pine · Pinus sylvestris
Scotch Pine Christmas trees
The one that refuses to drop needles.
Scotch pine holds needles better than anything else on the lot, and unusually it keeps holding them even after the tree has dried out. For a long season, or a house that runs warm, that is worth more than it sounds.
The branches are the stiffest of any tree we grow. Nothing you hang on it will droop.
It is a dense, bright-green tree with long needles, so it reads as fuller and less formal than a fir. The needles are stiffer too: fine for most people, worth knowing if you are decorating with bare arms or small hands.
For decades this was the most planted Christmas tree in the country. Firs took the fashion, but nothing displaced it on durability.