How To Plant My Christmas Tree

Question

In 2003 my mother and I purchased a living ball Christmas tree after my father died in October that we wanted to plant in our front yard to remember him by. In the ground with the trees we also included a good portion of his ashes as he was cremated. That was the first time we ever had a living tree, the tree has done great and has grown quite large. My mother has just passed December 2021 and I also purchased a similar living ball Christmas tree which I intend to plant now (May 15th) next to my fathers tree. Much like the first tree I will be including a good portion of my mothers ashes as she was also cremated. Directly after Christmas I placed the ball tree in a wash tub, put that on a hand cart and brought it outside on my porch so it could get outside air, some sun and some moisture. I haven’t watered it every other day or so it appears to be doing quite well. We are located in south eastern Pennsylvania and I wanted to make sure we got past all the frost before I put it in the ground. My question is a three part question, first how close can I plant it to my fathers tree? I’m told 7 to 8 feet would be fine, my second question is how deep should I go with the hole and how wide? I was looking on your site and I saw a few answers that were close but I didn’t know if they would be the same for planting a tree next to another. Generally speaking I have been told “As a planting rule of thumb, the hole should be dug about the depth of the root ball and 1.5 to 2 times the diameter” Please let me know if this information sounds correct or if you have any other advice. So much for your time in advance.

Answer 1

Very nice way to remember your parents. The distance between the two trees should allow for the width of both of them, which should be included in the tree tag. If you don't have a tag, but know what kind of Christmas tree it is, you can look it up on our site or a nursery's site to see the width it will be at maturity. And that is true about planting depth being the same as the rootball and the width three times the width of the rootball.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/tgen/ball-burlap-tree-planting.htm