Plant thief!

[theoneflasehaddock]

If it's a native thistle, I second this. Teasel and bull-thistle will do great on disturbed land near a highway.

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theoneflasehaddock

[theoneflasehaddock]

Actually, taking a plant - or seeds - or flowers, or any part of a plant, from state land, is illegal. Not technically stealing, I believe there is a separate law against it.

There is also laws against planting there, however, they aren't usually enforced, except in natural areas and parks.

Both are there mainly to protect native plants, especially rare ones.

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theoneflasehaddock

[Bill Spohn]

The former curator of a large park here in Vancouver tells me that when they put out new Rhododendrons they had gardeners strip all of the blooms for the first few years, until they got big enough to be a bit hard to steal, otherwise they would have gone home in someone's trunk.

I figure plant theft, at least from your garden, should be punishable by burying the miscreant up to his chin in a dung heap on a hot day!

[theoneflasehaddock]

They did this where I am originally from - stole newly planted trees straight out of a state park. They never did catch the people, I assume it is probably still going on.

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theoneflasehaddock

[paghat]

I saw an article a couple years back about a group of thieves who cut & rolled up perfect lawns to sell to a landscaper. Imagine some obsessive compulsive dunderhead working his guts out for that perfect lawn coming home & finding it all missing. Lawns are evil single-species destroyers of the natural world, but still, gotta feel sorry for the obsessive compulsives.

-paghat the ratgirl

[paghat]

difficult thing

I'd agree a BRAND NEW planting not yet rooted into its hole & perhaps having some kind of fishy odor to it from the grower's over-use of fertilizer, a dog might indeed snap it right out of the ground & run off with it. Still, if it was a flowery little clump, I vote it was a yellow-fingered piece of white trash who needed it for her one-square-yard garden in front of her rental in the crowded trailer court alongside the railroad tracks. At least the victim of the theft has the consolation of knowing the thief has to live her white trash thieve's life & is pretty regularly beaten black & blue by her unemployable alcoholic boyfriend/half-brother.

-paghat the ratgirl

[M. Tiefert]

I've had it happen too - and the perp was a little old lady who even pulled plants on her walk home from church on Sunday!

cheers,

Marj

[chaz]

You are incorrect.

[<bluesalyxx]

i hate to say this, but evil nurserymen have been stealing saguaro cacti for more than 30 years!! they dig up young babies and take them back to their city floral shops and/or nurseries and sell them for HOUSE PLANTS!

and then, too, are the ever wise folk of phoenix, arizona who decided to turn phoenix into an agricultural wonderland and proceeded to put in irrigation canals which aid in adding humidity to a land which is supposed to be arid and they, too, have aided in the "stealing" of saguaro and other cacti by killing the native climate. saguaro and other cacti need aridity; too much humidity causes their death.

gee, arizona may have to change their state tree from the saguaro to russian olives before much longer. (sigh) another wonderful mechanical disease. we can add this to the list with kudzu and water hyacinths.

[Cereus-validus]

Not true, bluenose.

Nurserymen need to get permission to dig up Cactaceae in Arizona. Nowadays, they are rescue missions to relocate the plants before the valuable succulents are plowed under by disinterested land developers. Blame it on suburban sprawl by people who have no reason to live in the desert, land speculators and greedy politicians not the nurserymen.

[culprit]

well, i was partially joking...

but i do have a native wildflower mix that might be nice. they're all pretty fragile, i doubt they'd become a problem.

it's not like i'm planning on planting english ivy or something. ;-)

-kelly

[Janet Baraclough..]

The message from [e-mail] (Bill Spohn) contains these words:

It's very common in the UK, both from private gardens and ones open to the public. One near here, which is famous for its rare rhododendrons, doesn't label newly planted ones. They are identified to the garden staff by a tag with a number, and don't get a name label until the plant is too big and well established for easy lifting.

Janet

[Janet Baraclough..]

The message from [e-mail] (theoneflasehaddock) contains these words:

Load of cod, haddock.

None of those is native here.

Wild narcissus (narcissus pseudonarcissus), which is the one I planted, is native here. Snowdrops arrived in Britain about 2000 years ago; while they are not strictly native, they are widely naturalised.

Janet

[Bill Spohn]

I have seen people look at a name tag and then pocket it so they will be able to remember the name when out shopping.

Argh!

[David Hill]

We used to call the theft of plants from newly planted beds "Finger blight". Mostly the people who steal plants are not those who cant afford to buy plants, though there have been several instances in this part of Wales of people waking up in the morning to find that their New hedge has gone walk about, though there was one case of a 2yr old hedge around 60 ft long that went in one night, and the ground was levelled out where it had been.

David Hill Abacus nurseries

[culprit]

what, don't these people have camera phones?

sheesh.

-kelly

[Salty Thumb]

"culprit" wrote in news:c6sa6h$fs7de$1@ID-

58739.news.uni-berlin.de:

A couple of years ago, I saw this television program about the future. It showed people talking to a machine and you'd ask it for something and it would make something right out of thin air! For instance, an distinguished looking bald guy would say "Computer, Earl Grey, hot" and the machine would spit out a cup of tea, cup and all.

Another interesting thing was a lot of the spaceships in the future looked kind of like caterpillar cocoons.

[Vox Humana]

distinguished

It sounds like the Jetsons.

[Meagan M Eller]

Actually, that sounds like Captain Pickard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Great show.

[Cheryl Isaak]

Sarcasm and or irony! even my neighbor's 3 year old knows who Captain Picard is! C