Tabletop trees--small, potted Christmas trees--are a fun way to take Holiday decorating to a level beyond synthetic garland and plastic icicles, really infusing your home with the holiday spirit. They are perfect (as the name suggests) as a centerpiece in the dining room, or you could set a couple of them outside of your front door to welcome those holiday visitors. These trees are usually well established, about three to four years old, and often come ornately decorated in reusable festive planters. Tabletop trees are easy to care for through the holiday season--just water them as needed. When spring comes around, you can transplant your new tree in your garden, where it will continue to grow for decades.
For live tabletop holiday trees, it is best to have a tree that exhibits the classic Christmas tree shape and produces those lovely holiday pine aromas. The three most common tabletop trees are the Stone Pine, the Dwarf Spruce, and Rosemary, which isn't a tree at all.
Italian Stone Pine Tabletop Christmas Tree
The Italian Stone Pine, or Umbrella Pine, is a popular source for pine nuts, and is native to southern Europe. If you order a stone pine tabletop holiday tree, you can expect it to be about two feet tall, have the traditional Christmas-tree shape, and give off that wonderful pine scent. After the holidays, if you choose to plant it in your garden, it will grow to 40' or 50' tall take on an umbrella shape at the top. Italian Stone Pines are very exotic-looking trees at maturity.
Dwarf Alberta Spruce Tabletop Christmas Tree
The Dwarf Alberta Spruce is probably everything you expect a tabletop Christmas tree to be. It's naturally small, highly fragrant, and almost perfectly conical. They grow to a maximum of only eight feet, but usually no taller than four to six feet. Dwarf Alberta Spruce work very well in containers, but they do need full sunlight and lots of moisture. So after the holidays, move it to a patio or at least a well-lit window until you can transplant it.
Rosemary Tabletop Christmas Tree
Rosemary is actually a perennial herb and not a tree at all, as you probably already know. But it does have the conical shape of a Christmas Tree, and a lovely herbal aroma that blends perfectly with the rich scent-filled air of the holidays. This is the only "tree" on the list that can actually be kept as a houseplant. Rosemary Christmas trees are perfect for decorating your kitchen--you can just pinch of a few fresh sprigs and use them in your holiday cooking.
Many people are starting to see the benefits of live decorations for the holidays. Tabletop trees are impressive because they are alive, giving a very fine, tasteful quality to your overall decor. Live decorations are also better for the environment, because there is less waste, and after the holidays are over, you have a tree to plant. And planting a tree is good for everybody.
Edgar Freundlich is a garden writer for
Jackson & Perkins.
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