Why everyone’s talking about... Trophy trees

MIGHTY oaks from little acorns grow – but what if I want a magnificent tree now, without all that tedious waiting decades for nature to cast her majestic spell?

If you’ve got deep pockets you can buy a mature specimen that’s on someone else’s property, have it uprooted and transported to your garden. This is the latest must-have status symbol – the ‘trophy tree’, the arboreal version of the trophy wife, a century-old beauty. The super-rich pay six-figure sums to obtain the perfect specimens, with baobabs, banyans and palms among the more popular in the United States.

How do you move a tree, anyway?

Carefully! Roots are pruned gradually over 18 months so the tree can be dug up with its soil using a machine called a tree spade, below. It’s then transported on the back of a truck, although bigger ones may need to be moved by helicopter.

Who’s buying them?

Lancashire-based specialists Glendale counts top bankers and celebrities among clients who pay up to £100,000 to transport a single tree, but is sworn to secrecy. It once planted an entire arboretum for a customer, with trees from around the world. Essex-based Ruskins had a client who spent three days with its tree spade driver, picking up trees from his estate and delivering them to equally wealthy pals as Christmas presents.

What’s the appeal?

Like artworks, they give owners a sense of history and a feeling of power – being able to control and fast-track nature. American domestic queen Martha Stewart once claimed men were drawn to trophy trees during midlife crises, saying: ‘When they glimpse a rare tree and a pretty girl at the same time, they often look a lot more excited about the tree.’

Are trophy trees a new trend?

Hardly! Seven-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Marco Polo told how Kublai Khan acquired trees from around the Mongol Empire for his palace: ‘Whenever someone mentions a beautiful tree to the Great Khan, he orders it pulled up with all its roots and a quantity of earth and transported by elephants.’ Louis XIV’s engineers developed tree- moving machines, dubbed ‘devils’, to create woods around Versailles. He also confiscated an orchard of orange trees from his finance minister’s garden. Rishi must hope that doesn’t give Boris any ideas…