December’s tree of life

The Araucaria columnaris, or the Cook pine, called the Christmas tree in India, grows well in Bengaluru, says Kiran Mehta of Lila Nursery in Santa Cruz West. The city's climate is ideal for its growth, the production mainly occurring there. The trees can reach up to nearly 200 feet, but have a slow growth rate of one feet per year, and have short, mostly horizontal branches in whirls around their slender leaning trunk. The branches are lined with cord-like, horizontal branchlets which are covered with small, point-tipped, spirally arranged, overlapping leaves, needle-like when young, and triangular and scale-like as they age. For his nursery, Mehta sources the plants towards the end of November each year in preparation for Christmas season. Their sale drops significantly during the rest of the year, he says, as they become seasonally dated, and since artificial trees are cheaper and involve no maintenance, many still opt for them. "The live plant can't be kept indoors indefinitely," says Mehta. "When fed adequate sunlight and allowed to grow outside, it can survive for nearly a hundred years."

Evergreens, apart from bearing the promise of life during winter, have also been believed in many countries to keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits and illness. As it has for centuries, the evergreen continues to symbolise human belief in renewed life and the hope that lives in all mankind. Amidst the pandemic and its collective experience of upheaval then, a switch, however minor, towards its natural form in interesting.

Poinsettias are native to Central America. A mix of red and green foliage, they are widely used as decorative plants in Christmas displays

Lakhindar Shah of Sunny Nursery in Powai has sold close to 20 such trees this December. These have ranged from two to five feet, he says and can survive indoors in semi-sunlit conditions, and require water every two-three days. Shaan Lalwani of Vriksha Nursery in Vile Parle West has also seen a stark increase in the demand for these plants in the last three or four years. While the market for plastic trees has undoubtedly impacted sales, natural Christmas trees have been surprisingly popular in the last few years, he observes, with Vriksha selling 200-220 trees, which range from Rs 850 to Rs 4,000, this season, a big change from the 10 to 15-odd trees sold just a few years ago. "Because of the pandemic, a lot of people have got into gardening and are interested in plants and that's one reason for the switch from plastic to natural trees," he says. "Secondly, there is increased awareness about Christmas trees going into landfills and the imports from China, so some people are shying away from them. And, the natural ones look infinitely better."

Other than the Araucaria heterophylla or the Norfolk Island pine trees, there are also golden cypresses which are used as Christmas trees, he says. There are also the poinsettias, widely used in Christmas floral displays, which have seen a jump in demand, with his nursery selling more than 2,000 specimens, priced at R250 and above, already.

In 2020, the Viviana Mall in Thane chose natural over plastic by erecting a 25-feet-tall Christmas tree made up of about 500 flowers including petunias, red salvias, orange and yellow marigolds and chrysanthemums

But it is not just homes that have embraced a more natural way to celebrate in the past few years. The Viviana mall in Thane last year erected an outdoor Christmas tree with a metal structure planted with live flower pots taken from their own garden with about 500 flowers, including petunias, red salvias, orange and yellow marigolds and chrysanthemums, as a mark of optimism after the widespread misery of the last two years. The plants were cultivated and nurtured at their premises over a period of three months, says Rima Kirtikar, chief marketing officer at Viviana Mall. Used to conducting flower shows at their courtyard, previously, the plan to construct a Christmas tree out of seasonal flowers was undertaken for the first time last year and will be repeated again this year. In continuation of their outlook towards sustainability, the manure that was used for the plants was also developed in-house out of the waste generated by their food court.