Damaging flowers!😡

[Chelseakitch63]

I have spent money and hard work on having pretty flowers 3 Large planters! 
And people are coming past and cutting my plants to take home. 
some people are breaking the plants too! 😡

what is wrong with some people, that they feel it’s acceptable to do that. 🤷‍♂️😬😡

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2025 by Chelseakitch63

[Sally Eva]

How about signs saying " I am glad you like the flowers by. Please do not pick them"

[IlonaM]

Something prickly in the planter!

I've seen a woman of a similar age do it at least twice to a front garden over the road on Underhill.

 

[teddyboy23]

Plant some bouncing bettys🤩

[Sue]

That's dreadful. 

There are snipping sounds. She must have come out with scissors or secateurs specifically to steal other people's flowers.

What road is this?

[Earl Aelfheah]

Urgh, people can be awful. Really out of order.

[HeadNun]

I saw man doing this the other day. He also had a rucksack he was putting his cuttings (or more just tearings-off) in. I assumed he had dementia. 

[Sally Eva]

My elderly aunt and an even more elderly friend used to take snippets of plants in famous gardens to use as cuttings.

[Angelina]

There was a whole spate of entire plants being dug up and stolen from gardens.

Cuttings is still a little naughty but really depends on the size of the plant, if it's hanging over the pavement etc. 

It's not ok to be digging through someone's flowerbed though, and certainly not to pick someone's flowers - you can just ask first.

 

[Sue]

1 hour ago, Sally Eva said:

My elderly aunt and an even more elderly friend used to take snippets of plants in famous gardens to use as cuttings.

This happens in nurseries and garden centres as well.

I imagine they think nobody will notice 🙄

Not quite the same thing, but years ago I had three fully planted window boxes stolen from my front bay.

The police said someone was going round East Dulwich with a van. I think it was Mother's Day or something.

I also knew someone in North London who had two very expensive planters (and plants)  stolen from outside his house. He had to get the replacements chained down.

Edited August 6, 2025 by Sue

[Angelina]

and usually they are not noticeable but I think people who take cuttings are very different to people who dig up plants and cut flowers.

 

 

[Sue]

5 minutes ago, Angelina said:

and usually they are not noticeable but I think people who take cuttings are very different to people who dig up plants and cut flowers.

 

 

Maybe so, but in both cases it is theft, in my view.

[Angelina]

well, if it's from someone's property - yes.

 

[Pugwash]

can you erect a fence?    Or a note -; You have been caught on camera - theft is a criminal offence. If this continues Police will be notified.

[MsDulwich]

Sorry to hear this, but it doesn't surprise me as someone I knew had flowers pulled up from a grave in Camberwell Old Cemetery. They had only planted them the week before. 

[Sue]

5 hours ago, Angelina said:

well, if it's from someone's property - yes.

 

Aren't all places with plants or flowers someone's property, or have I missed something somewhere?

[Angelina]

Well, yes, if you think plants worth growing only grow on private land

[mitchiner]

Maybe it’s time to erect a 16 foot electrified fence 🤔🤔

[Sue]

10 hours ago, Angelina said:

Well, yes, if you think plants worth growing only grow on private land

But doesn't "public" land belong to somebody?

Sorry to go on about it, but I'm confused.

Some years back, someone/some people picked all the lovely  daffodils growing along the edge of Peckham Rye (adjacent to the main road).

Do you think that was  OK, because it wasn't on private land?

It spoiled the potential  enjoyment of them by a lot of other people, including me.

And what is the distinction between "plants worth growing" and those apparently not worth growing?

And why is it relevant to the theft of  plants and flowers and cutting material?

Or have I totally misunderstood your point?

[Angelina]

Sue. 

1. Taking cuttings or digging plants up from private land is illegal

2. Picking flowers on cultivated land (verges, parks roundabouts etc) is illegal

3. Taking cuttings (from non private land) is not illegal unless it damages the plant as it is not uprooting the plant.

You can look online if you want more details - it's readily available information

Whether plants are worth growing or not is subjective and you can decide that for yourself. We all like and value different things. 

 

 

 

[Sue]

5 hours ago, Angelina said:

Sue. 

1. Taking cuttings or digging plants up from private land is illegal

2. Picking flowers on cultivated land (verges, parks roundabouts etc) is illegal

3. Taking cuttings (from non private land) is not illegal unless it damages the plant as it is not uprooting the plant.

You can look online if you want more details - it's readily available information

Whether plants are worth growing or not is subjective and you can decide that for yourself. We all like and value different things. 

 

 

 

Thank you for that information.

I will google.

Though I don't know why people should be legally  allowed to take cuttings from, say, plants in a herbaceous border in a public  park.

They may not uproot or "damage" the plant (depending on how you define "damage") but they could certainly remove enough plant material to affect the plant's appearance.

And suppose everybody was to do it?

 

[Angelina]

Well, for that very reason, I think people who tend to like gardening and cultivating plants tend not to do it

[Jenijenjen]

27 minutes ago, Angelina said:

Well, for that very reason, I think people who tend to like gardening and cultivating plants tend not to do it

I used to know a lady, in her 70s, very respectable. had a beautiful garden and loved to garden, was always taking cuttings from public parks. She was careful not to do it when other people were around and a friend acted as look out.

[scareyt]

I think cuttings from substantial plants in a park, taken from a non-obvious place, is fair enough and totally different to brazenly helping yourself to someone's front garden plants. This is outrageous.

[beansprout]

Why..?? 
 In other countries, no one makes such a song and dance..

We are only talking about a cutting - years ago, one would ask but now, people don’t even se each other - let alone ask .. everyone is busy..

Says it all, when someone takes what? A cutting at night and on CCTV….

More important things in world I would have thought.. so at Halloween, when one has trick and treat, all going to be monitored on CCTV.. just in case a fight breaks out.. 

One chooses to live in a city, so just get on with it - rich & poor alike / ED is what?

 

 

Oh, so it is fine to take a cutting from a park? But not in passing in a front garden??