Big shiny balls and candy canes. The gauntlet has been thrown down. BTW, that looks like two trees.

merry christmas doctor sam .... ken

Beautiful trees! Very festive looking. M.C.

I'm a big fan of living outdoor conifers decorated for Christmas. I put some solar Christmas lights on one of the saplings I planted last year.

This one isn't mine....

This one is...

Here's another, although now not very Christmasy, a balmy 62°

Sorry, the first one is poorly shaped to me, and hideous whether covered in shiny balls or not.

The second at least looks healthy, for now, and has a proper northern hemisphere alpine conifer shape. I give it about 5 more years before it becomes diseased and has to be removed! So sorry: blue spruces are one of my most hated trees in the eastern US landscape.

EDIT: now that I enlarged it, I think I see a dying branch!

Here's the first one I've spotted for 2017. As Concolor Firs go this 20 footer is just about as perfect as it gets. One interesting fact, two weeks ago the tree wasn't there, how is that possible?

You could have a concolor fir look like that in Murland if 1) it was grafted onto Abies firma and 2) correctly pruned, but 3) plain species are not afforded that courtesy by the US nursery industry - it's hard enough to get dwarf cultivars grafted onto firma and 4) most Americans don't know how to correctly trim their trees. So this is my roundabout way of saying it was grown on a tree farm, cut, and sold!

I'm LOLing revisiting the hideousness of that first one. It looks like a dirty rug in a crack house, on which a box of ornaments was spilled.

“It looks like a dirty rug in a crack house, on which a box of ornaments was spilled.”

Wow, that is descriptive. You know this?

Sam, I think I’ve got it: Some enterprising company has perfected artificial, ground supported trees. You simply submit a picture of the tree you like and they take it from there.

"Wow, that is descriptive. You know this?" - fortunately I can envision things beyond what I've experienced in my own life. As have other humans before me. Otherwise we'd still be living in caves.

The grayish-green fading to brown, and terribly misshapen structure of a sickly blue spruce is truly the most ghastly looking horticultural apparition out there. It hardly gets any worse. And not improved by shiny balls.

I sure hope Sam can handle someone expressing sarcastic disagreement
with his views on a holiday tree planted in front of a New Jersey bank...but if not...

In reference to my November 25 post about that beautiful Concolor Fir: it was grown on a tree farm, cut, and sold. That seems to be the case. It's trunk is plunged and braced in the ground somehow so the wind doesn't blow it over.

Below is another example, let's call it the "economy model'. This one is plastic, near a traffic circle, suburban Baltimore.

Don't want to see any plastic trees

Surely the mother of all faux trees. I found this one today in 'Naptown MD where it felt more like May than December.

LOL@"naptown", had not heard that one.

Heard this on the news: http://wpri.com/2017/12/18/gov-dead-statehouse-christmas-tree-will-be-replaced/

A new trend (to me at least). This one is spray painted, you can order them in several colors.

Jeesh, that one is an eyesore....

Blue Spruce ?

Bloo Spruce!

Here's a fir in the riverside village of Port Deposit MD seen yesterday. Fir is popular because of the soft, fragrant needles which do not shed and they hold their color. This tree was likely cut and shipped in November. Soon it will be removed and taken to the compost facility still green and full of needles.

No conifers? No worries. Pic taken this morning in Baltimore. I actually find this kind of charming that someone took the time to decorate this tree.