It was certainly a great idea the nursery had stumbled on: for £14, they would deliver a tree in its pot and when the whole thing was over, they'd come and take it away again. Conservation and collection all in one. The man who brought it was reassuring: "This tree still has its roots so when I come to collect it after Christmas, it'll be put back nice and snug in another part of the nursery and it'll be left there undisturbed for at least seven years." Which was how I came to be the only person in Dublin that year with a Christmas tree still up for St Patrick's Day.
Repeated calls to the nursery to come and collect it went unanswered. Or, on one occasion, answered: "There's no one here - they're all away at a funeral. Anyway, I have to go because the baby's crying." When I eventually persuaded a friend to rescue the tree and plant it in his garden, he called in with the bad news: it hadn't a root in sight.
"Doesn't surprise me at all," says Noel Kiernan of Crann, the tree conservation group. "The roots thing was just a marketing tool." I was green in more ways than one.
Over the years, the Christmas tree industry has grown from being a small, if important, seasonal sideline for some farmers to a growing export trade. "Irish Christmas trees are now exported to Germany, the Nederlands and the UK," says Gerry Egan of Coillte. "Where we have the edge over, say, Denmark - which produces almost six million trees annually compared to Ireland's 500,000 - is with our temperate climate. The trees here can grow faster."
But they mustn't grow too fast or they'll become leggy and gappy. Which is why the best places to grow Christmas trees are west Wicklow, Co Roscommon and Co Tipperary, where the soil is not too fertile.
Coillte has four Christmas-tree farms, producing about 200,000 trees which are usually for sale at depots around the country or from retailers. New on the Christmas tree scene this year is The Emerald Group whose Human Resources Manager, Robert Barrett is pleased with himself: "For 10 years we've been exporting trees to places as far away as Singapore but this is the first time we've broken into the Irish market." His team of migrant workers - mainly students from Poland - have just returned home with more money in their pockets when they arrived.
Bryan Maher, of Malahide's Gardenworks Nurseries, gets his trees from The Emerald Group: "Before, we bought from farmers, but the standard was uncertain. People want to get a good tree that will last the season. They come here and choose the one they want and then we put them in a netting machine, like a sock, so that they're easier to get home. Though we do deliver as well." The three most popular trees are the Noble Fir, the Lodgepole Pine and the traditional Norway Spruce. The first is the most popular because of its shape, its colour - green tinged with blue - and because it doesn't lose its needles. There's also the fact that it will fill your room with a delicious, spicey aroma.
To maintain your tree while it's struggling to survive the central heating, keep it well watered. A tree, once it's cut, is a dying tree so all you can do is prolong what life is left in it. Many people now favour a stand rather than the old plastic bucket full of clay and, in fact, these stands are well designed for their job. Costing about £18, they can be used year after year.
"All that business with the bucket of soil is just cosmetic," says John Brennan, who has been running a tree delivery service in the greater Dublin area for the last 15 years. "We come in, set the tree up for you and that's it done. Our trees come with their stands, which are adaptable so they'll take any sized trunk."
When you get the tree home, you should treat it like cut flowers, slicing a bit of the trunk off before settling it into its bucket or stand. Put about a litre and a half of water in the saucer of the stand on the first day - which it will drink up - and then give it about a litre a day after that.
"We have a well-watered tree on display here for eight weeks," says Bryan Maher, "and it hasn't shed one needle."
If you want to plant your tree in the garden afterwards, it should not only have roots but should come in the pot in which it was grown, so check that out when buying.
Of course, there's more to Christmas trees than needles and roots. Some of Gardenworks trees come already dressed. "We have four styles," says Maher. "Roman, Faberge, New England and Millennium. " But at £500 a tree (£600 for an artificial one) these may be only for restaurants, corporate customers or the seriously rich. In any case, decorating the tree is one of the few tasks that seems to be fought over in every family.
With the Christmas tree industry such a well organised one now, it's easy to forget the welcome employment it gives to part-time workers. "Christmas tree production is only a fraction of the whole industry," says Gerry Egan, "but at one of our farms alone - in Tipperary - it gives seasonal work to 60 workers. They have to harvest the trees and trim them off and they'll have been working in all kinds of weather from the beginning of October right up to now."
Noel Kiernan agrees about the small-time producer. "The average well-grown, premium tree might start at £19.99, but the ordinary punter - a traveller, say - can earn a few pounds selling at the side of the road or door to door for cheaper and it helps the less well-off to support people like that."
Gardenworks: 01 8255375. John Brennan will deliver holly and mistletoe as well as trees: 087 2563032. Crann HQ: 050 951718. Coillte trees are available throughout the country.
The Emerald Group website is www.emeraldgroup.ie
Mary Russell is at Russe14@ibm.net scent