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+--- Thread: invasive xmas trees (/showthread.php?tid=8098)
RE: invasive xmas trees - Radiopeg - 11-29-2010
Funny, I was just writing a friend how my big Christmas habit (three trees up) is the last thing I need to shed before I move to Puna. I don't know, should I? I did see a lot of holiday stuff for sale when I was there last, Halloween and Christmas at the same time [:0]. It is a relatively harmless vice. I use artificial trees, probably no imported bugs. But one has to use them for a long time, I hear, to recover from the carbon footprint, compared to real trees (and I am). I'm already half switched to LED lights, too. I don't see the need for imported "live" trees. I used to be tied to that concept, until I found a dead bird in my tree when I was taking it down. Fake seems good enough for me.
RE: invasive xmas trees - missydog1 - 11-29-2010
I'm just pointing out that no matter what we transplants keeper give up, it IS a tradition in Hawai'i among people who were born here to go hog wild over Xmas--and they don't find it incongruous at all. If anything, they are more into it than Californians.
Real trees smell pretty great. I've never bought an imported tree since I moved here--but I lust after one in my heart.
Not lusting after the hitchhikers though.
RE: invasive xmas trees - Radiopeg - 11-29-2010
Real trees smell better. I do miss that. No fake pine scent matches the real thing.
Life goes on, with you or without you.
RE: invasive xmas trees - Kelena - 11-29-2010
Really? Well, I guess I've never been on Hawaii Island over Christmas. Kauai only. Christmas did not seem like a very big deal there. Most holidays on island seem subdued to me. Congrats Radiopeg on your piece of Puna. That's a nice Christmas gift!
RE: invasive xmas trees - ericlp - 11-29-2010
I don't see why you can't just get a nor folk pine (a live one) then when xmas is over take it outside and plant it and heck enjoy your xmas tree outside! year after year! If you want some pine scent ... well, they sell that in a can and I suppose you could spray it on a living tree?
RE: invasive xmas trees - missydog1 - 11-29-2010
Glen, perhaps that's because you weren't on island for the pre-Christmas frenzy, and the real Christmas action is at people's homes where a visitor wouldn't see it?
Stopped in Home Depot today, people working there looked dog tired, said it had been nuts, best Christmas lights were already sold out ...
I don't think it's this island only. Was on extended visit to Oahu after Thanksgiving a few years back, and Honolulu was on full Christmas march ... parade, decor, Santas, lights, shopping madness, all of it.
RE: invasive xmas trees - Rene Siracusa - 11-30-2010
I enjoy the lights and the colorful ornaments, but don't buy cut trees. Sometimes I will bring a potted tree into the house. I just want to alert everyone who feels the need to buy a cut tree: please do not buy a flocked tree, because they can't be recycled. Mahalo.
RE: invasive xmas trees - mdd7000 - 11-30-2010
Early Sunday morning, at Wal-Mart, there was a line of vehicles waiting to tie their newly purchased tree onto the rooftop.
As mentioned before, Christmas is a big deal here.
RE: invasive xmas trees - Ed Smay - 11-30-2010
This will be our 3rd Christmas in Puna. Each year we buy a Norfolk Pine and then plant it in the yard. This works just fine for us.
"From knowledge comes understanding"
RE: invasive xmas trees - peteadams - 12-01-2010
Jane is a big Christmas tree decorating fan so we are always looking for one, but we wanted nothing to do with the imported firs for all of the noted reasons, plus shipping our money off island. Years ago in Maui we found a small Christmas tree farm with Norfolk pines near Makawao and that has been our model since. What we do is indeed plant the trees out and let them initially grow to 6' or so. Then when we want a tree to decorate we cut the central leader for a nice, small tree (we could wait longer for a taller tree). Norfolk pines characteristically grow up very straight. So what happens then is that the surrounding branches form their own leaders and we now have three to five separate trees growing nicely upright from the main trunk. After a couple of years we take the largest, cutting the base near the main trunk which will usually provoke another leader. It goes on and on. We have four now on rotation. We have the room to let them grow, but if you don't just cut it down and plant another. I first saw this technique suggested for someone who wanted a koa tree in their front yard, but was afraid of the eventual size. The advice was to cut it down, carve a canoe (or whatever) and plant another one!