Is your young wavy-haired young female friend a gardener? Did she recently just plant an orange Potentilla (P. ‘Orangeade’), a dwarf little-leaf rhododendron (R. ‘Manitau’), a unique dark purple primula (P. capitata), 3 dwarf Monkshood, a silver lace vine, and a native mayapple.
Then chances are she is a calculating thief who brazenly and selectively chose and stole these from my landscaping stock on my south end property between 7:00 & 10:00pm on Sunday night. What was taken was not mere “shoplifting” but a preplanned endeavour. What was taken would not fit into a kit bag and a thorough search of the neighbourhood did not reveal a stache. Obviously she had a plan and escape route.
Presumably she knew that the plants were not free for the taking as unlike deer she fled quite quickly when literally caught in my headlights. It is obvious that the plants were taken for personal use given the quantities and what was taken. I hope she enjoys her new acquisitions. I am not only out of pocket for the plants but will have to make a special trip to the valley to replace them which is time wasted and gas money out of my pocket.
If you know this person please do enjoy your friend’s new plantings. They are beautiful and exceptional plants. However please do re-evaluate your friendship. Your friend is a brazen calculating thief masquerading as a gardener!
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2008.
I’ve recently started to try to garden….well actually my goal is just to keep shit alive right now….here’s hoping I’m never so obsessed with gardening that I have to calculate a master plan to steal plants or to write a bitch about someone who has stolen my precious plants from away….
I think the OP has every right to bitch about this. He had his property stolen. I bought a bunch of annuals this weekend and it cost me a fortune, so I can’t imagine the plants he’s now missing were cheap…Would you have more sympathy if it was his bike that was stolen? His patio furniture?
I had an entire rhododendron – a fairly sizable tree, not just a li’l bushling – disappear from in front of my house. There was hole about a foot wide and a foot deep in it’s place. I can’t imagine it survived with so little root left, but who knows…
I never said I didn’t have sympathy for the guy, just that I can see how important these plants are to him and hope that I’m never that attached to something that lives outside my house… I actually feel more sorry for the loser that had the time to plan a plant theft. (and not plants that can get you high).
This is the 2nd or 3rd bitch on this topic in the last few weeks….I had no idea plant theft was such a big issue? What gives? Are plants that expensive? Do the thieves sell them on the black market or something? It seems an odd thing to steal…I mean here you have people who care enough about their homes/yards and have enough pride in it to do some landscaping…then they go out and STEAL the plants to beautify thier own property, while in the process wrecking someone elses…that doesn’t make sense to me at all.
I know Miles! I was pissed when my rhodo was stolen, but I had to laugh at the same time. Like, who steals a fucking tree??? Weird!
Hehe, plants on the Black Market =)
lori , lame -ass comments. I hope you never put time into improving something on or around your property only to have it ruined my someone else. Some people take pride in their house, and some people even just enjoy gardening, EVEN if they are growing plants that they CAN’T smoke.People that steal from others are low life scum
Not sure why you’re attacking me, Elvis! I never said anything about not taking pride in my home or that the OP doesn’t have a right to be pissed….not sure where you’re getting that. All I was trying to say was that, as someone who is new to gardening, and not very good at it yet, I see how passionate people can become over it and hope that stealing plants is never on my todo list. The ‘plants you can smoke’ comment was directed at the theif…at least it makes sense when someone steals something that can get them high, isn’t that what most drug addicts do?
Lori,One day you will be exposed to the real world. Theft is theft. Be it a home burglary, credit card fraud, or theft of plants or lawn furniture. I’ve been through it all – not to mention vandalism. Each and every one is a personal affront and very disturbing.From your posting I should be upset if my i-pod or stereo was stolen but plants are fair game? Is this your mentality – anything outside the home is fair game?Thank you very much for ridiculing my experience and I hope one day you might have an “obsession” which does not involve a keyboard and a monitor. I find it incredulous that you took the time to respond to my post while condescending me for making the post.
Lori,Me again responding to 5:12 pm post. The plants stolen cost me over $150.00 plus 1/2 my Saturday plus gas money. Yes plants are an obsession but they also have a monetary value.It may be news to you but 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 percent or more of life on earth lives outside of your house.Unplug your computer go outside and experience real life!
Lori,Me again responding to 5:12 pm post. The plants stolen cost me over $150.00 plus 1/2 my Saturday plus gas money. Yes plants are an obsession but they also have a monetary value.It may be news to you but 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 percent or more of life on earth lives outside of your house.Unplug your computer go outside and experience real life!
Holy Shit Dude……where in this post did I say anything about the theft of your plants being less important than the theft of anything else? I was not being condescending at all….sorry you took it that way! I understand why you wrote the post and see that gardening is so important to you that you spend lots of money to get plants that you obviously can’t get at the local Sobeys…(precious plants from away) I assume is the comment that came across as condescending but I just meant that it would really suck to put all that time and money into something that can be taken away so easily….it’s not like you can lock up your plants at night like you can a bike. It’s fine if you’re obsessed with gardening….I don’t see why you feel the need to attack me and tell me how I live my life in front of a screen! You know nothing about me, or that my obsessions may include hiking, swimming, or running!Fucking relax and go smoke a plant that might help!
“here’s hoping I’m never so obsessed with gardening that I have to… …write a bitch about someone who has stolen my precious plants from away”Um, if that’s not a condescending statement Lori, I don’t know what is.
“here’s hoping I’m never so obsessed with gardening that I have to… …write a bitch about someone who has stolen my precious plants from away”Um, if that’s not a condescending statement Lori, I don’t know what is.
I truly DO hope I never become obsessed with gardening for the very reason that I wouldn’t want to have to be writing a bitch about precious/expensive/exotic/etc. plants getting stolen by some asshole! What is condescending about that? I see how you could read it that way the first time around….but after I’ve explained myself several times I don’t see why you people can’t understand that I didn’t mean it that way! Get a fucking clue….when you are typing on the internet or in an email things can come across wrong…like when people are trying to be sarcastic and others take them seriously…etc.,etc. Just re-read through this thread (or don’t), I’m done trying to defend one sentence that came across wrong when it was meant sincerely! FFS