Old Trees in the Villages
 

I love that the developer kept some of the old trees when they build here.

I agree

I love the old trees. Unfortunately, most of the "old" trees in Florida have short shelf-lives and start dying, and have to be removed before they cause damage to nearby building.

My old house up north was built in 1957, and the biggest tree in the back yard was 250 years old. It wasn't even the oldest tree in the neighborhood. But it was a "mama" sugar maple that spawned all of the other sugar maples in a 3-acre perimeter, including 5 other sugar maples in my yard alone.

You won't find 250-year-old trees in The Villages. I doubt you'll even find 150-year-old trees in The Villages. Even water oaks don't live much longer than 50 years.

Ooh. Beg to differ. Live oaks can easily live 200+ years in Florida. And there are many of them.

Several in around horse farm acreage of CR42.

So I double checked and found out that yes - there are older trees in The Villages. None of them are water oaks or laurels though - and those are the ones being considered for removal at the Paradise Rec Center.

There are some southern oaks in the Historic section that are /not/ water or laurel oaks, that are presumably over 300 years old. So that's pretty cool. But they still do eventually die - they're not like Redwoods, which can live over 2000 years.

I love it too. They even moved one to the island at Eastport. I have a courtyard villa and on the other side of my fence is an old giant oak tree.

I like to imagine the stories those trees could tell.

If I recall correctly, a small area of old growth trees (trees at close to their maximum longevity ages of 300+ years) were identified and preserved within the Woodlands Champion golf course?

There are many others scattered in Fenny and the other areas just south of the Turnpike.

They are beautiful as long as they aren’t on your property, you aren’t responsible for the clean up and ongoing maintenance they require, and they aren’t putting your property at risk.

That’s right, they moved some pretty big trees around Eastport, I’d love to know how that was done! They look great and sunset island is shaping up to be something special :)

Joe

The ones on Buena Vista near Lake Sumter Landing are beautiful.

tophcfa...totally agree. Very messy trees...leaves, acorns, suckers. They are beautiful, lots of shade. Taking care of them on our property is a 6 month production. From about September/Oct to March or April is constant pick-up, raking, pulling. Back problems exist every day and every day is what you will have to do to keep your property looking nice. Why is it they are not planted in the southern areas and many, many in the northern areas? Hmmm

There is a 4 minute video on The Villages Florida utube channel titled "Relocating trees to their new home in Eastport in the Villages" that shows the process. It is interesting involving pneumatic tubes as rollers.

Awesome, thank you!!

Joe

We lost a 2/300-year-old tree to disease from our local churchyard.
Never looks the same when they are gone.

Attachment 104675

(Click pic to enlarge)

I don't see the developers doing anything that isn't profitable. There is a state law against taking down many of the old trees especially the Southern Oaks.

Trees
 

Yes, there are some beautiful trees in The Villages!

They weren't "planted" in the northern area. They were existing when the neighborhoods were developed. I am glad that is so.

The beauty they add far offset the small effort required to clean up occasionally. I help my 80ish female neighbor clean up from the live oak in her yard and I'm glad to do it. It adds beauty, shade, and several times a year a roost for owls.

It seems that the developer only left the large trees in the common areas in the newer sections. They did a good job with that. They stripped the neighborhoods bare to accommodate a maximum number of homes and then planted some smaller trees and other landscaping.

I've been a tree lover my whole life and always bought homes in wooded neighborhoods. One the life's great mysteries is that most people who claim to love trees really just buy trees them to cut down. And they always come up with a million reasons, like "the roots are threatening my driveway", but the real reason is usually the leaves. Invariably, people who like to buy houses with trees obsess about raking leaves, when all you have to do is mow them.

I built the home where my kids were raised in the middle of a hickory forest. I had to remove 30, just for the foot print of the home, but I was careful to save the rest . It was georgeous. The year after we built our house, a guy bought the two acres across the street. He immediately brought in a bulldozer and mowed down the entire property. He told me he didn't like to rake leaves. I asked why he bought a wooded lot. He said I had a lot of nerve asking.

I live in "Woodbury", for the trees. I've been here four years, and already, two of my neighbors have found reasons to cut down the giant 18" live oaks on their property, one of which was shading both our houses from the western sun. I was nice enough not to ask them why they bought such beautiful trees to cut down, when 99% of The Villages is a treeless plain.

I knew there was no answer. It's just one of the great mysteries of the universe.

As you say.
Mow the leaves up in Autum, and if you bag them, you have the most wonderfull leaf mold to spread on garden in spring.
One of the best soil nutrient ever made by nature.
And its all free!

Old trees
 

To me, the prettiest part of The Villages is the short stretch on Buena Vista Blvd between the traffic circle by Old Mill Run and the Miona Rec Center. It is especially enjoyable to walk on the relatively new walking path starting on the north end of Miona Rec Ctr and runs along between Black Lake and Buena Vista Blvd. Beautiful and peaceful year-round and stunning when in bloom in spring. And it has good visibility of Black Lake. Lots of lotus pads.

I liked trees but never was a big fan of raking leaves. Probably the biggest reason was I didn't have any trees but my next door neighbor had 8 large maple trees and he never raked until all the leaves fell and most blew away. He sold that house 8 years ago and the new neighbor cut down 6 so the leaf situation improved dramatically but I did miss shade. What I didn't miss was roots getting into my clay pipe sewer line and I had to get it roto-rooted every few years.

We just sold that house to be full time in the Villages and we had the buyer's inspection last week. They found that the roots cracked the sewer in my front yard in two places. Right now I'm waiting for the plumber to put a liner in my sewer at a cost of $18,000. Not a big fan of trees right now!

Live oak trees live to be very old. There were a lot more of them in Florida when the population was much lower.

Here's an old southern live oak in TV that has just been pruned and had the moss removed.

OMG!!!

They murdered that poor tree!!!

Anyone else here driven VIR?

Are you an ISA Certified Arborist?

Magestic tree, guessing this was last resort, hope it survives...

Before photo?

It'll be here long after we're both gone.

Before photo.

Reckoned to be the oldest Oak Tree in England.
Estimated to be near a 1000 years old.

Attachment 104694

The Bowthorpe Oak

(Click image to enlarge.)

Did you plant it yourself?

No, but I did the first pruning when it was just over 100 years old.