Longwood is a small city with a lot of trees: wooded lots, oak-shaded streets near its historic downtown, and Big Tree Park, where some of the oldest cypress trees in the country have stood for thousands of years. If you are looking for a tree service in Longwood, FL, the good news is that the city makes it simpler for homeowners than most. The things to get right are which rules apply at your address, how old trees near old buildings are handled, and what to do when a storm comes through.
Tree Service Orlando FL is a free phone line, not a tree company. Call (689) 407-5379 any time, give the automated assistant your name, number, ZIP and what the tree is doing, and the assistant passes your call to an independent, locally owned tree service that does work in Longwood. That company looks at the tree, quotes, does the work and is paid by you directly.
Longwood's tree rules, and where they stop
Longwood's land development code (section 3.5.5) is unusually friendly to owner-occupants. The catch is making sure you are actually inside the city.
Your own home in the city
The City of Longwood says owner-occupied single-family dwellings are exempt from its tree protection requirements and do not need a tree removal permit. HOA covenants can still require approval, so check those separately.
Rentals, businesses and land
For other property, the city requires a tree removal permit to remove, replace or alter trees unless an exemption applies. Applications go through the city's online Planning and Zoning portal. Storm emergencies, and removals by the city in the right-of-way, need no permit.
Outside city limits
A Longwood mailing address can sit in unincorporated Seminole County. The county's arbor permit application says developed single-family lots of 5 acres or less need no permit for tree removal, and lists its planning desk at (407) 665-7371 for questions.
What Big Tree Park teaches about valuable trees
Big Tree Park, at 761 General Hutchison Parkway between U.S. 17-92 and State Road 427, was donated to Seminole County by Senator M.O. Overstreet and dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge in 1929. A boardwalk runs through a natural hydric hammock swamp to the trees that made the park famous. The Senator, an approximately 3,500-year-old bald cypress and a national champion, was lost to fire in January 2012. In 2013 a genetic clone, grown since the 1990s from cuttings, was planted at the renovated park and named The Phoenix. Another clone, The Senator II, grows at Reiter Park in Longwood.
Lady Liberty, a bald cypress nearly 90 feet tall and estimated at about 2,000 years old, still stands, and a lightning rod helps protect it. That is a lesson for homeowners too: a large, healthy specimen tree close to the house is worth an arborist's assessment, which can cover lightning protection, cabling or simply the right pruning, before anyone suggests cutting it down.
Bald cypress in a Longwood yard
Cypress is not only a park tree. Bald cypress also turns up in home landscapes, on wet and dry ground alike. The University of Florida's IFAS extension describes it as typically 60 to 80 feet tall in landscapes, fast growing, resistant to branch breakage and remarkably adaptable to almost any soil. Its knees form near standing water and generally not on drier sites, so a cypress pushing up knees in your lawn is telling you something about drainage.
Homeowners usually call about a cypress for three reasons: knees in the mowing path, a tree that has outgrown a small yard, or needle drop. Bald cypress loses its needles every fall after they turn coppery, which alarms people who have never owned one but is completely normal. Ask the company you are connected with to tell you which of those it is before agreeing to any removal.
Old trees around old buildings
Longwood dates to 1878, and its historic core is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Longwood Historic District, listed on October 5, 1990, covers about 19 acres bounded by West Pine Avenue, South Milwee Street, Palmetto Avenue and County Road 427, and contains 37 historic buildings, among them the Bradlee-McIntyre House and the Longwood Hotel.
Trees beside older wood-frame buildings call for extra care. Big roots may run under shallow foundations and porches, a dropped limb can do serious damage to old siding and roofing that is hard to match, and there is often little room to swing equipment. A good company plans for rigging limbs down in controlled pieces, may suggest a crane where nothing can be dropped safely, and will grind a stump near a foundation with care rather than tearing roots out. If the property is commercial or in the historic district, ask the city what approvals apply before work starts.
When a storm cuts through Longwood
On March 10, 2025, FOX 35 reported that a radar-confirmed EF-2 tornado tore through Lake Mary and Longwood along a path of roughly four miles. Storms like that, and Florida's hurricane season, are when most emergency calls come in.
In the first hour
- Get everyone out of any room a tree has hit
- Stay far from downed or sagging lines and call 911 if one is down
- Photograph the tree, the damage and the base of the trunk
- Move cars and keep children and pets away from hanging limbs
Then
- No city permit is needed for emergency removal of storm damage
- Call your insurer and keep every receipt
- Call the line and describe what the tree is on or near
- Ask for a written scope before anything beyond making it safe
Choosing a tree company in Longwood
Because most Longwood homeowners do not need a city permit, there is no city reviewer double-checking the job. That makes your own questions more important. Ask the company you are connected with to explain why a tree should come down rather than be pruned, to put the scope in writing, including stump, hauling and cleanup, and to show you proof of insurance. On wooded lots, ask how the crew will reach the tree without crushing beds or driving over septic lines, since a big lot may have both.
Check the company yourself. Florida has no state license for tree trimming or removal, so ask the company for a certificate of general liability and workers' compensation insurance, and for the ISA certification number of its arborist. You can confirm a certification with the ISA's credential lookup (opens in a new tab).
Big pine over the roof, cypress knees in the lawn, a storm-split oak? Call and describe it. The company you are put through to looks at the tree and gives you its own price before work starts.
Tree Removal
Taking down a dead, leaning or unwanted tree safely, from small yard trees to big laurel oaks near the house, and what a fair quote includes.
Emergency Tree Removal (24/7)
A tree on the house, the car or across the driveway. What to do in the first hour and how emergency removal is handled and priced.
Storm and Hurricane Tree Damage
Cleanup after a hurricane or a summer thunderstorm: hangers, split trunks, uprooted trees and what insurance usually covers.
Stump Grinding and Removal
Grinding stumps below grade, what happens to the roots and the chips, and when full stump removal makes more sense.
Why Longwood homeowners call the line
City limits or county, the same number
A Longwood mailing address may be inside the city or in unincorporated Seminole County, and the rules differ. Give the assistant your ZIP and what the tree is doing, and the call goes to an independent, locally owned company that takes work in Longwood, whichever side of the line you are on.
No reviewer, so you ask the questions
Owner-occupied homes in the city need no tree removal permit, which means nobody at city hall checks the job. This site lays out what to ask for before you hire: a written scope, a certificate of insurance, and an ISA certification number you can look up yourself.
Old frame houses get mentioned up front
Near the historic district, a live oak may hang over clapboard siding and a porch that dates to the late 1800s. Say so on the call, and the company you are put through to can plan for lowering limbs in pieces or a crane before it ever arrives.
Ready for a night like March 10, 2025
Storms like the EF-2 tornado that tore through Longwood that day do not wait for office hours. The line answers 24/7 and costs nothing to call, emergency storm removal needs no city permit, and you pay only the company that does the work.
How a Longwood call works
- Call any hourAn automated assistant answers (689) 407-5379 and asks what kind of tree work you need.
- Describe the jobGive your name, a callback number, your city or ZIP and what the tree is doing, including anything on a roof, a car or a line.
- Get put throughThe call goes to an independent, locally owned tree service company, which hears a short summary before it picks up.
- Deal with them directlyThat company looks at the tree, quotes, does the work and is paid by you. If it cannot answer, it gets your details to call back.
How this line works: Tree Service Orlando FL is a free phone line, not a tree service company. It does not trim, remove, quote or schedule tree work and holds no license or arborist certification. Calls are transferred to independent, locally owned tree service companies in the Orlando area. Those companies may pay Tree Service Orlando FL a referral fee. You never pay the line. How it works.
Areas next to Longwood
Guides for Longwood homeowners
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