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Growing trees for your landscape is a gardening challenge that offers great rewards.

Like most gardening endeavors, this one requires patience.

Living trees also eliminate manufacturing costs and environmental waste accumulated in the production of artificial trees.

douglas fir christmas trees growing in rows on tree farm

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Want more gardening tips?

How Long Does It Take to Grow a Christmas Tree?

Several factors determine growth rates.

Eastern White Pine

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It features a pyramidal form with soft, blue-green needles.

Branches are used as holiday greenery but are somewhat fragile and may not stand up to heavy decoration.

Eastern White Pine is hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8.

Scots Pine

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Features include rapid growth, pyramidal shape, sturdy branching, and excellent needle retention.

This pine can reach a Christmas tree size of 8 feet in five years.

Scots pine grows in USDA hardiness zones 2 to 9.

Blue spruce against a contrasting background of greenery.

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Colorado Blue Spruce grows in USDA hardiness zones 2 to 7.

Primary branches turn upwards while secondary branches drape slightly for an elegant flowing appearance.

Norway Spruce grows in USDA hardiness zones 2 to 7.

Norway spruce in front of bare trees and white walled fence

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It features a conical shape with dense branching and yellow-green to blue-green needles with good retention.

Native to the American West and coastal areas, it grows best in USDA hardiness zones 4 to 6.

Outstanding characteristics include uniform pyramidal form, strong upward curving branches, and blue-green needles with good retention.

National Tree Company Artificial Downswept Douglas Fir Christmas

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Fraser Fir grows in USDA hardiness zones 4 to 7.

Valued for its symmetry, Noble Fir features sturdy branches and blue-green needles with a silvery hue.

It grows in USDA hardiness zones 5 to 6.

Front, head on view of a fraser fir tree

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Some varieties can reach 5 to 10 feet tall in just five years.

Arizona Cypress grows well in the desert southwest and USDA hardiness zones 7 to 9.

In the right environment, Douglas Fir is likely to reach Christmas tree size earliest.

closeup of top of noble fir christmas tree at tree farm

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Once trees reach sapling size growth rates can vary from mere inches to 3 feet every year.

4 Arizona cypresses in an uneven row.

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