Don't pick up faux firs; go for a live tree to deck up this Christmas

In the name of Copenhagen, let us give the plastic trees a miss this year. We have had our faux firs and ersatz junipers for years, tucked away in a cupboard or a dusty corner to be retrieved with joy every Christmas. While we can never have a white Christmas in Delhi, perhaps we can make it green.

Check out your neighbourhood nursery that should be stocking coniferous trees like junipers and cypresses and the cheaper araucarias. Dev Gujral, who sells plants at Garden Hut at Adhchini, for instance, has the Christmas greens ready. While junipers come for Rs 600-900, depending on the height, the cypresses cost Rs 450-800. Araucarias, meanwhile, cost Rs 350 for a 3-ft sapling and Rs 1,000 for a 7-footer. Gujral says people are now keen on having a real Christmas tree. Kamal Saini of Masjid Nursery, near Khan Market, is selling araucarias for Rs 400-600, and they have sold 50 plants.

There are also dwarf araucarias that make interesting, eco-friendly gifts. Pallavi Jain, who runs the online gifting store greeensomethings.in, has designed two packages for this season — the first one has a decorated, 10-inch-tall araucaria in a colourful metal pot, with a bottle of champagne, while the second comes with a Christmas cake. While the former comes for Rs 7,000, the latter costs Rs 4,000. But if you just want decorated araucarias, they come for Rs 450- 600. "Gifting potted plants is picking up," says Jain, who got eight orders since she started stocking the plants two weeks ago and has an order for another 20 packages.

If you want something unusual with your greens, Anju Srivastava of Wingreen has "plant-stallations" — a combination of two or more plants in attractive pots — that can be used as mantle pieces. They cost Rs 3,000 upwards. The Christmas trees are costlier here. The araucarias are priced at Rs 700- 2,500, junipers at Rs 750-1,500 and cypress at Rs 450-1,000. The price, says Srivastava, varies according to the size of the plant and the type of the container, which could be huge glass bowls, terracotta pots or clay baskets.

Once the Christmas decorations are taken off and the heat is on, araucarias are better kept indoors or in the shade. Junipers and cypresses, however, can survive the heat.