Plants theft

When I went to water my plants last morning, I was surprised and very much annoyed to see empty spaces!! Someone had knocked away my little lemon, little mehndi (lawsonia alba) and the little pomogranate plants. They were all doing well and I am very angry at this loss. Some nasty bugger has done this dastardly act. He has left all other plants untouched. All these lost plants are useful ones and slow growers. I had been caring for them for nearly one year. These were behind my house. There is an out-house and a low compound wall separates our house from that and younger people can easily cross over. A couple of months ago, we lost some utensils kept for the maid-servant to wash. Someone who silently watches our movements has done this. Now this has prompted me to put up a barbed wire fencing which will cost me a lot of money. I have to do this and it will keep people away.

I have heard that plant-robbers are everywhere, not only here. Is it true?

this is true!
sandy down in lower michigan had flowers yanked n dug out of her yard last year.
this is a terrible thing-that the world is losing so much respect for others!

Yes, it is true and such a shame that people can't just enjoy looking at the beauty around them without wanting to steal it for their own pleasure. I have known of people who have had small trees cut in their yards by people wanting to use them for Christmas trees. Also, there have been a lot of cases where people have had large walnut trees cut and carried away from their farms when they weren't around for several days. The lumber from these trees is very expensive. I feel sure that this happens with other types of trees when they aren't guarded as well.

oh Dinu! I'm so sorry. Yes, it happens everywhere. I'm glad they didn't get more of your plants, but I know you miss the ones they took. And after all that time and devotion.

Oh, I am so sorry to hear this, Dinu! A theft of any kind makes one feel so violated, but to be robbed of plants you've tended with such care and devotion is truly despicable. And it's creepy to realize that your movements have been observed and followed by someone with such a nasty plan. The barbed wire fence will be costly, but at least it will protect your plants and property and you can start over. What a world this has become!

Dinu,I live right in the middle of the Hood,I have had mainly mischief done to mine,leaves missing, one or two plants pulled,maybe a bloom.
I am out front most of the time,working on my plants,when I see the kids rolling by,I always talk with them all,have even made friends with a few,I have givin the occasional ride to school to one I can tell has missed the bus.
Above I said one or two leaves,that don't sound like much,but when it is a leaf off a 7ft EE,it is noticable,
All pretty minor,till last year I lost a gazing ball that was a gift,knew I should not have been so trusting,but thats my nature,they had to wade through alot of sweet potatoe vines to get it,doubt I will be trusting this year.
Hope you get to where you can feel secure,being Violated like that is the worse feeling,I'm sorry you have to go through it.
Bob

This message was edited Monday, Mar 3rd 8:42 AM

I'm so sorry for you. It happens here as well. No one has stolen anything from us but f.ex. hemp plants are often being stolen. :}

Maybe you could plant kudzu, nettle (Urtica) and poison ivy around our fence? =)

very annoying thing! why they do things like that? there is much different kind of thiefs......but plants thiefs! that is just too much!
I understand that if you take little cutting of some plant which doesn`t belong to you (I do that my self too), but whole plant! no no no-no!

It is a sad thing when gardens that are meant to be places of peaceful harmony must be encased in barbed wire to protect them. Very sad indeed!

We had a set of concrete Tulip planters on our front porch.
We planted them every season and got many nice comments on how they looked.

Someone stole of of them 4-5 weeks ago, just 1 and left the other one. We live in a nice neighborhood, probably kids playing a prank but it really burns me up nontheless.

Paul

I know that feeling Paul, kids out at nite with nothing to do have stolen hanging baskets and yard art on our street.
We found this baskets, completely torn up and battered down the street, and my birdbath was overturned.

"eyes"

Eyes
You know if they stole them to use it wouldn't be so bad, but to steal and destroy them is outrageous.
I'd like to catch them and have the judge sentence them to a couple hundred hours of community service, pulling weeds in senior citizens or church gardens.

Paul

I think I mentioned this last time but here I go again.

Some areas suffer a lot from plant and garden theft, especially when new houses are being built.

The worst kind of vandalism that happens on a normal basis is the one gardeners impose on other gardeners. Some gardens open for charity here (privately owned plots, open to visitors once in a while during the growing season) have some shrubs stripped almost bare from the visiting gardeners just taking a cutting. One owner said to me, if they'd just ask, I'd gladly give them a cutting.

I live in a lovely part of NYC..., quiet tree~lined streets..., large homes and quality apartment buildings set well back from the roads.

Last autumn, I recall, one afternoon a van was parked in front of a home and a few fellows were working on the landscaping. This is quite common here.

The next day I walked by and there was a hole in the front yard. I didn't think anything of it..., perhaps my well~to~do neighbors were making some changes.

A week or so after that, I ran into my neighbor as he was walking his dog. "I'm so furious," he said. "Someone came by during broad daylight and ripped off my species Beni Maiko maple. It was 70 years old!"

It was obvious that he was grieving over the loss of a beautiful tree that had great meaning for him.

In a way, it's like the theft of a car radio..., a component that ends up in some new owner's car..., with them having no knowledge of the source.

Life is imperfect. People do things that hurt us. We soldier on.

Sadly, whomever bought the maple from the thieves will never know from whence it came.

Adam.

Dinu, it is a shame indeed. I haven't had anything stolen, but can only imagine how angry I would be. My plants are like family to me (silly - but true) I nurture them, take care of them and patiently wait for them to bloom. and to have someone harm them or worse yet stea them - well, that is the worst nightmare.
the barbed wire should discourage future intruders.

So, I am not the only one who is affected by such vandalism. Yes indeed, these plants are like members of family! It is often dangerous to have things get to sentimental limits. I hate even if someone damages the leaf of any plant, anywhere.

Dinu, we are a small community here in Seward, Alaska, so we never have problems with people digging up trees or shrubs, but we do experience vandalism or unwitting plant abuse here. This is a tourist town, so each summer flower baskets and planters line the streets. Our local barber has a wonderful display of flowers in front of his shop. It's his gift to the community. Ordinarily, everyone, including the tourists respect his little garden, but sometimes they pull up plants out of the planters or pluck the flowers.


We can grow lovely somniferum poppies here, but I have heard from several people in town that these have been stolen. I guess the thieves have hopes of utilizing the pods as a narcotic, but there is far more pleasure in the beauty of the flower than the harvested pods. Stolen plants rob everyone in the community of the pleasure one gets viewing a beautiful garden.

Barber and his garden! Here too, the barbers have a couple of pots with some dracaena and a few hanging baskets. It is almost a practice.

You have a lovely set of plants. Hope they stay with you!!

That is really a lovely display in front of the barber's shop.

Adam.

How interesting that your barbers grow flowers, too! The picture was taken in front of the barber shop in Seward. You can see a little bit of his stiped barber sign on the left side of the picture. The red/white/blue striped pole is a traditional barbershop sign.

How sad to have to steal something when most of the time all you have to do is ask and most people are happy to share with you. Several years ago my father and I bought a beautiful flower display for my mothers grave on Mothers Day. Later that day my sister went to the cemetary and they were gone.We felt so sad that they didn't even stay there a full day.

Kaliyuga is the last of the four Hindu periods contained in the great Yuga. It consisted of 432,000 solar-sidereal years which began 3,102 years before the Christian era. The bull, representing truth and right, has but one foot in this period, because all the world delights in wickedness. In Tibetan, the word Kaliyuga translates roughly as "the end of the world."

There will be decline in moral values during Kaliyuga, people will be under the total influence of the worldly illusions. Ignorance, diseases, fear and hunger will be prevalent everywhere. Famine and drought would occur quite frequently as the fall out of inadequate rain. Sinners would outnumber the virtuous people and would deviate from the path of religiousness. Brahmins would lose their superiority and Shudras would become the rulers. Brahmins will not be respected and will be forced to serve the lowly people. Majority of women would be immoral and progenies would not obey the commands of their parents. A virtuous deed accomplished in Kaliyuga gives fruits in a day as compared to Treta and Dwapar Yugas, which take one year and one month respectively.

These are some excertps selected from a couple of sites. Observing the behaviour of people in general, it tallies with what was written many centuries ago.

We have started to hear stray incidents of robbery even in Japan and Korea, where such things were never existant, if that is an indication of the above.

Yes, as a student of yoga, I also study these world periods and agree that humanity is enmeshed in the Kaliyuga -- a very unhappy time. All of the world's major religions have their own ways of expressing and understanding the state we are in now, and in none of them is the present period considered to be positive. When I get despondent about this, I remember that rebirth and regeneration in spirit are themes world religions share, as well -- our hope lies there, fostered in the hearts of each individual. DG is a place like a rich garden bed, where we can be grow peacefully and contribute to each other's lives, as God and nature intended -- all flowers, in all parts of the world. Thank you for bringing this up, Dinu.

I know how you feel Dinu. Last year a couple young kids decided that it would be fun to pounce and roll on my ornamental grasses and flatten them all out. Needless to say they never recovered last year and I was forced to cut them back due to their unsightlyness. Fortunatley the yougsters were cut to shreads by the sharp blades of grass and I doubt they will ever do it again (plus we had a nice discussion with their parents). Maybe this year I shall surround my yard in Yuccas and Pyracantha.>>>>>LOL

I'd be glad to send you all some of our Echinopanax horridum... we call it Devil's Club. It has nasty little stickers all the way up the stems and the backs of the leaf veins. One touch and it imbeds little sticker points in you that hurt like crazy and have to fester before you can dig them out. A mature devils club can be over 7 ft tall. That would certainly serve as an nice screen! http://plantsdatabase.com/go/51534/

Dinu, I'm sorry that someone felt the need to steal your plants. I'm lucky any one who drives up my driveway has to go back out the same way, No road beyond my house. And no one lives very near me, actually I can't even see another house from my house. But twice in the 7 years I have lived here some kids have battered my large mailbox. Once someone even took the mailbox and the wrought iron name plate that was attached to top of the mailbox. What use would my name be to anyone else?? Hope you can replace your plants even tho it won't be the same, rutholive, (Donna)

I vote for some Prickley Pear Cacti.

And it tastes good too!

Adam.

Devil's club will be a bane to me as well! I have to cover up nearly 120 feet, which is the length of that low compound wall I referred above. A drainage pipe also runs along the base of this wall and so it is not suitable for planting either. My best option is the BW fence, even though it pinches my purse. Here, another method is in vogue. On top of the compound walls, sharp glass pieces from old bottles and other wastes are embedded and cemented to prevent wall-climbers. It is an effective way. But that compound wall is not ours.

How sad to hide one's garden, when the greatest joy comes from sharing it. I believe there are people that cannot appreciate beauty unless they possess it, and if they cannot possess it, they destroy it. The fact that some people feel this way is the saddest thing of all.

When I was coming in tonight from PO,my next door neighbor told me that someone stole thier Gargoyle last night,it was concrete and must have wieghed 150lbs!

This message was edited May 22, 2005 8:06 AM

I just read in the paper last weekend that in San Francisco they are having a terrible time with people pulling up entire tulip plants out of the planters. They are having an event called Tulipmania and they are having to cover the planters with netting because of the thieves.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/28/BA243639.DTL
Last summer I had a lots of plants stolen including an arbor I had just put in. I understand how you feel Dinu. I am sorry it happened to you also!