pine · Pinus strobus
White Pine Christmas trees
The gentle one, and the allergy-friendly one.
White pine is the softest tree we grow. The needles come in bundles of five, several inches long, and they feel closer to a brush than to a conifer.
It has almost no fragrance. That sounds like a loss until you meet someone who reacts to a balsam in a closed room, and then it is the whole reason to choose it.
Needle retention is excellent. The catch is branch strength: white pine branches are slender and flexible, and heavy ornaments will bend them. It is at its best carrying lights, ribbon and lighter decorations, where the feathery shape does the work.