My father moved out of his house this weekend to another location in Yuma, Arizona. He had to make an extra trip just to bring a few palms with him! 
 

 

Edited October 27, 20205 yr by xoRudy

Can't leave without your valuables...

is it illegal to cross state lines with plants?

Go, Dad!

He's staying in AZ so no state lines. But yes, AZ & CA are testy about interstate shipments of plants.

Did you guys dig those all out of the ground?  If you did I applaud you.

I've wondered about what happens when you move in this country?   I'm Canadian so only have experience with one house here.  Do you have to carve out the plants/palms as part of the house sale or is it assumed you can take what you want?  I know if I sold in Canada I would have to detail each individual plant that would not be included in the sale of the house.

2 minutes ago, PalmatierMeg said:

 

 But yes, AZ & CA are testy about interstate shipments of plants.

Really depends on what is being transported, between AZ and CA specifically.. Have never had issues when picking up stuff here and heading back home to San Jose including 15gal size plants.  Been told a majority of the plants offered by various big box stores locally are grown in California, vs. grown locally.. No idea why that is though aside that you can grow more stuff out in CA..

No issues either when i moved to FL form CA ( both times ) or when i moved here from FL. Main concerns for the Ag. dept here and in CA are things like Citrus/ potentially other sorts of fruit, Fire Wood, and other things like moving native soil, Certain woody plants, aside from Citrus/fruiting things,.. Certain Aquatic plants.

What gets confusing is some nurseries in FL. can and do sell plants to California buyers, but don't/won't sell to people here. If the concern is the accidental release of an insect/ other potentially harmful/invasive pest, a majority of those things stand a much better chance of surviving out in CA. vs. here in the low desert section of the state even though the basic,  relatively frost-free/ mild climate is similar in both areas.  Regardless, know of a few nurseries here who'd regularly make trips to FL. for hard to find plants 1- 2x's /year.







 

1 hour ago, Chester B said:

Did you guys dig those all out of the ground?  If you did I applaud you.

I've wondered about what happens when you move in this country?   I'm Canadian so only have experience with one house here.  Do you have to carve out the plants/palms as part of the house sale or is it assumed you can take what you want?  I know if I sold in Canada I would have to detail each individual plant that would not be included in the sale of the house.

I’m a REALTOR in Florida and can speak from Florida perspective....

An in-ground plant would be considered a “fixture” and would therefore be included with the sale unless otherwise outlined in the contract. 

The contract technically would need to state “seller will remove 5 Washingtonia robusta, 5 dypsis lutescens” etc etc etc. 

Some very bad REALTORs take it even further and have told their clients they can go dig stuff up from their now former home after closing and that is totally illegal. Unless outlined in the contract, anything remaining on the property at the time of title transfer becomes property of the new owner. This includes plants, personal property, etc. I’ve actually had buyers call me a week after closing and say the seller showed up trying to collect plants. 

Just now, NickJames said:

I’m a REALTOR in Florida and can speak from Florida perspective....

An in-ground plant would be considered a “fixture” and would therefore be included with the sale unless otherwise outlined in the contract. 

The contract technically would need to state “seller will remove 5 Washingtonia robusta, 5 dypsis lutescens” etc etc etc. 

Some very bad REALTORs take it even further and have told their clients they can go dig stuff up from their now former home after closing and that is totally illegal. Unless outlined in the contract, anything remaining on the property at the time of title transfer becomes property of the new owner. This includes plants, personal property, etc. I’ve actually had buyers call me a week after closing and say the seller showed up trying to collect plants. 

Thanks @NickJames, this is how I would expect things to be.  If I end up moving then I will definitely carve out exact specimens that I wish to take, or have them removed from the ground prior to the time of listing.

 

9 hours ago, climate change virginia said:

is it illegal to cross state lines with plants?

He’s just moving 5 minutes up the road to another house in Yuma.

5 hours ago, Chester B said:

Did you guys dig those all out of the ground?  If you did I applaud you.

I've wondered about what happens when you move in this country?   I'm Canadian so only have experience with one house here.  Do you have to carve out the plants/palms as part of the house sale or is it assumed you can take what you want?  I know if I sold in Canada I would have to detail each individual plant that would not be included in the sale of the house.

I couldn’t have answered this question better than @NickJames. Lucky we’re just renting this property but if we were selling we’d have to put it in the contract which palms you’ll be keeping and leaving.

we took about %50 out from the ground and repotted them. The other %50 were palms we had In pots and were purchased right before the move

@NickJames  Wow!! I had always wondered how that works. I have recently thought of putting some cycads in the ground but I am afraid to loose them if I ever decide to sell the house. 

Would it be difficult to put in a contract and would this be something that the buyer would contest? 

11 minutes ago, Coasta said:

@NickJames  Wow!! I had always wondered how that works. I have recently thought of putting some cycads in the ground but I am afraid to loose them if I ever decide to sell the house. 

Would it be difficult to put in a contract and would this be something that the buyer would contest? 

@NickJames pretty well sets forth the law in general in the U.S. (someone correct me).

Most of the palm nuts I know who sell their places move their plants long before the house is even up for sale. The big reason is that, believe it or not, many people don't like palms! Sadly, some of the long-term palm nuts who died, say, before they could move things ended up taking a beating because buyers wanted allowances against the purchase price to remove them!

 

48 minutes ago, Coasta said:

Would it be difficult to put in a contract and would this be something that the buyer would contest?

It's pretty easy to put in the contract by telling my selling agent that I plan to take certain palms.  I've done it 5 times in the past 8 years with no issues!  It can come down to a negotiation in the sale.  If the buyers like the palms and don't want you removing them they'd have to sweeten the deal.  None of the buyers of my homes have cared one way or the other so they didn't mind.  In fact several times they agreed to let me come back after the sale to get them at a more convenient time for me.  Most times I had left a washy or a med. fan behind and the buyers ended up taking them out anyway.  Dave's right, many people (especially around here) don't care for palms.  The problems would occur if you dig out palms and leave big empty holes in the yard!  @NickJames summed it up pretty well.

@DoomsDave @Fusca thank you both! That Makes me feel more encouraged to plant sertain palms and cycads I would want to take with me. 

26 minutes ago, Coasta said:

@DoomsDave @Fusca thank you both! That Makes me feel more encouraged to plant sertain palms and cycads I would want to take with me. 

Cycads move easily!

Everything in real estate is negotiable. I wouldn’t say it’s a huge deal necessarily. Frankly, most people around here would refer to any pinnate palm as a “queen palm” so you could always fill the hole with an inexpensive queen from Lowe’s and just note in the contract that’s what you’re doing. 

I will say that my landscaping has been a selling feature for all my personal homes so you would need to be upfront about it definitely. Other homes of my clients’ have had zero landscaping and also sell fast. A lot of people prefer to put their own touch on it. You also wouldn’t believe how many Palm haters I encounter who prefer canopy trees like live oaks. 

31 minutes ago, NickJames said:

Everything in real estate is negotiable. I wouldn’t say it’s a huge deal necessarily. Frankly, most people around here would refer to any pinnate palm as a “queen palm” so you could always fill the hole with an inexpensive queen from Lowe’s and just note in the contract that’s what you’re doing. 

I will say that my landscaping has been a selling feature for all my personal homes so you would need to be upfront about it definitely. Other homes of my clients’ have had zero landscaping and also sell fast. A lot of people prefer to put their own touch on it. You also wouldn’t believe how many Palm haters I encounter who prefer canopy trees like live oaks. 

I think my Looneyscaping^TM tends to scare people off, except palm nuts coming to visit. Heaven help me if ever a palm nutty burglar comes a calling . . . .

@DoomsDave thanks Doomsdave! I recently got into encephalartos and if i plant them, I want to take them with me as they are so slow growing and some are hard to find. 

@NickJames thanks for the info NickJames. That is good to know for the future. Hopefully I never have to worry about this, as I hope to swing renting the property in the future. Well see!

Lol @DoomsDave!!! Yeah that's scary someone coming and trying to steal your palms!

is it illegal to cross state lines with plants?

1 hour ago, Willan said:

is it illegal to cross state lines with plants?

As @Silas_Sancona stated it depends on the area and the type of plant.  Bringing in citrus to this part of Texas from another state is not allowed due to potentially introducing pests or disease to the important local crop.  I and many others have brought back palms from California and Florida via truck, car and plane with no issues.

OK. When I read the title I was expecting a house being moved, not palms. Now that I see palms are being moved, I've done that but with an enclosed box truck to avoid wind damage.