tall order

I have a Norfork Pine in the house that has almost touched the cealing. How well can these trees be transplanted outdoors in N.C. Washington, zone 5.

Not very well--Plant Files lists them as hardy to zone 9, so it would have pretty much zero chance of surviving outdoors in zone 5. Even though they're called a "pine", they're really not. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31757/

I've never grown one of these so I don't know if it's possible to prune it to keep it a more appropriate size, hopefully someone else will come along with some advice for you.

I suppose you could prune this plant, but if you do, it might ruin the shape. I had one years ago, but it was never any taller than 4 feet and I gave it away when I moved long distance. Someone may know more about it.. maybe it is possible to cut it at the top without it looking bad afterwards....but if it can't be done or if you don't want to risk that, you could either re-model your home to raise the ceiling, or donate the plant to a place where it will get good care, like a botanical garden or something like that.

Whoa! I have one of these...but he's much smaller. I hope he doesn't get that big! How big of a pot do you have it in? I wonder if you could prune it if maybe keeping it in a smaller pot would keep it from getting so big......

I have one growing in my yard and I gave one to my neighbor a few years ago that she planted in her yard. Both had been house plants that outgrew the house! I really don't think it would survive the winters in Washington State. You could always chop the top off if you wanted to keep it as an indoor plant. I don't think it will branch out if the top is pruned though. You would more than likely just have a flat top tree!

i would love to have a Norfolk Pine that big and pretty in my house.................i would just cut the top off and put the Christmas topper on it year around................how beautiful at Christmas to decorate it..............lucky you and good grower you must be!!!!!!

I always used to have a 4'-5' Norfolk Island Pine that I would put outside the front door and decorate at the holidays. You have to use light weight ornaments because the branches are not real sturdy. But, I would string it with the little white lights and put on a few of the smaller lightweight ornamants and garland and a star on top! It always looked pretty. Then it got too tall for the front porch, so I switched to Ficus Benjamina for a few years! Then they got too big so I switched to a pot of sand with a tree branch with lights and ornaments and called it my "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree! When I worked many years ago I bought 5 small live Norfolk Island Pines and packages of the teeny ornaments and tiny white lights and decorated a tree for everyone in my department. They all put them on the corner of their desks or on top of a file cabinet .... looked really pretty! I must have about 5 or 6 of the different sizes of small artificial trees. I used to decorate them and put one in the kitchen, one in each bedroom and one in the study and one in the dining room. The big tree always goes in the living room.
But, I don't decorate like I used to. Have probably about 15-20 of those huge Rubbermaid Plastic Containers full of decorations. They are in the shed stacked floor to ceiling! I need to go through it all one of these days and get rid of old, unused stuff.

Thanks for all your comments. My wife says she'll decorate it as a christmas tree this year. Does all that space under the branches mean more presents? The plant, by the way, sits in a 2' by 18" tall pot. I jokingly said to my wife that when it touches the present cealing, it will be time to get a new house. She likes dome homes. THAT design would give it room to grow. And yes, I do have a green thumb.