Halls of the Dark Muse

That's an interesting idea but it's hard to care for a potted tree. Shanghai, the little tree we rescued from the street a few years ago put up a good fight but is now dead and that was only a tiny tree.
Have you ever thought about the trees that don't get bought? The scrawny few that don't even get watered, decorated and then thrown out?
You could recycle your Christmas tree. That way it's not such a waste. If it weren't cut down for Christmas then it would be cut down for something else.
Most people don't just wander into the woods and chop down a mighty wild tree. Most buy cultivated trees that were grown just for this. If the tree farmers didn't have the income from that then they might as well just get rid of the trees and use the land for something else.
For us the biggest problem with real trees at the moment is that the dog is obsessed with eating the dropped needles and we have to shoo her away and claim the tree as our own .

It can be difficult to take care of but usually most people only have a tree for about a week or so really it should only need to be watered a couple of times and it should be fine.

I know that most trees come from farms where they were raised for the purpose, but I am bothered by the idea that it is being robbed of a possible life span of a 100+ years just so it can set in a persons living room for a couple of weeks with decorations hanging from it.

I also heard that there is somewhere around here, I cannot recall the exact location, where there are select trees which have been marked to be cut down to keep the forest from becoming too overgrown which prevents both forest fires as well as the spreading of disease among trees, and so they allow people to come in and choose one of the trees and cut it down themselves and take it, since it is already going to be removed anyway.

Good point. But if it weren't planted to be farmed it probably wouldn't have existed in the first place. The only reason farmed trees are planted is so that they can be cut down and sold. If nobody bought those trees then no more would be planted (for farming purposes at least). The fact that the real tree you buy then throw out a few weeks later even exists is because in previous years people bought its predecessors which met the same fate.
I'm not rejecting the rent-a-tree idea. I didn't mean it to sound like I did. I think it's pretty sweet. I wonder. Do you think those potted trees would be limited to a certain height? They'd have to be wouldn't they? It probably wouldn't work out for us. The only place for our tree is right next to a radiator so I wonder if that would damage a rental tree. The guy should probably add an additional charge to the rental in case of damage. Might get the odd free decoration or two too .

I do not know about sizes, but I would think that just like farmed trees one could get different sizes. As depending on how old the tree is, someone who wanted/needed a smaller tree could maybe get a younger tree but a person who wanted a taller tree would get an older tree that has been growing longer.

He did say that if something happens to the tree, and if the people do not keep it alive and it is dead when he comes to pick it up, there is a fee.

I understand your point about the farmed trees, and I know my view may not be logical, since they are grown purely for that purpose, but it just gives me an unsettling feeling that they are being grown and essentially destroyed purely to be a temporary decoration.

I often have the same dilemma, DM. I want a real tree, but I am such a naturalist that I can't justify killing a tree to use for maybe 5 weeks. It just seems like an incredible waste. Anyway, I have a fake tree, but I will keep using it until I'm dead. It's a nice tree and it really looks nice once it is decorated. I do not miss the tree smell or the dead needles and dried out branches that come along with the use of a real tree. I also LOVE the idea of renting a potted tree. I was thinking about getting a tree to have in the house in a pot that I can then use for Christmas and then put it back in the corner when the season is done. I haven't done anything about it though. Great idea thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by Buh4Bee

I often have the same dilemma, DM. I want a real tree, but I am such a naturalist that I can't justify killing a tree to use for maybe 5 weeks. It just seems like an incredible waste. Anyway, I have a fake tree, but I will keep using it until I'm dead. It's a nice tree and it really looks nice once it is decorated. I do not miss the tree smell or the dead needles and dried out branches that come along with the use of a real tree. I also LOVE the idea of renting a potted tree. I was thinking about getting a tree to have in the house in a pot that I can then use for Christmas and then put it back in the corner when the season is done. I haven't done anything about it though. Great idea thanks for sharing!

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Went thru the same thing a few years back then I got it a brain storm I went with my little daughter into some small wooded area close to the house found a dry branch about 4 foot round shook all that would fall off, off,spray painted it silver and put it in the tree stand got all the decorations out and put them on all over I tell you that thing looked great people wanted to know where we had bought it, my daughter still talks about that to her friends.................

Good ideas, all. I have a small fake tree that was my mother's and even decorated by her. It will go to my sister next year. I have cats, and I worry that they would mess up anything larger. I don't know that they would. The idea of renting a tree is positively brilliant, and your idea is also excellent, Goodman Brown, that's not something I'd thought of. I love Christmas trees, but really, I'd rather they get to have their life, too. The earth, literally, needs trees. Did you know that cutting down even a few trees in a forest or having a rough track through one apparently always, always leads to the destruction of the forested area? Studies have been done.

I just go with a fake one. Won't a potted tree outgrow it's pot? And if it's of considerable size it's very difficult to re-pot. And not everyone has a place to keep the tree in the off season. It doesn't strike me as being practical unless it's a small tree.

Originally Posted by Virgil

I just go with a fake one. Won't a potted tree outgrow it's pot? And if it's of considerable size it's very difficult to re-pot. And not everyone has a place to keep the tree in the off season. It doesn't strike me as being practical unless it's a small tree.

Well the person who is running the company has property on which he keeps the trees, and the costumers who rent them, don't have to keep the trees after the fact. Once the holiday is over, the company picks them up again and keeps them on their property.

As for the size apparently I have heard that the trees will not in fact outgrow their environment, and so they can be managed to they do not in fact grow too big.

Oh they rent them out. I missed that. I apologize. Well then that is a good idea. Does it say how much they charge?

Originally Posted by Virgil

Oh they rent them out. I missed that. I apologize. Well then that is a good idea. Does it say how much they charge?

That is one of the downfalls of the idea, is that they are not cheep he said he chrages between 100$-200$

Oh that's a big downfall. Way too expensive. I'll stick with my artificial. At least my artificial isn't one of those silver things.