The Latest Wealth Flex: Big Trees
More than ever, rich property owners are spending huge sums on full-grown oaks, palms and baobabs. They don’t have the time or patience to watch them grow.
By Guy Trebay
Imagine lifting a chair and moving it to a corner of the living room. Now imagine that the chair is 50 feet tall and weighs 100 tons. That, or something very like it, is the daily task of specialized workers who uproot and replant trees that may have been saplings when Ronald Reagan was a child.
“Every day, that’s what we do,” said Tom Cox, a co-founder of Environmental Design, a company in Texas that sources and transplants some of the largest and heaviest trees in the world. “People who can afford it want the biggest, and they want the best in everything, and they want it now.”
The commerce in old trees is certainly not new. But as the billionaire class rapidly grows and the net worth of the richest Americans soars at unprecedented rates, the mature tree business is booming, according to experts in this once-niche industry.