We bought our first indoor tree this year... previous years we were in small apartments & gathered branches that tree lots cut off to throw away to make our own "tree". We like the scent of real trees at holiday-time & agree that having the plastics indoors probably isn't healthy. We asked ourselves that question & this is our experience:
We were going to get a tree that we could bring in for the holidays, then plant it in the yard. We researched for a while & where we live, the only tree that would survive that resembles a christmas tree is a Norfolk Island Pine (grows to around 50' & tip easily due to a surface root system). If we were further north, we would have gotten a smaller live tree to plant. Didn;t want to have such a huge tree in the yard & thought about just decorating one of the trees in our yard. In the end, my whole family was at our home including my young niece, so we ended up going out together, on Dec 24th & bought a real, cut tree - figuring that if was already cut, may as well let it enjoy one holiday, right?? It WAS beautiful & had a great scent, but made me sad when I looked at it! Maybe thats crazy, but just knowing that it was growing happily & then was killed for the sole purpose of sitting in a living room for two weeks... ugh
That said, while researching a bit to find a live tree, I found many articles that state that majority of the cut trees on tree lots are farmed to be cut as holiday trees. & that for each one cut, another is planted. Also that the unsold trees on the lots are mulched & used on the tree farms for the next generation of trees. Felt a little better after reading those articles.
Which doesn't answer your question specifically, it's just what i found while trying to answer that for myself last month.
* sidenote: i've read that the white or colored flocking that some people have sprayed on their trees is really really unhealthy to have indoors... an info-niblet for ya!
