THE TWELVE days of Christmas have turned into more like 12 years for a Marlow resident who boasts his very own forest of festive trees.

Now host to nine pines, Frank Collins has filled his garden with different species of evergreen by recycling his trees after each Christmas period.

72-year-old Frank began to replant his Christmas trees until it became an annual occasion, with the Oxford Road resident creating his own personal yuletide forest.

Now resplendent with the trees, his home is dwarfed by the size of some of the earliest plants.

Frank's wife Gill was left disabled after a brain hemorrhage in 2004 in Puerto Rico, and after hospitalisation, she was brought home in time for Christmas in 2005.

Frank admitted that his trees do appear a little incongrous in the summer.

However, he added that the summer alters their shade of greeen, and they darken to their more customary tone as the weather cools.

Running out of space, Frank said: "I haven't got much more room for any more. Some time they will come down. But I hope that it's not in my time."