Phoenix Canariensis: One Man's Nuisance Is a $20,000 Palm
Nearly every day, Erick Serrano drives slowly down tree-lined suburban streets here, scanning lawns for a piece of California gold: the imposing Canary Island date palm.
Boasting an exceptionally wide trunk lined with diamond patterns and a dense crown of arching fronds, the tree is favored by landscapers for framing boulevards like the one leading up to a new baseball stadium in San Diego. But because the tree grows so slowly, needing decades to reach its full height of 60 feet, very few nurseries even try to grow it. The rare full-grown trees can fetch $20,000.
That's where the 26-year-old Mr. Serrano comes in. A professional palm hunter, he spends 12 hours a day looking for mature trees to purchase from unsuspecting homeowners who often regard them as pests with roots that clog sewers and fronds sharp enough to cut glass.
"We try to get them for nothing," says Stuart Sperber, president of Valley Crest Tree Co., in Calabasas, which employs Mr. Serrano. Valley Crest has supplied Canary Island date palms to Disneyland, the Embarcadero in San Francisco and many mansions.
To find new trees, Mr. Serrano doesn't cruise through Beverly Hills -- "That's where we sell trees" -- but through suburbs like Camarillo, which is situated between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. There, he recently spied just what he was looking for: a picture-perfect Canary Island date palm on Sandy and Marty Trujillo's front lawn. When no one answered his knock, he left a printed card from Valley Crest at the front door: "We are interested in purchasing the date palm in your yard. Please call."
The owners of the stucco house were delighted to find the note. The palm, which they inherited 12 years ago when they bought their house, "almost collapsed our sewage system," Mr. Trujillo says. Its roots were protruding through the pipes. A plumber's efforts to stop the underground invasion failed. Waste from the kitchen sink was gurgling up from the drain in their bathtub.
Mr. Serrano offered the Trujillos $300 for the palm. The tree was a hazard to pedestrians, he told them, because its 24-foot spread of spiky fronds was spilling over the sidewalk. "It can poke someone's eye out," Mr. Serrano told them.
The couple jumped at the offer. And soon, a Valley Crest crew of four arrived with shovels, a 30-ton crane and an 18-wheel, flatbed truck to remove the hulking 12 footer. The fronds were bound tightly around the palm to prevent damage in transit. The root ball was carefully swaddled in burlap. Lying on its side, the tree traveled about 50 miles to Valley Crest's yard.
"I was relieved to get rid of it," says Mrs. Trujillo, who says she had been planning to pay someone about $1,000 to haul it away.
At the nursery, another crew got to work giving the Trujillo tree a makeover. They manually shaved its trunk, shaped a pineapple-like bulb at the top and pruned its fronds before setting it upright for a landscape architect to inspect. "We make it all nice and fancy," says tree salesman Doug Henderson. Within a month, Valley Crest sold the palm for $5,700 to an architect in Northridge.
There are about 2,000 palm species. But luxury property owners are willing to pay so much for the Canary Island date palm, or Phoenix canariensis, because it "makes a statement like no other," says Barbara Brinkerhoff, whose Newport Beach landscaping firm, Lifescapes International, uses the trees in many of its projects.
The Phoenix Canariensis, known as the Canary Island date palm
Native to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic off northwest Africa, the Phoenix canariensis is believed to have been introduced to California by Spanish mission priests in the 1800s who brought them over as seeds. In the late 1950s, a lot of people planted "these cute little palms that turned into 32,000-pound monsters" in their yards, says Tom Jaszewski, horticulture director at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas, where there are 650. Apart from its rarity, what makes the Canary Island date palm such a profitable tree is that mammoth projects require dozens of them at once.
But nurseries don't plant this type of palm because it grows just six inches a year. Nurseries rely instead on palm spotters to buy them from homeowners. Mr. Serrano, who started his career cutting rat-infested palms in Los Angeles' Rosedale Cemetery, confesses that he can't stop inspecting trees wherever he goes, even on vacation. When he comes home from work, he tells his children tree stories.
The tools of his trade, which he carries in his Ford Escape, are a tree encyclopedia and a soil probe, a hollow metal pole that he uses to extract a little earth to determine whether a tree's roots are healthy. The title on Mr. Serrano's business card is "tree procurer." He hunts trees from Fresno to San Diego. What disqualifies most Canary Island date palms he spots is that they are too tall, too tilted or too close to a utility line, sidewalk or wall. "I can drive around all day and find nothing," he says.
When he does find one he likes, it costs about $2,000 to remove, transport and beautify. There are hidden costs and risks, too. Imperfections often become apparent only when the "detailing" begins. For example, temporary water deprivation can make a tree trunk slightly thinner in one section, a condition known as "ring drought." That's grounds for rejection.
Scouting in the town of Lomita recently, Mr. Serrano spotted a pristine palm outside a beige clapboard house and left a tag at the door. "The note was a godsend," says owner Erik Storsteen.
The 15-foot tree swallowed up Mr. Storsteen's front yard. It blocked sprinklers from reaching other plants and trees. Its expansive canopy was creating friction with the neighbor. "The palm was getting too unruly," says Mr. Storsteen. It was also "extremely dangerous," says the machine-shop owner, who says he once got a bloody gash trimming it. He eventually hired a gardener, who had to fend off a hissing possum that had made a home there.
Mr. Storsteen was glad to sell and offered to throw in a date palm he had in his back yard. On the second day of the removal operation, he watched nervously as the crew hoisted one of the trees over the garage, rotating it just enough to keep it from crashing on the roof.
Mr. Serrano, who is paid a salary and also earns an undisclosed commission for each find, bought the two trees for $800. A few weeks later, Valley Crest sold them to a contractor for $9,100.
On hearing that his trees were sold for 10 times what he had been paid, Mr. Storsteen said he didn't feel ripped off: "It's a lot of work to remove the trees, to transport and make them presentable to people" willing to pay big bucks for them. Their new home is in Beverly Hills.
加纳利海枣：麻烦树带来大商机
埃里克?瑟拉诺(Erick Serrano)几乎每天都缓缓地驾车搜寻洛杉矶郊区一带树木成行的街道。他在草坪间寻找的是加州的一种宝物：迷人的加纳利海枣(Phoenix Canariensis)。
加纳利海枣树干特别宽阔，上面布满菱形的图案，树冠则由密集的弧形复叶组成。因此，景观学家特别喜欢用它装点林荫大道，象通往圣地牙哥新棒球馆的大道上就种植了加纳利海枣。但这种树木生长特别缓慢，需要几十年才能成材，达到60英尺，所以很少有苗圃愿意种植。成材的加纳利海枣非常罕见，每株售价可达20,000美元。
这正是26岁的瑟拉诺来到此处的原因。他是一位职业的棕榈树搜寻者，每天花12小时寻找和收购成材的加纳利海枣。一般来说，屋主们都毫无疑心，他们通常把加纳利海枣视为一种累赘──它的树根会阻塞下水道，树叶锋利的足以切割玻璃。
瑟拉诺在位于卡拉巴萨斯的Valley Crest Tree Co.供职。该公司总裁斯图尔特?斯珀伯(Stuart Sperber)表示，他们希望能无偿地获得加纳利海枣。Valley Crest将加纳利海枣供应给位于旧金山央巴卡帝洛的迪斯尼乐园(Disneyland)及其他林立的高楼大厦。
为了寻找新的树木，瑟拉诺不会在贝弗利山庄(Beverly Hills)一带逡巡，那里是他们的销售地。相反，瑟拉诺会来到位于洛杉矶和圣巴巴拉之间的卡马里洛等地的郊区，最近他在那里发现了自己搜寻的目标──在特鲁季洛(Trujillo)家门前的草坪上有一株很完美的加纳利海枣。瑟拉诺前去敲门，却无人应答，于是他在前门留下了一张公司印刷的卡片，写著：“我们有兴趣购买您院中的加纳利海枣，请致电商洽。”
这座房屋的主人看到便条后非常高兴。特鲁季洛先生说，这株加纳利海枣是他们12年前购买房子时承接过来的，但现在它几乎要毁掉他们家的下水道系统了。这株加纳利海枣的树根正在侵入下水道。水管工试图解决这个问题，但未能成功。结果，厨房沉淀池流出的废水开始从他们家中的浴缸里冒出来。
瑟拉诺出300美元求购特鲁季洛家的这株加纳利海枣。他告诉这家人说，这棵树可能会威胁行人的安全，因为它宽达24英尺的庞大树冠已经伸展到人行道上了。瑟拉诺称，它可能会砸到路人。
特鲁季洛一家对报价感到非常满意。于是，Valley Crest很快就派出四个工作人员，带著铁锹、开著30吨的起重机和18轮平板卡车赶到，来移除这个高达12英尺的庞然大物。在转移过程中，树的复叶被紧紧地绑在树干上，以防受损。树的球状根部被小心地包在粗麻布中。最后，这棵大树侧躺著，被运到了大约50英里外Valley Crest的院子里。
特鲁季洛夫人说，树被运走令她如释重负。她表示，她曾经打算花1,000美元找人把这棵树挪走。
在苗圃内，另外一些工作人员开始动手全面清理特鲁季洛家的加纳利海枣。他们手工修理树干，在树的顶部修饰出一个菠萝状的球形，并修剪了树的复叶，然后他们将把这株树直立起来，等待景观建筑师的审查。树木销售商杜格?亨德森(Doug Henderson)表示，他们会把树修饰得漂亮、雅致。一个月之后，Valley Crest将这株加纳利海枣以5,700美元的价格出售给诺思里奇的一位建筑师。
棕榈树大约有2,000多种。但豪华地产主只愿意出巨资购买加纳利海枣，据芭芭拉?布林克霍夫(Barbara Brinkerhoff)称，那是因为加纳利海枣“独具一格”。芭芭拉?布林克霍夫的景观公司Lifescapes International在其许多项目中都使用了加纳利海枣。
加纳利海枣原产于靠近西北非的大西洋群岛--加纳利群岛。据称，在19世纪，西班牙传教士将它的种子带到了加利福尼亚州。汤姆?贾祖斯基(Tom Jaszewski)说，在20世纪50年代末期，许多人开始在自家的庭院里种植这种“可以从小棕榈长成32,000磅庞然大物”的植物。汤姆?贾祖斯基是Mirage在拉斯维加斯的酒店和赌场的园艺主管，他们那里栽种了650株加纳利海枣。除了罕见之外，还有一点令加纳利海枣成为利润丰厚的植物──大型的建筑项目总是一次需要几十棵加纳利海枣。
但苗圃并不种植加纳利海枣，因为这种植物每年才生长6英寸。相反，苗圃依靠掮客从房主手中收购。瑟拉诺最初在位于洛杉矶的罗斯代尔墓地(Rosedale Cemetery)砍伐被老鼠破坏的棕榈，但现在他坦然承认，不管他走到哪里，都会搜寻加纳利海枣，即便是在度假。当他下班回家后，他也给自己的孩子讲有关树木的故事。
在他的福特Escape汽车上，放著他做生意的工具：一本树木百科全书和一个土壤探测器。后者是一个中空的金属管，用来掘开土壤，检测树根是否健康。瑟拉诺的名片上印的头衔是“树木搜寻者”。他搜寻树木的范围遍及从弗雷斯诺到圣地牙哥的各个地区。瑟拉诺勘测的一些树木不合格的原因多是因为太高、太斜或者离公共管线、人行道及墙壁太近。瑟拉诺说，他也有可能开了一整天车到处搜寻，却一无所获。
等他找到自己合意的树木，他要花费大约2,000美元来移除、运输和修整树木。其中也有隐藏的成本和风险。通常只有当细节工作开始的时候，不完美的一面才会显现。举例来说，短暂性的缺水可能会导致树干在某一截略细，这种情况被称作“乾旱环”。这将成为树木被淘汰的理由。
最近，瑟拉诺在洛米塔镇一带搜寻，他在一栋米色檐板房子外发现了一株完好的加纳利海枣，然后他在门口留下了便条。房主埃里克?斯托斯汀(Erik Storsteen)说，这个留言像是天赐的礼物。
这棵高达15英尺的树侵占了斯托斯汀家的整个前院。它使得洒水车根本无法喷到其他植物和树木上。加纳利海枣庞大的树冠也使斯托斯汀开始与邻居发生纠纷。斯托斯汀表示，这棵加纳利海枣变得越来越令人烦心，也极其危险。这位机械商店的店主说，自己曾有一次在修剪树木的时候留下个大伤口。为了赶走在加纳利海枣树上安家的负鼠，最后，斯托斯汀只好雇用了一个园丁。
斯托斯汀很高兴出售前院的加纳利海枣，并提出愿意同时出售后院的加纳利海枣。次日在进行树木移除的时候，斯托斯汀一直很紧张地看著工作人员将树木从车库房顶上吊过，刚好没有压到房顶。
瑟拉诺以800美元的价格买了这两株树。瑟拉诺有固定工资收入，并且根据每笔交易还有不便透露的佣金。几周后，Valley Crest将这两棵树以9,100美元的价格出售给合同商。
斯托斯汀在得知自己的树被以10倍的价格转手后，表示自己并没有感觉受骗。他说，移除、运输和修整树木，让别人愿意出大价钱来购买，还需要做大量的工作。目前，这些加纳利海枣已经在贝弗利山庄落户。
