Story: Living Christmas Tree
Episode: 17
Presenter: Neville Passmore
Air Date: 6 December 2025

Bring the magic of Christmas to life with a living tree,eco-friendly, fragrant, and reusable, from lemon-scented cypress to fruiting Tuckerbush Cherry, perfect for indoor cheer and outdoor longevity.

• Living Christmas trees are an affordable, eco-friendly alternative to plastic trees, offering fresher indoor air, natural scent, and a festive feel because they’re alive.
• Several plant options make excellent living Christmas trees, including lemon-scented golden cypress, compact lily pillies like ‘Backyard Bliss’ and ‘Tuckerbush Cherry’, and the soft, tactile Albany woolly bush.
• Lily pillies provide rich green foliage and great shape, while the Tuckerbush Cherry adds bonus edible pink fruit that can even be used for jams and jellies.
• Keep living trees indoors for only about a week, placing them in a bright spot, using a saucer for runoff, and watering sparingly to keep the soil just barely moist.
• After Christmas, transition the tree back to a shaded outdoor spot, maintaining it in a pot to control size so it can be reused for future festive seasons.
• Enhance your display by adding compact fuchsias at the base, which bloom into autumn, and shape your tree into a conical form to keep the Christmas spirit alive naturally.