By Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp

Buying a Christmas tree is on the holiday to-do list of many of us. There are several ways to get “O Tannenbaum” in the house. Some people shop at a tree lot like a church, a nursery, a garden center, or a tree farm. Some may wander their woods for a perfect specimen. Here are some options for getting a great looking tree this year.

CHOOSE-AND-CUT TREES

The freshest tree will come from a farm. These trees grow in the ground and are attached to their roots. The National Christmas Tree Foundation reported that 30.8% of shoppers went to a tree farm to cut their tree in 2022.

Make it an adventure. Load the family in the car and head to a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm in Indiana. Walk the farm and select the tree that suits you. Either you or a staffer will cut the tree close to ground level. You can’t get any fresher than cutting your own.

Find choose-and-cut tree farms at christmastreefarms.net/u-cut/indiana-in.

FRESH CUT TREES

According to the National Christmas Tree Foundation’s research, between 16% and 19% buy their cut trees at garden centers, nurseries, non-profits like a church, chain stores, and retail lots. Here are a few tips for selecting as fresh of a cut tree as possible.

• At the tree lot or garden center, pick up a tree you like and test it for freshness. Lift and gently drop the tree to the ground. If a lot of needles fall from the tree, keep looking.
• Take a branch of the cut tree, gently bend a few needles back, and draw your hand down the needles. If a bunch of needles break off, the tree is not fresh.
• Give the cut tree a good once over to ensure there aren’t any insect hitchhikers, such as the egg sack of a praying mantis.
• Ask the retailer to make a new cut on the tree you select. Make another straight cut at home if you can’t get the tree in water within a few hours. The cut enables the tree to take up water, which helps it stay fresh.
• Tree lots usually wrap the cut tree in netting, which protects it from the ride home. At home, remove the netting and place the tree in a bucket of water. Be careful when discarding the netting. Birds and other animals can get caught in the weave.

Find cut tree farms at indianachristmastrees.com/tree-farms.

LIVE TREES

A live tree serves as a holiday memory in your landscape. Live trees grow in nursery pots, ready to take home and plant in a good space.

Dig the planting hole now if you’re contemplating planting a live tree. Store the soil from the hole so it doesn’t freeze, and cover the hole with plywood or something similar so pets and people don’t fall in.

Keep the live tree indoors for about two days then transplant to the landscape. If kept indoors for too long, it will go out of dormancy and not be prepared for outdoor temperatures. Return the soil to the planting hole. After planting, water the tree well and add mulch. Take a photo of the kids standing by the tree to show the scale. Make it a fun project and do it every year.

JO ELLEN MYERS SHARP, who writes and speaks about gardening, blogs at hoosiergardener.com