Christmas Trees on Uplands Road.

[SCSB79]

Me and Mrs SCSB79 along with our neighbours just popped along to the wee garden centre doing the Christmas trees... the nicest chaps in the world selling them. Allowed us to take the tree and come back with cash later as we didn't think they wouldn't take cards... also offer free local delivery.

Good quality trees too.

[dancet]

I'll second that, we bought our tree from them last year, they delivered it free with a wooden stand bashed on to the bottom and it was excellent quality.

[Lizziedjango]

What are the prices like? I was going to get an articfial tree this year, but my husband has put his foot down, insisting on a real one. But I don't want to pay more than ?10-15....?

[Michael Palaeologus]

Tiny tree (2 foot?) on North Cross Road - ?25.

Madness.

[Al&Em]

Plant Nation - 27 quid for a 4/5 a bit footer - nice shape too - it's all decorated now and everythint! Awwwww....

[Lizziedjango]

Happily I went to B&Q Old Kent Rd this afternoon and got a super Norway Spruce tree for ?9. Yes ?9. It is 6 ft high and smells amazing. I have bought similar trees in ED the last few years for ?35+ and they haven't smelt of pine AT ALL.

I wasn't the only person from this area snapping up one of these trees either. We all lamented the fact that the street sellers in ED were selling quite expensive trees.

Michael Palaeologus you are quite right, I saw TINY trees in Northcross Rd fort ?25. They were so small.

My tree is well worth the ?9 paid. It looks great up.

[HonaloochieB]

May I respectfully direct evryone on here to Bar Mitzvah?

It appears you all have exactly the right sort of 'inclination' towards Christmas.

I'll make sure the punch bowl is refilled and that there are comestibles.

Really, come on. It's just on The Lounge.

So why wouldn't you?

[Lizziedjango]

eh?

[Nero]

What do Xmas tree sellers do the rest of the year? Flee to the Caribbean to avoid the taxman and spend the rewards of their sky-high prices?

[MrBen]

The two gents at PlantNation on Uplands are brilliant and two of the nicest funniest men I have met. I tip my hat to them.

But there is already a thread about this in recommendations here.

And if you can all shop with funny cloth bags then you can all by an artificial tree and help save the planet?!

Right on man.

[Jeremy]

?9? Nine Pounds??!! I paid 3 times that over the weekend! And it came with a silly plastic base which didn't fit... so I had to saw down the trunk to size... and then bash the base onto the tree with a hammer.

[Lizziedjango]

Yes Jeremy my 6ft Christmas tree from B&Q did cost ?9. It is brill and smells beautiful - I already said on another thread how my expensive ED trees over the last few years never smelt at all of pine.

[morty]

friend of a friends company so can't vouch for them....

http://www.lonesomepine.co.uk:80/

and yes, they seem to be on the expensive side, but there is a useful page on their for looking after your tree, wherever you choose to get it from.

[Huguenot]

Our artifial Xmas tree is now on it's fifth year, and it's still going as strong as when we bought it!

It cost an outrageous 100 quid when we first bought it, but now it's down to 20 quid a year and shrinking. It looks as good as when we first bought it - and most visitors think it's real. We bought it at the Xmas shop in Hays Galleria. I don't know if that's still going?

However, there was an extensive debate that suggested that a 10 year life artificial tree was more environmentally friendly than cut and dispose ones when we bought it. Unhappily, whilst the debate is still there, most have agreed that cut and dispose is probably slightly better. (You have to consider transport, distribution as well as loss of land to monoculture to get the idea).

[zephyr]

Got a big tree from Pretty Traditional yesterday - ?40. Not entirely sure it is going to fit but I wanted one that had a lot of foliage high up.

When it is finished with I usually cut it up and put it on the fire in the living room. In fact I am just drying out the trunk of last years to put on now.

[RosieH]

Just got my tree delivered from Plant Nation and I love them - I'm on the second floor and they happily brought it up, and it's a bonny beauty.

You see, this comes to pass when a child is born.

[Sue]

Please someone tell me this isn't true ....

I was passing the EDT on the top of a bus yesterday, and thought I saw outside amongst the bigger trees spindly little trees about 30cm high - and with about three tiny branches each - in pots with a sign saying ?10. I think they were on a table.

?10????

Did I see that right???

Are people in ED really paying ?10 for something that small?

Should I be surprised?

[Jeremy]

Sounds about right. Very small potted trees (maybe 2ft) are being sold outside sainsburys for ?25.

[Indiana]

Took Lizziedangjo's advice and trotted off to B&Q at the weekend - a great range of trees. We got a 6ft one for about ?20 - very good shape etc and helpful staff.

[Moos]

We got a lovely 6ft+ tree from Uplands Road for ?30 including free almost-immediate delivery and lots of friendly help from the guys.

[Gerrard]

My family was in this game for a fair few years..

To be fair to both the sellers outside the EDT and to Sainsburys, potted trees with roots are always going to be more expensive. Quite a lot of labour goes into planting and tending to these trees during the year or two before it is sold to the public. you then have to add on storage costs and finally transport, and not forgetting of course a margin for some profit. It soon adds up.

In terms of impact on the environment, as Huguenot correctly states, the argument between the benefits of plastic or real trees continues. On the side of opting for a real one, I understand that a young tree will take almost three times more carbon out of the atmosphere than an older, more established tree. Christmas trees are all specifically grown for this purpose, if people didnt buy real trees they would not have been grown in the first place. The story of thousands of acres of forest being cleared each year is a myth, they all come from fields around Europe and are treated in the same way as any other crop.

I suspect the cheaper trees at B&Q are the traditional Norway spruce trees. The 'Nordman' variety generally sold on the Lane take a lot longer to grow and will therefore always be more expensive. Lizzied is right in that Nordman trees will never smell as nice as the traditional pine, but they do drop less needles and are not as sharp as the traditional tree.

The guys on Uplands Road are the friendliest garden centre people I have come across, if I was at home for Christmas then they would be getting my money.

[Huguenot]

What a brilliant post!

[AllyCat]

Does anyone know what the opening times are for Plant Nation please?

[woodie]

you can get organic ones in that smart grocers consort road. organic xmas trees? wow. get me some a dem.

sign says "organic xmas trees". must be pricey.

not understanding much about all this but, isnt growing the real trees good for the enviroment? surely they pump out the oxygen. plastic must = bad no? not everyone burns the trees when used. they get chipped up and reused.

[Huguenot]

Yes, I think so woodie.

However, they are a cash crop that need cultivating and transporting, and monoculture itself is regarded as damaging the environment. When the tree is disposed of all the carbon goes back into the environment, so the tree itself is carbon neutral.

The consensus is that it becomes quite a close call when an artificial one is only replaced once every 10-15 years, but natural trees need to cultivated and transported every year afresh.