Free LARGE Ilex schilling pick up in Central FLA

JoeH

Omono
Messages
1,090
Reaction score
990
Location
The Florida Citrus Arboretum, Winter Haven,Florida
USDA Zone
9B
In Winter Haven, unknown number of Ilex schilling to be dug up by a tractor soon at my employer. If anyone's interested in some big stumps they are available. Once they are out of the ground I could cut them back hard to make them manageable for pick up. No pics right now, they wouldn't do much good anyway, just trimmed into a hedge but have been tagged for demolition in about two weeks.
 

Hedrick99

Sapling
Messages
29
Reaction score
15
How old(estimate)? Thickness of the trunks?
Thanks
 

JoeH

Omono
Messages
1,090
Reaction score
990
Location
The Florida Citrus Arboretum, Winter Haven,Florida
USDA Zone
9B
DSCN7414.JPGDSCN7415.JPGDSCN7416.JPGDSCN7417.JPGDSCN7418.JPG
The big one is 10 feet tallish, nothing a chainsaw can't fix, The hedgerow is waist high and smaller trunks, hard to get good pics of those. Top two pics an example, third pic is the huge one.
 

Hedrick99

Sapling
Messages
29
Reaction score
15
When are these getting pulled?
Thanks for the pics
 

Billskarsgard

Sapling
Messages
34
Reaction score
9
Location
Orlando, FL
thought it would be this week, Not looking like its happening till maybe next week. Also a row of big podocarpus may be coming out. I already got one of those at home, hoping it survives.
Well, dang! Are there anymore? I live in Orlando.
 

SU2

Omono
Messages
1,322
Reaction score
379
Location
FL (Tampa area / Gulf-Coast)
USDA Zone
9b
thought it would be this week, Not looking like its happening till maybe next week. Also a row of big podocarpus may be coming out. I already got one of those at home, hoping it survives.

May be interested in some podocarpus stock if these aren't already all ripped-out!! Would be interested in the ilex as well but couldn't justify the drive from here (just over 2hrs each way but my truck is on last-legs so it could easily turn into the last day I drove!) but I've yet to get solid podocarpus stock, if you're able to snap a pic of any (if it's not too late) I may be able to come claim it!
 

JoeH

Omono
Messages
1,090
Reaction score
990
Location
The Florida Citrus Arboretum, Winter Haven,Florida
USDA Zone
9B
May be interested in some podocarpus stock if these aren't already all ripped-out!! Would be interested in the ilex as well but couldn't justify the drive from here (just over 2hrs each way but my truck is on last-legs so it could easily turn into the last day I drove!) but I've yet to get solid podocarpus stock, if you're able to snap a pic of any (if it's not too late) I may be able to come claim it!
Too late to all. In the landfill.
 

SU2

Omono
Messages
1,322
Reaction score
379
Location
FL (Tampa area / Gulf-Coast)
USDA Zone
9b
Too late to all. In the landfill.
It's always saddened me to think of how much good material is just chucked-out, I mean obviously it's just the nature of these things but damn I do envy people who constantly have access to great stock!!! I do all types of work, including tree work, but have been building-up my climbing&cutting gear with the desire to get a far larger % of my work as tree-work, ideally being able to switch to just arborist work / get arborists license within a year or two, but it is impossible not to think "wow I'd have more access to good stock!!" when considering things (this isn't a bonsai thing, I've been monkeying around in trees with saws longer than I've done bonsai, but it's hard to ignore the overlap-benefits of doing both- in fact I recently did a job and was talking with a very talented climber who turned out to also be into bonsai, I imagine there's a lot of natural/innate overlap in these interests when they're actually interests and not work, like that climber I just mentioned climbs for sport/fun/socially as well as professionally, when we were talking and I thought to ask him if he was into bonsai I half-knew it'd be a 'yes' before he even answered me! He isn't *as* into it as I but does collect BC's, propagate stuff / collect stuff etc, I have to imagine there's many more like him!)

I've got 4 or 5 podocarpus cuttings, hardwood maybe 1" thick to 2.5", all in the yard right now, one is clearly dying while another is budding, and the others are still frozen as they were upon cutting the out of the mother-tree I took them from (I was in the tree sitting on a limb and used the sawzall to cut pieces where I'd get the branch-collar's flare, so my cuttings' bases would be flared-out if they survived ;D ) Eager to see, although sprouts /= survival by any stretch!!!
 

substratum

Shohin
Messages
342
Reaction score
368
Location
Red Hills/Florida Big Bend
USDA Zone
8b
I drive by a property coming and going from work, with a couple of mobile homes on it, and there are numerous boxwood shrubs that have been there for 70+ years, leftover from an old homestead that sat there when it was the boondocks. The road has been actively in use since the 1820s, and is today a nationally designed “canopy road”, so it’s possible they are even older.

This property is destined to be medical offices one day (given its proximity to a hospital, high traffic/visibility, and the other growth in the area). The bases of these plants are easily in the 8”+ range, though they have been kept (at least for the past 16 years), to 3-4’ tall. There are other ancient plants, too, but it’s those boxwoods that draw my attention every time I drive by. Thinking about looking up the owner and seeing if they’ll let me dig them up before they sell the property, because they’ve got to know that any buyer is going to thoroughly raze the vegetation as a first step in development.

It’s a daunting project, no doubt.
 

shinmai

Chumono
Messages
886
Reaction score
1,992
Location
Milwaukee WI
USDA Zone
5b
I drive by a property coming and going from work, with a couple of mobile homes on it, and there are numerous boxwood shrubs that have been there for 70+ years, leftover from an old homestead that sat there when it was the boondocks. The road has been actively in use since the 1820s, and is today a nationally designed “canopy road”, so it’s possible they are even older.

This property is destined to be medical offices one day (given its proximity to a hospital, high traffic/visibility, and the other growth in the area). The bases of these plants are easily in the 8”+ range, though they have been kept (at least for the past 16 years), to 3-4’ tall. There are other ancient plants, too, but it’s those boxwoods that draw my attention every time I drive by. Thinking about looking up the owner and seeing if they’ll let me dig them up before they sell the property, because they’ve got to know that any buyer is going to thoroughly raze the vegetation as a first step in development.

It’s a daunting project, no doubt.
Yeah, but what a treasure if you can get one or more. Imagine what you would have to pay for a specimen bonsai of that character and age.
 

SU2

Omono
Messages
1,322
Reaction score
379
Location
FL (Tampa area / Gulf-Coast)
USDA Zone
9b
I drive by a property coming and going from work, with a couple of mobile homes on it, and there are numerous boxwood shrubs that have been there for 70+ years, leftover from an old homestead that sat there when it was the boondocks. The road has been actively in use since the 1820s, and is today a nationally designed “canopy road”, so it’s possible they are even older.

This property is destined to be medical offices one day (given its proximity to a hospital, high traffic/visibility, and the other growth in the area). The bases of these plants are easily in the 8”+ range, though they have been kept (at least for the past 16 years), to 3-4’ tall. There are other ancient plants, too, but it’s those boxwoods that draw my attention every time I drive by. Thinking about looking up the owner and seeing if they’ll let me dig them up before they sell the property, because they’ve got to know that any buyer is going to thoroughly raze the vegetation as a first step in development.

It’s a daunting project, no doubt.
Any updates? I only collect & propagate so know alllll about watching specimen that're obviously going to be removed and, when it's commercial and I don't know anyone involved, I've had zero luck getting permissions - nobody involved has *anything* to gain by giving permission for me to traipse-around the property, and they do take-on liabilities (I could be looking to get faux-injured & sue or something), there's just every incentive for them to say 'No' even if the tree *should* be lifted by anyone's reasonable appraisal (IE even the person saying 'No' isn't doing it for the tree) so, well....I'd never ever endorse (or do, or admit to doing!) a single, solitary pull from a private site - even when it's a situation where I see I could pull-over, spend 5min out of the car maybe 10' onto a 'restricted area' and grab a tree I know will be dozed/knocked in the next days/weeks, well...I'd never chastise someone for going ahead and 'rescuing' the tree (though I'd advise them not to talk about it and, if ever injured for real, get your ass off their property / don't involve them - there's an ethical case to be made for removing something that nobody will notice was removed before their chance to remove it so long as there's no 'touch' on the area. Fences usually make this a pointless endeavour, however for an interesting case-study I'd found an abandoned old church that had a TON of land behind it, thing has been bought for development but has sat for years - there are a ton of specimen there, one could simply pull-up to the back of the parking-lot right beside the woods and, within 10' of the edge of the woods, there's plenty to collect - this area WILL be removed when the land is finally developed (zero chance it's going to be protected / not be developed) and, for all intents & purposes, it only 'belongs' to someone on paper IE it's abandoned for all practical purposes....in such cases I have trouble finding anything wrong ethically (except the problems that could result from getting in trouble over it if a busy-body wanted to pursue it) but obviously this is a personal choice & obviously when-in-doubt just pass on it!

Boxwoods have been a PITA for me, my sole decent specimen just will.not.grow with any vigor, has been established about a year and has been up-potted (has been in inorganic and 50/50 substrates, and in varying sunlight-levels) and still the slowest-grower I've got, maybe on-par with my lil junipers, but can't figure it out...have had it on tons of fert and w/o fert, the thing grows at a steady pace and never seems to alter that pace regardless of condition!!
 
Top Bottom