Flowerdew, the organic gardening guru, buys an artificial tree for Christmas

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In his column in Amateur Gardening magazine Bob Flowerdew, 52, a regular panellist on Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, challenges the way that Britons take real trees into their homes and "slowly torture them to death".

He says buying an artificial tree - and saving a real tree from death over Christmas - is more environmentally friendly.

But British Christmas Tree Growers Association secretary Roger Hay said: "While Christmas trees are growing they do all the good things trees do for the environment.

"When they are cut, they are immediately replaced. But artificial trees are shipped around the world and cannot break down, clogging landfill sites for 1,000 years."