Price for a balled and burlapped Christmas tree?

We finally wore out our Christmas tree last year. We have decided to retire it. For years we have wanted to get a b&b tree and plant it in the yard. Money was always tight or we didn't have a place to plant it, etc. We are going to start with real ones this year since we finally have room to plant them. :) I think it would be so cool for the kids to bring their kids here in 20 years and show them all the trees from when they were little.

I stopped at a place down the road and met a super nice guy. He also sells all sorts of rocks and stones and mulch and there is a craft are inside the store. He said I can bring extra plants down there and sell them come spring. I really like this little town stuff. Anyway, he had some Norfolk Pines and Colorado Blue Spruce and some other trees. Including the root ball, they are about 7 feet tall. They are priced in the $70-80 range. What would you expect to pay for a tree like this?

I have to say he also has the nicest cut trees I have ever seen! They are all full and round and really healthy looking. They are nothing like the ones you see on lots, that have been tied up and hauled all over. It is actually sort of sad that such beautiful trees get cut. :(

Hi, Would check on care of balled and burlap. They mentioned around here, about needing some special care. We are a couple of zones colder, so maybe not so many "have to dos'.
Good luck, also hate to see the trees cut, although I use them for birds, mulch and the Christmas log for the next year.

Hi Marcia! Thanks.

I did talk to the guy for a few minutes. He told me about the care and it didn't sound so bad.

Hi Michele...

We did that several times as the kids were growing up. We just kept it in the garage, then didn't heat the living room where the tree was (turned off the heater vent) and back in the garage before planting it. This was back in the 70's and they were about 25 to 30 bucks then if that helps. And yes, it's absolutely amazing to look back years later and see how big they get. I think it's a great idea. I hope you get to do it...vic

I've had several over the years. The last one was a dwarf cascading Norfolk Spruce that I wanted for the garden. Since they are small, it became a tabletop tree (3' x 3' table). I paid $80 at a high-end nursery in Asheville.

It came inside just a few days before Christmas, was kept well watered, and went out a few days later. It thrived.

But before that it was many years and like Chele, I usually paid in the $25-30 range, but no fancy trees,

Badseed - $70-$80 for a 7-foot balled & burlap tree is a good price.

Around here many places sell CUT 8-foot trees for that.

Luckily, we get our cut tree every year through the local Boy Scouts, who offer 8-foot+ cut trees of excellent quality & beauty for $40.

Oh! I need to make sure you know that 7' size includes the root ball. :) Planted in the ground, the trees are only about 5' I would guess.

We are going to do it! The trees are beautiful and I look forward to living long enough to see my yard filled with them!

The man told me his cut trees sell for around $65! How can I not pay $10-15 more for something that could outlive me?

Thank you all for your input.

We did it! I came home with a lovely Colorado Blue Spruce. I had to laugh at the man when he first didn't want to put it in the back of my suburban then also asked if I was going to have my husband help me. LOL I told him he didn't know me yet. :) I joked about driving the bobcat and I really think he was going to let me! So the tree is out in the garage acclimating.

Found this nice article. http://www.realchristmastrees.org/treetype/bl_spruc.html

Now I have to decide where to plant it.

Yes - & decide quickly, since you really should dig the hole now & keep the dug-out soil covered or stored somewhere to prevent freezing.

The b&b tree really can't spend as long a time indoors decorated as a cut tree, & needs to be put in the ground as soon as possible after the holidays.

And do be careful dealing with that Blue Spruce. We had a fresh cut one from a cut-your-own place a couple of years ago, & I was a bloody sap-covered mess decorating it. The needles were razor sharp & the warm indoor temps really released the sap like nobodies business. And then there were the bazillions of Praying Mantises that hatched out from the eggcases that were hidden in the tree.

That year was, by far, the closest I've come to a National Lampoon holiday.

Whoooee, Chele and Family!

Thanks :)

We normally put our tree up on Thanksgiving and take it down on New Year's Eve since we are always home for the holidays and it is just us. Thanksgiving got off to a bad day because of the death of our dog then ended up being a nice family day but we just weren't in the mood to put up the tree. Of course we normally have an artificial tree. We were going to put up a smallish tree just for the symbolism but didn't.

I am really going to have to put some thought into where that is going to go!

Congrats, BS! (and fambly!)

Alex's first tree was a red cedar dug up from the woods...it was probably about 4-5 feet tall, if that much, but did a fine job!

It now (12 yrs later) sits in the front yard and it about 15-20 ft tall, very lush, and for some reason I find myself staring at it from time to time, thinking "that thing was once IN the house!".

I love it! You will too!

Merry Christmas!

We have always had cut cedars all my life for our Christmas trees. Three years ago we dug a little one in the woods and put it in a pot. This year it is big enough to put a string of 200 lights on it. I had it in my garden room for my Christmas party last Saturday. It is now out on the patio getting the sunshine and rain that it needs. I went to Big Lots today and bought it some nice outdoor decorations. It will spend the rest of the Christmas season on the patio just outside our windows. Next year or the year after it might be big enough to actually become our real indoor Christmas tree. Until then, we will be making our usual trek to the woods to cut our usual cedar tree about a week before Christmas. Traditions mean a lot in our family so a few days ago my daughter and her family went to the woods and dug a little cedar and went home and put it in a pot. The little ones were delighted and will treasure that little tree from now on, I suspect. They also learned a little bit about gardening that day too.

'Chele,

Put it on the north side of your house and start a windbreak. ;-)

Chele,

Mg's suggestion is exactly what I was thinking of saying to you. We have gotten a live tree every year since we bought this place. We lost one of them, of course the most expensive Japanese pine one that I dearly loved, but the five others are thriving. Our Colorado Blue spruce in memory of my Dad is in the front yard and is so blue that in the spring it looks powdered. Gorgeous! We love all our Christmas trees.

As for price I think yours is about in the ball park for reasonable. We get ours at a nursery that charges the same to the public as they do to nurseries so I will pay about $40 to $50 for our tree.

We decorate ours the day before Christmas eve and have it out of the house by the day after Christmas. We dig the hole before Christmas and keep the soil in the shop where it won't freeze solid.

Have fun! .

Thank you guys so much!

I am trying to picture the property from the road and decide the best place for it. My house faces due North. Anywhere in the front yard would be a great place for it. There really was not much here when we bought the house. There are four maples, one apple and 2 cedars (I think) and that is it! If you are looking straight at the property, the house and outbuildings and all my gardens sit on the front left half. There is nothing but a field on the front right half. I will put my huge greenhouse on the right side, closest to the house then maybe fence in the other part for a horse or something. I am sort of considering right on the line between the left and right half. Now, how far back from the road should it be? LOL

I also have another question. According to the article I posted: The species generally reaches a height of 65-115 feet at maturity with a diameter of 2-3 feet. Is the 2-3 feet, just the trunk?

Definitely YES!!! That's just the trunk. The mature trees have a huge spread/diameter. Make sure you give that puppy PLENTY of room.

I thought the trunk would have to be massive to support a 100 foot tree. LOL I first told the kids 23 feet across thinking that is what the 2-3 feet had said. LOL How wide will the actual tree get? Let me see if I can get a pic and you guys tell me what you think. I have never planted a tree besides willows and want to get this right. :)

Chele you have seen the one in my back yard. We planted it 30 years ago that will give you an idea what to except.

I am trying to think where that tree is! LOL By the shed or the other side?

It is kind of hard to photo even the front half of a seven acre yard! hahahah I took three pics.

Okay see the line where you can tell the difference in color between the yard and the field?

Here it is more close up. Like my county line signs? LOL

I am thinking of putting it smack dab right here! When I put up the commercial greenhouse, I am thinking I will put in a round driveway that possibly even cuts back through that front piece of the yard. Otherwise it will loop through the part that will remain field initially and in front of the greenhouse. I think I can plant the tree just back from the road say 20' and have the drive loop around it? That way it should not block view of traffic on the road and will also be like a nice little island bed?

Geesh, you guys need to take up a collection and buy me fence boards! LOL As much time as I spend at Lowe's and Home Depot, you would think I could remember to buy fence boards. I never think about it until I see the fence or look at a pic. Sorry looking what's left of it fence. ;)

Do not even think of buying your fence boards at either Lowe's or Home Depot without doing a LOT of research first.

Hit your local yellow pages for building supply centers (besides the big box stores), farm supply centers, & lumberyards. Call for prices, including delivery. You could save up to HALF what you pay to the box stores with better quality to boot.

You really need to research any & everything you need to buy to put your place together if you want to do it in the best & most economical fashion possible. Just going off to Lowe's or Home Depot is not the best plan.

And believe me - good board fencing is mucho expensive. I'm currently putting up 5-foot high, 4-board oak fencing, so I know. And I'm not expecting any "donations" either - lol!!!!

LOL I do not intend to fence off the whole thing right now nor replace what is there. I saw 6' fence boards at Home Depot for like $3. I figured for now I would just replace the three that are missing and get three for the other side where there are posts without boards. I figure for $20 plus exterior paint, I could at least make it look decent. I can't make any $$$ plans until we sell the other house. :( The stupid lumber is right outside the exit door and I never think about it until I am leaving. LOL

The tree is on the other side, on the property line it has the iron bench under it.

Oh - well that sort of fencing is an entirely different matter.

My posts are set 8 feet apart & my fence boards are 16'-long rough-sawn oak which cost me between $6 & $7 apiece depending on the current market. I buy about 200-300 at a time, so the price is important to me.

A Colorado Blue Spruce can get very tall and very wide too. I have seen them up to about 40 feet wide and their branching tends to be pretty dense so be sure to plant it where it won't block the view of the highway for people pulling out onto it from your property.

When I was a kid there were two next door to us and that was all their front yard was on a 80 foot wide lot. They had a pathway though the middle to walk to the house but nothing else in that yard. Those trees were cut down when they were about 150 feet tall and at least 40 feet wide each.