[Bill Schwab]

Jeff:

It is pretty common practice out here for people to get approached if an architect or homeowner has a specimen that someone wants. For an extreme example, the couple who hosted our wedding in Rancho Santa Fe had toi move out of a custom built home and sell it as a knock down because of a toxic mold that entered from a leaky sink. In the yard was a 6' tall by 35' wide Phoenix palm. It was estimated at being 120 years old. They were approached 3 times from people, (architects) and asked to sell the tree. The price, $50,000.00 plus costs to move anf fill in a 9'x9'x9' hole. Since she was the grand daughter of John Deere, she did not need to money and opted to have us move the tree to her yard.

I get asked quite a bit about giving credit for trees that a client does not want, and, unless we have a specific place to put them, I turn them down. I always wonder if we could ever make any money removing and staging trees in boxes until they sold, but then you have al that after care. Then I weigh out the cost of labor to remove and box them up, vs the cost of digging a hole and buying a nice specimen from one of the local growers. I rarely ever get it to pencil out in favor of digging a tree. The times I can are when someone has a Canary Island Palm or something exotic, something that we could sell for 5K or more. Typically, these trees weigh 30,000 lbs, and stand 30' tall. We tie up the fronds, dig around the base, starp them up and the crane does it's thing. Then we caravan with a flatbed, and the crane while the transplant crew waits at the trees new home. That's about the only way it has ever worked out for us.