Plant thieves & Rose Slashers!!!!!! RANT

[nutkin]

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

A discovery made yesterday, revealed a thief somewhere in my midst. I'm still a wee bit ticked off about it....and hurt....and disgusted.

Was making my way around the yard to the front where I have several climbing roses....doing my regular inspections...and of course sniffing every bloom. , when I came to my lovely deep pink climbers....

THAT HAD BEEN HATCHETED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two of the canes which I have been babying (this is only the second year for them) and waiting patiently for it to lengthen to train up the front corner column....were snipped off!!! One was missing a good foot and a half off and almost three feet off another.

I couldn't believe it.

After recovering for my shock...trotted next door to another rose lover's house to give them the FYI & warning. My friend and her eldest came back over to share in my horror....and discovered that they just didn't filch those two canes.

Oh no...they turned the rest of the plant into a bare stick on down to the main on a couple of the other canes. The cuts were done with a sharp pruner, carefully done and DONE in a way that a person would if they were going to start their own plants from the stolen cuttings.

Unreal.

Oh, ya...some of the cockscomb heads were filched too...the monstrous yellows.

You know....we aren't rich folks. Far from it. We work darned hard for EVERYTHING we have. We're frugal and stretch our $$$. My gardens have my heart and soul put into them. Every purchase was/is well-thought out. Seeds I've planted...I've grown over the last several years...started with just a few, and slowly cultivated, picking the best....saving....through the years...busting my butt, to have what I do now. It sure as heck didn't happen over night....

Everything I have now...I've worked hard for, and it's been a labor of love.

I share too. It would take too long to list all the folks just in this year alone that I've shared plants & seeds with. Folks walk along...or stop by because they've seen something they liked driving by...and just had to stop...always get sent home with goodies. Everywhere I've lived....I've shared.

Not because I have to...or feel obligated to. I WANTED TO. It is a satisfaction like no other to take something I've poured my heart into, and be able to give to someone else...so they can do it for themselves and perpetuate it.

Most don't stop and ask for handouts...they just want to look and find out what a particular plant is. Those who don't ask, are sent home with even more.

But...

Don't take from me. It's not borrowing, it's not public property/domain...it's MINE...I DO indeed mind. I don't care if it's a seed, or a rose...it belongs to ME. You trespassed to get it and took it w/o my permission (theft).

I need acreage.

I've had it. Living out in the boonies in this rural town was NOT far enough from the crap. I want acres....thousands of them. Like yesterday.

I quite frankly ....don't feel so much like giving so much anymore out here in the meatworld. Can't wait 'til we get up our fence...maybe that will help deter a few folks....the dog and the clearly posted no trespassing signs apparently weren't enough.

Whew!

Ok, all done. Feel a bit better.....

Anyone else had plants filched?

Thanks for letting me rant....

nut out

 

[MissTina]

I'm sorry nutkin, I wish I knew what to say. I think you said it all, getting it out helps tremendously, ranting is expected even encouraged . It's very frustrating to be "violated". Theives are out there on every acreage, every street corner, every block. It's sad. I have a step-daughter who believes what's yours is hers. She was just brought up that way, taking from others and never giving. She's not a terribly bad person, just very self centered. That's what theives are completely selfish people.

 

[Dinghy]

I know how you feel. The little brats that moved in next door did a real number on my plants this summer. Stripped almost all the leaves and buds off of one laurel bush. Pulled the flowers off a bunch of my annuals. Pulled off the blueberry blossoms and then the one clump of green berries that managed to grow. Turned over my rock walls looking for snakes and bugs and didn't put the rocks back. I wanted to choke them all!!! I finally broke down and charged fencing for around my garden so they'd stay out of it. I'm to the point where I can hardly stand people any more. We have a 4 unit apartment next door and most of the people the landlord seems to rent to are scummy welfare rats. The kids have no respect for anything, and the parents don't bother keeping an eye on them. When somebody complains to them they're given ignorant excuses, like "Mary forgot to take her medicine today, that's why she's acting up!". The FIVE year old told my granddaughter about sex!!!!! Hope you find a solution to your problem. Mine would be a tornado going through and leveling that building, since arson is illlegal!!!!

 

[rhughe13]

I sorry to hear of your misfortune.

I have been working on my prep farm for years. After returning home from a job contract, I had been looted. Everything gone from the farm house. The sherrif wouldn't even come out.

I have since put up cameras and have live feeds over the internet with sensors to page me.

My next call to the sherrif will be, "If you get there before I do, you can cuff them up, If I get there before you do, you can zip them up."

 

[ejagno]

I'm so sorry for your heart ache. Your incident sounds like a knowledgeable adult and they should be prosecuted.

When my oldest son was about 5 or 6 he brought me some of the most beautiful roses I'd ever seen in my life. Just as quickly as the beauty and smell took over my senses did the panic and fear evolve. We'd just moved into that neighborhood and I'd remembered meeting a lovely elderly woman two doors down who was working her rose beds feverishly getting ready for the "Rose Tour of Homes" the following weekend. I ran out the house to see her standing there with my son's school scissors in her hands and tears in her eyes. My heart just broke at the pain in this ladies eyes. Her home was to be toured the next morning by the judges. I couldn't apologize enough. Late that night I'd arranged the roses in a vase and wrote a note, addressed to the judges about the most beautiful roses that my son was so proud of and brought them to Mom because she was sad about a sick patient she had at work; I carefully set the vase and note on her front porch. Later that evening the vase was returned even fuller than before with three first prize ribbons she'd won for her wonderful roses. Attached was a note explaining that earlier that week my son had asked her why she grew those prickly things and her response was "Because they make people happy and smile when they've had a bad day".

We moved to the country later that year but every time I'm in town I can't help but drive by her house, just to smile.

 

[Tweakette]

One of our vegetable gardens is in a community garden program, and is out behind where DH works. That is also very close to a local college. Every year when the students come back we have stuff stolen -' all the red peppers one year, the cabbages the next, etc. One year they trampled the whole plot, including the only ripe cantaloupe Ive ever produced (in Vermont melons are a challenge).

At home, its the neighbors animals. Hes a dairy farmer and doesnt seem to fence his animals in. The pigs have destroyed my lawn and flower beds multiple times. Once they did me a favor by snout-rototilling my entire vegetable garden early in spring before I had planted it, but unfortunately they usually do it after Ive planted it. We now have it surrounded by barbed wire, which Ive ripped my legs to shreds on trying to climb in and out of it.

I feel your pain, it sucks, Ive been there.

Tweak

 

[booger]

Oh, how horrible! Doesn't the entire world know that gardeners are the most generous breed of humans and will happily share if asked? That was downright mean!

Ejagno, what a sweet story!

 

[It'sJustMe]

I'm so sorry. Nutkin! That stinks! Around here, the thieves are deer and raccoons and other assorted wild critters. Seeing your carefully tended rose canes sliced for propagation is just about as selfish as a human being can get. Rats, the worst of wildlife. IJM

 

[pauldingbabe]

jeez that makes me sick as i love roses as well. can you salvage them or are they finished?

its a shame. and unfortunatly i bet your generosity will be hurt for it.

and the worst thing is, those roses they stole wont EVER grow. they were stolen, not given and plants dont do well when stolen!

i have a HUGE bag of marigold seeds i could send your way for spring if it would make you feel better? they were beautiful this year and about 3 feet high, milticolored. let me know and i will get them in the mail asap. if it will make you feel better i would be happy to send you some. perhaps it would put a band-aid on your garden generosity?

pm me and let me know.

 

[Sarrah]

Nutkin I want to send you my condolences as well. It is a dirty rotten thing to have happen. I absolutely hate living amongst theives and people with no respect for others.

 

[nutkin]

Gosh, guys/gals...thanks so much for the great words. I really do appreciate it. Big hugs all the way around...and I really mean it.

Sorry to have posted this and run....had to run out of town today.

I've calmed down quite a bit and have lost most of my "pissies," as my husband sez (pardon the french) I can't let one or a few individuals ruin it, or that which I love to do...I can't let them change my outlook...or my personality. I love to share. Not gonna change that. Gardening makes me SO happy....like I said, I REFUSE to let some snots ruin that.

pauldingbabe..... thank you so much for the offer! ...I have to say though that I've got TONS of those kinds of marigolds myself. But, your offer is MUCH appreciated...such a nice thought.

Thank you for all the shared stories...every one helped.

nut