@luxin … i had 2 here at my current location 20+ years… i took them down after ofm and brown rot started making them not worth growing.
They were still healthy trees… just 90% plus of the fruit was worthless… full of worms or rotting.
2 Likes
My mislabeled (Reliance ?) peach tree at 16 years old… loaded and bending branches. Yes should have thinned more. No limbs broke and this was b4 OFM got bad here… and i still had no BR. 4-5 years later that changed big time.
5 Likes
A house on a large lot in Topeka was put up for sale years ago. Had about 10 different heavy-bearing fruit trees probably 40+ years old, I’d admired them a long time. The realtor had them cut down but left several ratty volunteer mulberry, Siberian elm and eastern juniper. I asked why, they said fruit trees are “messy”! 
5 Likes
I heard that before, it kills me. Some folks go as far as paying to spray the trees so they won’t produce.
2 Likes
One you look up fruit trees all timeframes they give seem bad. I have heard tons of people stating standard trees taking years on years to plant and apples and pears only lasting something like 20 something years with the other fruits fallowing behind. I remember looking into it with peaches and they had people in the comment section stating they had genetic dwarf peaches that were 40 years old and still producing but the article claimed some low number like most do with peach lifespans.
1 Like
People don’t want to install fruit trees at my mother’s school again because they are worried about kids are going to through them at the school. It is just like simple solution to that. Get a fruit tree that is taller than the kids and harvest before it hits the ground. I have also heard people not wanting to do it because it attracts insects like wasps and animals but the simple answer is to harvest it. Others don’t want to pick up the fruit but if harvested on the tree you don’t have to pick up the fruit. Even in my family it is a big contention because I like fruit and have dedicated a lot of space and money into pots but my grandma has wanted me to put flowers into the pots for years and I have to keep telling her no.
4 Likes
That is so sad. I have seen fruit trees cut down because people didn’t know what they were, but to clear them out without giving the potential new owners the chance to decide if they want them or not such waste. 
7 Likes
My thoughts exactly, I thought it was outrageous.
4 Likes
I guess it is easier than to take the opportunity to foster proper behavior. If it’s not like not having them kids learn what is not appropriate is ever going to come back to haunt us…
4 Likes
The topic on teaching kids lessons and parenting/whatever it is called with teachers has always been a form of discussion. My dad had a 10 acre property and let me roam it myself with just a waki talky. My mother was much more protective. Cell phones were banned until we were in 7th grade. We likely made a lot of mistakes but learned from them. Now the rule is to prevent the incident before it happens but as a result they never learn.
1 Like
Precisely…but the pc police shall come if you elaborate much more, you can bet.
Maybe better get back to discussing the orchard?
1 Like
We were the “new owners,” so perhaps this will be helpful. We bought a home from folks who were apparently very concerned about preserving the character of the land. We had let our realtor know we loved a bunch of specifics about the natural space and when this was related to the owners we had an accepted offer quickly. I will never know for certain, but I think they had a few from which to choose and could have bid us higher.
We have done some cutting, but I would say we’re even more radical in some ways (for example, ripped out invasive bushes and vines and didn’t do any leaf cleanup on our front lawn for overwintering insects), and on the balance they would be pleased with us.
So if you have the luxury of being a little picky, you might be able to find the right buyer by inquiring about plans for the orchard via your realtor while taking offers.
7 Likes
Do you remember when White Flower Farm was selling ‘Bartzella’ divisions for $400? 
My yellow intersectional’s and rockii were stolen/dug when blooming while I was working!
5 Likes
No, I’m only into peonies recently, since 2021. But people here don’t know what to do with them.
3 Likes
I can almost cry, when I think about the large Rainier and Bing cherry trees that the new owners cut down, leaving the yard with only a bare lawn at the house I grew up in. Unbelievable. The trees were huge. I would balk at the mention of friends coming to climb our trees to take away full grocery bags of our cherries, but hardly notice any had been taken afterwards because the trees were so loaded. Climbing in those trees in the summers to taste the cherries as they ripen certainly brings fond memories. The cherry blossoms in the Spring, leaves in the Fall, and somebody cut them down in their prime. It ought to be a sin, if it is not illegal, to cut down trees like those!
12 Likes
That is something I have always feared with my fruit trees, bushes and ground cover. I can just see someone pulling in over night or while I am at work digging them up or taking an entire pot of them. If I paid 400+ dollars for a plant I wonder if I would even feel like I could leave it outside. Heck I would be terrified of it ever dying.
4 Likes
That must be a Kansas thing. Love the smell and beauty of peony. Some friends down the road had Yucca stolen. If they steal those, i figure they must not get far from home often. The Yucca are as common as flies in Colorado. They are like a rose of sharon or hibiscus that naturalize in Missouri. Like old fashioned lilacs or forsythia, they grow like weeds once they get started.
4 Likes
I am surprised someone stole a yucca plant. They are so cheap and like you said common. I don’t think they are even that attractive of a plant and ours don’t make fruit though I hear some can. They are a cactus so not much water needed they have going for them I suppose. They are hard and pointy too which can be an issue. Generally when you hear people steal when it comes to gardening it is someone taking fruit or flowers. I wonder how common plant theft is.
1 Like
When I put my house on the market in 2014 thinking of getting a bigger yard to plant more crap I had 2 roses stolen. The “For Sale” sign was only out for a week. In town on a well traveled street both roses were in the front yard in full view of everyone, the bicolor, ‘Oranges and Lemons’, and an old purple gallica whose name escapes me.
A customer once told me her named hypericum was in full bloom by her mailbox when she went to lunch, a shovel hole when she came back!
2 Likes
Sweet baby Jesus…
I loved living in northern Japan for many years. I would go to a street festival, lean my $5k bicycle on a tree, walk away, and come back hours later to ride home.
5 Likes