The Business Of Putting In Big Trees

From late March to early May, and again in the fall, you can often see long tractor trailers heading east on Montauk Highway with huge trees as their bedded cargo.

Sometimes there are two or three trees on the trailer and sometimes it’s only a single tree that can be 25- to 35-feet-long, with balls of soil and roots that can be 8 feet or more in diameter. Ever wonder where they’re going and what they cost? Where do they come from and how do they survive the insult of the disruptive transplant and road trip?

The trail of the trees follows the rise and fall of Wall Street and the boom times in the Hamptons real estate market. These have been the times when large properties and estates could change owners in the blink of an eye.

And how better to remake your new summer abode than to trash the old and bring in the new?

At times, the relandscaping and parade of these new transplants was remarkable. Then came the bust—and as if a faucet had been turned off, the flow of the trees stopped. It got so bad at one point in the boom times that landscape contractors found it harder and harder to find these large specimens. Now it’s quite different and there are bargains for those with the cash. Lots of cash.

The vast majority of the large specimen trees came from New Jersey, but as the demand peaked we saw large trees coming from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee. A very few even came from the West Coast, but these were the most expensive, often the rarest and also, because of the trip, the riskiest. Occasionally a tree would come from a home where a tree had outgrown the property and it was moved and sold locally. Now much of the stock is coming from New Jersey again.

It’s not always the remaking of estates that drives this trade. These days it could be from smaller projects where a property owner may be adding a new building to a property or where an owner wants to screen his property from a project going on next door. Deals are often struck with planning boards or zoning boards in which an otherwise frowned-upon project is permitted so long as it’s screened from the neighbors; with large, mature trees.

The search for the big ones begins when a landscape architect or landscape contractor gets the plan and plant list for a job. If the landscape contractor has been around for awhile, he may have direct contact with a nursery. At this point, he begins making phone calls to his contacts or starts to send out the bid specs.

The second avenue that might be taken is with a plant broker. There are actually brokers who do nothing but locate and broker these trees and act as the middleman between the contractor and the nursery. Sometimes they have pictures and dimensions of trees that can be provided in a matter of hours, or they need to scour their sources to come up with candidate trees.

Once a candidate tree is found that meets the specifications, the owner of the property, landscape architect and/or contractor gets pictures. More often than not, if a viable candidate is found a trip is made to the nursery. There, the specimen is inspected and confirmation is made that the picture was a true representation of the tree. The selection is made, prices are negotiated and the deal is made.

Next, the tree has to be dug. Timing is critical at this phase because every type of tree has its window of opportunity when it’s best dug.

Deciduous trees are usually dug when the leaves drop. Evergreens are dug when the weather is cool, or in the case of pines, before they “candle out.” To explain, a pine tree sends out a “candle” or shoot that contains the reproductive parts for flowering and pollen production. When the candle is fully “out” it’s too late for transplanting.

Digging and prepping a tree can take one to three days as the root mass needs to be dug, balled and burlapped. In many cases, the above-ground shoot system needs to be tied and restricted to allow for transportation. Before the actual digging takes place, the root zone is often flooded with a bio-complex that reduces shock and will encourage the roots to regrow at replanting.

Once dug, a crane or large front-end loader is used to get the tree on the trailer. Permits are arranged for the heavy truck and oversized load, as a single tree with the soil ball can weigh upward of 30,000 pounds and movement on bridges and interstates as well as local roads have to meet all the restrictions. Transport is usually done overnight to reduce heat stress but it can sometimes take a day or more to get the tree here.

Once on site, the tree needs to be off-loaded and moved to the planting site. Again, a crane or front-end loader is often needed, as well as a planting crew. The tree is taken off the truck and as quickly as possible moved to the installation site while a hole is dug to match the size of the ball. Getting a single tree off a truck, moved to the planting site and planted can often take a day.

In the best-case scenario, these large trees can be dug at the nursery, balled and burlapped, shipped up here and be planted in as little as three days. But now the risks set in. The trees are incredibly stressed and highly susceptible to insect and disease issues. Drought can play havoc and accidents like dropping the tree or damaging the root ball can happen.

Often the contractor installing the tree will offer a warranty that covers the tree and installation for as long as two years. However, it can take up to 10 years for a large specimen tree to recover from such an ordeal and even then there may be dieback of limbs and branches.

But when it works, it’s instant, beautiful and remarkable.

Oh, you wanted to know how much this all costs?

Like they say, if you have to ask that question, you can’t afford it.

Two weeks ago, I was involved in the trucking in of three 35-foot larches and two 30-foot white pines that came up from New Jersey. The plan was actually to bring up 15 pines but the digging window closed when the third was dug and the balance will be dug and brought up late in the summer.

Keep in mind the cost of the trees, the cost of digging, the cost of loading, the cost of transportation, the cost of off-loading (including cranes and or loaders), the cost of planting and stabilization, and a two-year warranty. The old rule of thumb in the old economy said that the retail cost was three times the cost of the tree.

In this case, each pine tree that was installed will be billed to the customer at $12,000. On the other hand, if they had been exquisite copper beech trees, the cost would have easily doubled. But unlike 10 years ago, this is a buyer’s market and deep discounts abound.

Got a few bucks? Keep growing.