Potted Christmas Trees: Care, Planting and Keeping Them Alive

A potted Christmas tree is the only Christmas tree that can still be alive in February.

That is the appeal, and it is a real one. No tree goes to the chipper in January. No needles in the hoover. The same tree comes back next year, a little bigger, with a bit of history to it.

It also asks more of you than a cut tree. Get it wrong and you have a dead tree in a pot, which is worse than a cut tree in a skip. This guide covers how to buy one, how to keep it alive through Christmas, and how to get it through the year so it comes back.

Pot grown or potted? The difference matters

These two words get used as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference decides whether your tree survives.

A pot grown tree was grown in its pot from a seedling. Its root system developed inside that pot, undisturbed, over years. The roots are intact and the tree does not know anything has happened to it. It has a real chance of living for years.

A potted tree, in the strict sense, was grown in a field, dug up, and pushed into a pot to sell. Most of its root system was cut off in the process. It looks identical in the shop, and it is usually cheaper. It will often die within a year, because it lost the roots it needed to survive.

If you are buying elsewhere, ask which it is. A seller who cannot tell you is telling you something. A quick test: lift the tree gently by the trunk. A pot grown tree stays put, because the roots hold the compost. A dug-up tree will often lift out of the pot with the trunk.

How our pot grown trees are grown

Ours are genuinely pot grown. A seedling is planted by hand into a pot designed with holes in the side. Those holes matter. They let the roots branch out through the sides rather than circling round the inside of the pot, which is what builds a full, healthy root system instead of a knotted one.

The trees are inspected several times a year and pruned twice a year by hand, so the shape is right when it arrives at your door rather than being a wild thing you have to tidy.

They are grown in Scotland, and they are sold in the pot they grew in. Nothing is dug up and nothing is transplanted to sell.

What size are pot grown Christmas trees?

Small, and that is the trade.

Ours run about 2ft to 3ft. A living tree in a pot cannot be 7ft, because the root ball needed to support a 7ft tree would be too heavy for anyone to carry into a house. Physics, not choice.

So a pot grown tree is a table-top tree, a hallway tree, a flat tree, or a second tree for a child's room. If you want a 6ft centrepiece, buy a cut Nordmann Fir. If you want something alive and small, this is your tree.

We measure pot grown trees from the bottom of the pot, because the pot stands on your floor and is part of the height.

How to look after a potted Christmas tree indoors

The single biggest mistake is treating it like a cut tree. It is not a decoration. It is a living conifer, and conifers do not want to be in your living room.

Keep it indoors for as short a time as possible

Two weeks is the sensible maximum. Ten days is better.

A house in December is a hostile place for a conifer. It is warm, dry and dark compared with outside, and the tree responds by breaking dormancy. It thinks spring has arrived, starts pushing out soft new growth, and then you carry it back into a January frost and that new growth dies. The tree may survive, but it will be set back a year.

Bring it in late. Take it out early. That is most of the job.

Keep it cool

Away from radiators, wood burners, and sunny windows. The coolest room you can put it in is the right room. A hallway, a porch or an unheated front room beats a living room with the heating on all evening.

If it has to go in the warm room, turn the radiator nearest it off for the fortnight.

Water it, but do not drown it

Keep the compost damp, not soaking. Push a finger an inch into the soil. If it comes out dry, water it. If it comes out wet, leave it alone.

Pot grown trees die from waterlogging as often as from drought. The roots sit in standing water, they rot, and the tree browns from the inside out. By the time you see it, it is too late.

Make sure the pot can drain. Never let it stand in a saucer of water, and if you have dropped it into a decorative cachepot for Christmas, tip that out after watering.

Cool room, damp soil, short stay. That is the whole method.

Go easy on the decorations

Lights generate heat and the branches on a young tree are not strong. Use LED lights, which run cool, and keep the baubles light. Do not wrap the trunk tightly in anything, and do not use a tree topper heavy enough to bend the leader.

Getting it back outside

This is where most potted trees are lost, and it is entirely avoidable.

Do not carry it from a 20 degree living room straight out into a frost. The shock will kill it or take half of it. Move it in stages.

Put it in a cool room, a porch, a garage or a shed for a few days first. Then out into a sheltered spot outside, against a wall and out of the wind. Then, after a week or so, into its final position.

Do the same in reverse when you bring it in for Christmas. A few days in a cold porch on the way in gives it time to adjust.

If a hard frost is forecast in the days after Christmas, hold it in the garage a little longer.

Keeping it alive through the year

Once it is outside, it is a garden plant. Treat it like one and it will be fine.

Spring

Feed it with a slow-release conifer or ericaceous feed as growth starts. This is also the time to repot if it needs it, before the tree puts on new growth.

Summer

Water it. This is the thing people forget, and it kills more trees than any December mistake.

A pot dries out far faster than open ground. In a hot dry spell a small pot can go from damp to bone dry in two days, and a conifer that dries out completely does not recover. Check it twice a week through summer, and stand it somewhere with a little shade rather than in full afternoon sun on a patio.

Autumn

Ease off the water as growth slows. Let the tree go dormant naturally in the cold. That dormancy is what lets it cope with a fortnight indoors.

Winter

Keep it in a sheltered spot. Bring it in for its fortnight at Christmas, in stages, and out again the same way.

Repotting

Every couple of years, into a pot one size larger with fresh compost.

You know it is due when roots appear through the drainage holes, when water runs straight through without soaking in, or when the tree stops putting on growth. A tree that becomes pot-bound will stall and then start browning, and by then you are playing catch-up.

Tease the outer roots loose so they are not still circling, and do not bury the trunk deeper than it was. Use a loam-based compost rather than a light peat-free multipurpose, which dries out too fast.

Common problems

Browning from the inside out. Usually waterlogging. Check the drainage.

Browning at the tips. Usually heat or drought. Too close to a radiator, or the pot dried out in summer.

Dropping needles indoors. The room is too warm or the compost has dried. Both are fixable if you catch them.

Soft, pale new growth in January. The tree broke dormancy indoors. Get it out in stages and protect the new growth from frost.

No growth at all in spring. Likely pot-bound or starved. Repot and feed.

Can I plant it in the garden?

Yes, and it is often the kindest ending.

Plant it out in early spring, once the frosts are past. Dig a hole twice the width of the pot, tease the roots out so they are not still circling, firm it in, and water it well through its first summer.

Be realistic about what you are planting. A Norway Spruce in a garden will keep going. It can reach 40ft or more given decades. This is not a shrub. Give it space away from the house, drains and foundations, or plant it somewhere you are happy to have a large conifer for good.

Once it is in the ground, that is where it stays. Digging a tree up each December to bring it indoors will kill it. If you want a tree you can reuse indoors, keep it in its pot.

How many years will a pot grown tree last?

Handled well, a pot grown tree can do three to five Christmases indoors before it outgrows a pot you can carry.

At that point you plant it out, and it carries on as a garden tree. That is a good result and it is what the tree is for.

Handled badly, kept in a hot room for six weeks and never watered in summer, it will manage one Christmas.

Are potted Christmas trees better for the environment?

A living tree that lasts several years and then goes in the ground is about as good as it gets.

But a cut tree is not the villain it is made out to be. Real trees absorb carbon while they grow, they support wildlife, at least one new tree is planted for every one cut, and they compost at the end. An artificial tree needs roughly ten years of reuse before it breaks even, and it cannot be recycled at all.

The genuinely bad outcome is a potted tree that dies in January because it spent six weeks next to a radiator. That is a wasted tree and a wasted eight years of growing.

If you are not going to look after it, a cut tree is the greener choice. That is an odd thing for us to say, and it is true.

Potted Christmas tree FAQs

How long can a potted Christmas tree stay indoors?

Ten days to two weeks. Any longer and it breaks dormancy, pushes soft growth, and struggles when it goes back out.

Why is my potted Christmas tree going brown?

Usually heat, or water. Too warm and dry, or waterlogged roots. Check the soil. Damp is right, soaking is not.

Can I keep my potted Christmas tree for next year?

Yes, if it is genuinely pot grown rather than dug up and potted. Get it back outside in stages, water it through the summer, and repot every couple of years.

Do potted Christmas trees drop needles?

Far less than a cut tree, because they still have roots and can drink. A hot dry room will still make them drop.

How big do pot grown Christmas trees get?

Ours are 2ft to 3ft. A living tree in a carryable pot cannot get much bigger. For a full-size tree, buy cut.

When should I bring it inside?

As late as you can bear. Mid December, with a few days in a cold porch on the way in.

Should I water it in summer?

Yes, and this is the step people miss. A pot dries out fast. Check twice a week in hot weather.

Shop pot grown Christmas trees, or read our complete guide to real Christmas trees.