I’m just seething right now.
I was just coming outside a little while ago to clean up the dog fur at my front porch after a long grooming season with my Labrador Retriever, and as I exited my front door I noticed an older lady practically standing in my planted boulevard pulling away at my sunflowers. 
She had a huge bouquet of yellow flowers tucked under her right arm, and with her other arm she was trying to get some of my sunflowers to add to her collection.
She noticed me come outside and she had the gall to turn to me and ask for scissors???
I told her “No I’m not going inside for scissors” – 1. I was covered in dog hair and wasn’t about to go inside where my husband had just vacuumed to get a thief something to aid her assault on my plants and 2. I was just stunned that she was hacking and pulling away at my plants right in front of me!
She told me she wanted the flower to take to the hospital. Yeah along with the variety of yellow flowers in the bouquet she was carrying – the flowers that she’d probably stolen along the way as she walked towards the hospital.
I let her take the flower. I mean she’d already ruined the stalk. But I’m really ticked off at the nerve she had taking the flower(s) in the first place without even attempting to ask first.
If she hadn’t had a whole bouquet of what I can only presume were flowers she’d lifted from other peoples gardens, or if I’d recognized he as a volunteer at the hospital I might have felt a little differently …
I guess I know now why some of the stalks on a few of the sunflower plants were all hanging down and trampled last week. She’d probably stolen flowers last week too.
Just her whole attitude ticked me off. I can picture her walking down my driveway and going into the backyard to pick roses too! Arghh
I don’t even pick my own flowers! Not for myself anyway!
I feel like putting a sign up that says
“These flowers are for those in the neighborhood to “look” at, not to pick!”
Should I bother? Or maybe I should leave some of my dogs droppings right where she’ll be likely to step in it if she tries to get my flowers again? Ha Ha! ((( yes I’m feeling evil )))
After she wandered off down the street I went and got my pruners and trimmed the stems and stalks she’d broken. I also shortened and thinned out the patch of sunflowers as they were beginning to get tall and were starting to hang out into the roadway. Remember last year I got a bylaw order to cut my sunflowers down to three feet? Well, they are about four feet tall right now, but look a lot tidier than they did this morning.
I’d hate to get a bylaw order to cut them down again with only about a month left to enjoy them, well if I can keep the flower thief away that is …
The thing that gets me most is that if she’d asked I probably would have let her take a flower. I would have even helped by cutting it myself. Heck, after she’d damaged the plants and I went out to fix the damage there were sunflowers all over the ground. Chris came out to help me put the cut stalks and leaves in a bag and as people walked by us we even gave them some of the sunflowers. So it’s not like we aren’t generous with our flowers – it’s just the fact that she didn’t even bother asking and that she damaged the plants. Grrrr
I think there is really something wrong with society today,. People do what they want when they want to do it, no matter the inconvenience to others. I just returned from picking my kids up at school. There school is in the middle of a neighborhood and some of the parents amaze me with there rudeness. They will block driveways and even pull up and park in someones driveways while they are waiting for their kids. (I know this isn’t the same thing, but some people are just SOOOO rude!) I think that you should put a sign that says “because of theft this area is under electronic surveillance. My husband and I were thinking about doing this in our front yard because there are some other rude, selfish people who like to let their dogs poop in our yard and not clean it up!
I would place a sign that states “Please do not pick flowers without prior permission from the owner”
I would have been very upset myself. I would have said something to her. Right when you caught her you should have told her you didn’t want her cutting your flowers. I can’t believe she had the nerve to do that. I guess people don’t care, they will do what they want to do. Put up a sign that says You can look, but don’t take them.
If they were along the road, she might have thought they were free for the taking, maybe some flowers that had just sprung up from seeds scattered by birds. Shoulda said something to her… the passive-aggressive approach doesn’t work eith everyone.
I was at the grocery store yesterday and they had 4 sunflowers in a bundle for $7.99. I thought of you. You should open the door to the lady and say…”Will that be cash or paypal?” She will say “What?” You can say they cost $7.99, how do you want to pay?” Tell her to go buy them at the grocery store.
I would feel the same way as you.
Ask first!
Used to be that kids would sometimes take flowers, but older people were usually respectful of other’s property.
Sorry about the 2 comments. Meant to leave the url for the garden site instead of my daily life blog.
You know what? When my husband went to work the next day there was a huge bouquet of yellow flowers with two sunflowers in the center in the Day Surgery area where he works.
So that means the lady that stole my flowers and likely some of my neighbors flowers along the way to the hospital was visiting someone who’d just had surgery in the day surgery area.
The nurses Chris works with said the patient she was visiting didn’t even want the flowers so that’s why they were sitting at the nursing station.
Ironic that she spent time stealing them along the way and the recipient didn’t even want them.
Oh and I didn’t ball her out because 1. she’d already destroyed on of the flower stalks by the time I discovered her and 2. I was speechless at her boldness. Believe me if I run into her again or if I discover someone else doing that they’ll get a piece of my mind.
This just happened at our house today. Someone picked three of our tulips and three of our daffodils right out of the beds in front of the house. We’ve previously had sunflowers ripped off during the summer as well.
I just can’t believe the lack of consideration. We didn’t plant them to be picked by anyone (not even us). Do people think they grow wild like dandelions, I wonder?