it into a container one size larger with a fresh, free-draining potting mix. Douglas Fir dislikes wet feet more than it dislikes a dry spell, so drainage matters. If the roots are circling tightly when you lift it out, tease the outer ones loose first.
• Keeping Its Shape: A Douglas Fir is trimmed after its new growth has finished, not while it is growing. The tree pushes soft new shoots in spring. Wait until they have stopped lengthening and firmed up, from late summer onward, and trim any time from then until the buds begin to open the following spring. Shorten the longest shoots by up to half, cutting just above a side bud; Douglas Fir carries buds along its new shoots, and those buds become next year’s branches. Never cut back past the needles into bare wood, because it will not reshoot from there.
• Planting Out: Only in a cool district, and only with a great deal of room. Plant in autumn, when the days are mild and the nights are cool, so it can root in over winter. It needs soil that drains and a site well clear of buildings, fences and power lines: in the ground, in a climate that suits it, a Douglas Fir becomes a very large tree. Water it through its first summer or two.

For more on living with a real tree, read our Ultimate Christmas Tree Care Guide. For the species itself, see Growing Douglas Fir in Australia.