As my oriental lilies went into full bloom this week, I tied them up to the stakes next to them to hold the heads up, which were starting to bend under the weight of the blossoms. The very next day, when I went outside to admire them, I saw that someone had come and clipped every stem off - not broken off, like a child would do, but with a pruner, so it was clearly premeditated - probably as they watched me tie the plants up. I was furious, which I think all the gardeners reading this can understand very well. So I'm opening up this thread to get suggestions for revenge.....or at least to allow others to vent if they have had similar experiences.
I'm so sorry this happened to you, but keep in mind it may not be your neighbors. There are plenty of garden thefts where drive-bys come back at night and help themselves, to complete plants, even. I have no idea how you'd secure lily plants :o(
Revenge? First you have to figure out who did it. If you do, I think small claims court would be appropriate. Time in the garden is worth at least $200 per hour, right? :-) You're entitled to a settlement that'll eat up someone's life savings.
Are you SURE it was neighbors? I've had mine look the same way, but it was deer that did it. It looked just like it had been done with pruners. One evening after dark, I turned into my driveway and caught the deer doing it. As I turn into my driveway, my headlights pass across that particular garden. That evening, one of the deer froze in the headlights with its mouth still on one oriental lily! If I could have driven up that retaining wall...
If you mean that they were clipped off at down toward the bottom like someone would to make a bouquet with them, then maybe you are right though. You didn't say how far down they had been clipped off. The deer at my house only ate the tops off and left the nice green stems decapitated.
A deer here has been pruning my caged cherry tomato plant. What's interesting is that two night ago, it clipped a branch that was 6" above my head. I'm 6'2". That's a big deer.
Dunno how you could get revenge without knowing who dunnit, & dunno if it'd be any fun to be creating a world for oneself where attempting revenge was any kind of priority, out there painting some grotesquely smelling skunky chemical on the stems of the likeliest thefts.
This year some passerby took a bouquet of gigantic white irises as soon as they were opened, so I got to aprpeciate them for one day; earlier someone had picked an entire group of fluffy pink & green tulips. This happens rarely enough i try to take it in stride. But the audacity of thieves can be startling. Next door at Sue's, a woman driving by in a van with her children pulled over to the curve, jumped out & ran into the side-yard with a large pair of scissors, & began practically underlimbing a lilac tree to get the nicest blooms. Sue ran out of the house & chased her back to her van, & the thief roared off with a stunned Sue too surprised to even think about taking down the liscense plate -- & what would police do anyway, "Officer, she was picking flowers! Track her down & arrest her!"
I've taken to planting by the sidewalk a few things that can stand a little random picking, & I even plant some things with the neighborhood kids in mind, as I think kids SHOULD be able to pick flowers, plus if they can get some easy ones freely on the sidewalk they won't be as tempted to come into the inner gardens & take lilies or irises or whatever I don't want picked. Permissible pickings by the sidewalk are like those little bars of soap in hotels -- everyone wants to steal, & if that need is met by a little bar of soap, maybe they won't take the towels, bedspread, & television.
The message from "Doug Kanter" contains these words:
I hate to tell you this Doug, but I have often seen deer standing upright on their back legs to reach high browse.
Soon, they'll start carrying mobile phones "Sweethheart, I'll be late home tonight..I had to stop by the Kanters' place to pick up some stuff. Don't wait supper".
You've never seen a deer standing on its rear feet then. I had a bird feeder that was 6 ft off the ground. I came home one night and there were 2 deer sucking it dry, both upright on their rear feet. It was absolutely hilarious to see them doing that.
While I wouldn't exactly LOVE the thought of deer or rabbits eating my lilies, I live in a densely populated part of my city, and the deer don't come in this far (they are very much in evidence on the outskirts of town however). No, the plants were cut on the diagonal with a pruner, so I 'm
99% sure that a human being was responsible..... but I'm grateful for the laughs and the suggestions in this thread........they did leave me with one gorgeous stalk of Casablanca lilies, so I'm not totally bereft. Having said that, I'll probably wake up tomorrow to find it gone. Incidentally, on one of the plants, they also took off with the twine.....LOL
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