LOVELY potted Norfolk Pines make great Christmas Trees but as one Macksville family found out, your tree will soon outgrow its original purpose.

In 1984, born and breed Nambucca Valley man Merv Lynch pined for a live Christmas tree for his family.

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He purchased a very nice one metre high Norfolk Pine in a pot from what was then the Nambucca Heads nursery run by well known local Bob Provost.

The instructions were to leave it in the pot for two years where it could be brought inside and decorated for Christmas.

Then, after two years, Merv was advised to take the pine from the pot, trim the roots and plant it until next Christmas where it could then be returned to the pot and resume its role as a Christmas tree.

Merv repeated this process for another two years however the tree grew too big to be repotted and used as a Christmas tree and was planted near Merv’s house on Wedgwood Drive, Macksville.

Merv told News Of The Area, “It was a beautiful Christmas tree for about four or five years but just grew too quickly and I had to find a permanent home.”

Recently Merv Lynch had a surveyor measure the tree that still stands proudly on Wedgwood Drive to see just how tall it had become.

This very healthy specimen of Norfolk Pine now stands at 24 metres high.

While this particular tree is tall, the Norfolk Pine is capable of reaching up to 60 metres with trunks having a diameter of up to three metres.

It would seem the moral to this story is to think of the longer term consequences of something that may seem like a great idea at the time.

By Mick BIRTLES