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Old 14-12-2010, 03:44 PM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
Posts: 1,340
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Quote:
Originally Posted by john hamilton View Post
Some friends bought this tree that was grown in a pot, five years or so ago.

grown in pot Pictures, grown in pot Images, grown in pot Photos, grown in pot Videos - Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

It's brought into the house from outside in the garden for a couple of weeks
every christmas. Although it was a bit pricey initially it saves buying one
and throwing it away every year.

Would anyone be able to name this type of tree please and especially
grateful if anyone knows where to buy a *pot-grown* one. (i.e. the roots
have not been chopped to put it in a pot).

Ideally it could be purchased not too far from the North London area in a
reasonably priced nursery. Thanks for any advice.
It is clearly a true fir, ie Abies spp. But confidently identifying conifers to species level on a single shot of the needles, when there are so many cultivars, is a bit tricky. As earlier poster says, Abies nordmanniana, Abies nordmanniana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is the most commonly used true fir for cut Christmas trees. But part of the reason for that is that it is fast growing, which is not actually ideal for pot cultivation. Which makes me wonder whether it might actually be though actually be Abies koreana, Abies koreana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which is slower growing, or at least slow growing forms are commonly sold in garden centres. That is what I would actually recommend you buy for a pot cultivated fir tree, although you might find other nice slow-growing conifers for pot cultivation in good plant nurseries. You can also get beautful slow-growing cultivars of pine species which are suitable for pot cultivation - for example I used to have a dwarf cultivar of Scots pine which grew to 4 feet in 8 years and a beautiful shape, but it got destroyed in our house extension.