Fabulous, Thank you!
Nichola
South Wales
£61 – £159
The Douglas Fir is a popular Christmas tree in the United States. Less common in Europe, we are one of the few British growers of Douglas Firs. A dense and therefore heavily-pruned tree, this is ideal for traditional “wrap and bow” style American decorating – the soft, flexible branches less ideal for hanging baubles. Read more.
Companies and growers measure Christmas trees in lots of ways, so on our website we’ve tried to keep it relatively simple: our measurements in feet are a minimum height to the top of the tree. So, if you order a 6ft tree it will be at least 6ft from the base of the trunk to the tippy top.
The long bit on the top of the tree (where you put your star or fairy) is called the ‘leader’. With natural products it’s not a perfect science, so this can be quite long on some trees and much shorter on others. A 6ft tree might be bang on 6ft, or might be a bit taller. Don’t forget to account for this potential extra height – sometimes up to 1.5ft for taller trees - but if your tree has a long leader, you can always cut a bit off.
If you’re putting your tree in any sort of stand, that will add some height to the tree, so don’t forget to factor it in to the overall measurement! If you need a stand, we sell them here.
Bear in mind that the taller your tree, the wider it will be at the base. Nordman Firs and Norway Spruces in particular get quite big and bushy as they get taller, so make sure you’ve got space!
Fabulous, Thank you!
The Douglas Fir (Latin: Pseudotsuga Menziesii – try pronouncing that after a few sherries) is native to North America and also goes by the name of the Oregon Pine. It’s named after a Scottish chap: David Douglas – as fine a botanist as you ever did see. It’s a popular species for timber production but has a wide and interesting range of uses: from Hawaiian canoe construction to tea brewed from its needles. It’s naturalised in the UK, growing well in the wild especially further west, and serves as a popular home for red squirrels.
Douglas Firs can grow very large indeed, up to 100m in some cases. The needles are long, much more so than any of the other varieties we sell online and unlike other varieties they also grow in right the way around the branches, including the underside. The needles are very soft indeed and the branches relatively weak compared to common Christmas trees. The tree has a lovely sweet orangey scent.
The Douglas Fir is a very popular tree in the USA, where it’s common to decorate trees with ribbons and bows rather than heavy ornaments. It has a symmetrical shape and generally bushy appearance when cultivated as a Christmas tree, and has medium needle retention. To achieve the conical Christmas tree shape, our Douglas Firs are sheared through the year.
Super soft and ideal if you love ribbons, bows and tinsel!
Companies and growers measure Christmas trees in lots of ways, so on our website we’ve tried to keep it relatively simple: our measurements in feet are a minimum height to the top of the tree. So, if you order a 6ft tree it will be at least 6ft from the base of the trunk to the tippy top – typically, it will be a bit taller. Don’t forget to account for this potential extra height – sometimes up to 1.5ft for taller trees.
The long bit on the top of the tree (where you put your star or fairy) is called the ‘leader’. This can be quite long on some trees and much shorter on others – just natural variance – so growers account for this when measuring by taking a height to halfway up the leader (halfway between the top set of branches and the top of the tree). Just to confuse things a bit further, the industry standard is centimetre ranges. Here’s a handy conversion:
Tree ordered - Height to halfway up leader:
4ft tree - 125-150cm
5ft tree - 150-175cm
6ft tree - 175-200cm
7ft tree - 200-225cm
8ft tree - 225-250cm
9ft tree - 250-300cm
With natural products it’s not a perfect science, so these ranges act as a guide and your tree may be a little outside of the ranges in either direction.
If you’re putting your tree in any sort of stand, that will add some height to the tree, so don’t forget to factor it in to the overall measurement! If you need a stand, we sell them here.
Bear in mind that the taller your tree, the wider it will be at the base. Nordman Firs and Norway Spruces in particular get quite big and bushy as they get taller, so make sure you’ve got space!