Have you undergone plant theft? Plant theft article:

I had a cactus stolen from my front yard 3 years ago. The funny thing was that they took the plant, and the pot it was in (nice pot), but left behind a rather expensive decorative metal piece which was also sticking out of the pot. Suckers!

Cycloptichorn

Weve had pawlonia trees stolen all around us . There used to be a premium payed for mature pawlonia logs of > 20" Diameter. The Japanese were buying this for ceremonial boxes and getting pawlonia wood out of woodlots in the tri state area was easy. Poachers would come at night and, because the wood was so soft, they could cut the trees down fairly quietly. It was a major rime spree until the mid 80's. What changed was that Pawlonia trees were more easily grown in AUstralia to serve the Japanese market.

I have , since two years ago, planted a small grove of pawlonia to act as shade to allow me to try growing Ginseng.

I remember my dad used to go over my aunt's house (who lived next to some public woods). He used to go around and dig up small trees that look good to plant in our yard. Does this consistitute plant theft?

That, or undergrowth clearance..

Interesting article. I haven't heard about plant theft before - down here they're
more into mail theft. They did however cut my neighbor's roses when I lived
inland. His roses in front of the house were just spectacular and every now and
then, someone came along and cut about a dozen or so off, but never took the entire rosebush.

Linkat, how does it feel to be the transplant of a plant criminal?

Well maybe as they saying goes (and as we are talking plant life) the apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

When I was a child, I remember sneaking to my neighbors front yard - crouched down hiding behind some bushes - when no one was looking, I ran to their tulips and with my grubby little hands quickly plucked two beautiful flowers and ran back.

Oh, and one of those trees ended up being this really beautiful shade tree.

Hehe, we used to steal apples and pears from the neighbor's fruit trees.

I've had people steal my hydrangea flowers. Two separate people, actually. One guy I caught and had a little talk with. I told him I didn't mind if he came to my door first and I could show him how to pick them without ruining the look of the plants, and not take too many. I won't say we became friends, but reasonably pleasant. Hydrangea flowers are worth money, dried or fresh.

On the other hand, a landscape contractor we knew admitted in passing that he cut my hydrangeas - and he took more of them than the first guy. I was extremely aggravated. He said it was for his girlfriend, who at some point did leave him..

What a toad, and stupid, since we had given his name to clients previously.

Not the same thing! Fruit trees in the front yard are community property.

Cycloptichorn

oh yeah

I posted about this back at Abuzz. Hostas.

hamburger gave me some lovely hosta starters when I bought my house. I kept them in the back til they were a decent size, then moved them to the front. 8 out of 12 were dug up within a week of being planted. I transplanted more. More were dug up. I gave up. A few survived. I guess whoever needed them had finished their border.

Cambridge had a sidewalk planter program going for a few years. They'd give you a huge pot to keep out front if you kept it looking good. Two types of theft happened with that pot. People used to steal flowers all the time. We'd get a gorgeous deep red dahlia flower in perfect bloom and it'd be gone as soon as I wasn't looking. Then one morning I woke up and the pot was gone. I called and asked why, feeling like they thought my planting was ugly. They said they didn't take it. I looked up the street and saw that ALL the pots were gone. Someone drove a truck down the street in the middle of the night and took them all.

Also, someone stole my cranberry plant right out of my garden, once.

You're kidding, right?

I do agree that front yards, in my preference and in some city planning preferences, are part of the community visually, while defensible with fencing, and I'm picky on height with that. Community standards vary. But broaching the p/l to pick flowers or fruit, noooooo.

I'm aware, of course, that a fair number of people think of property as theft. I can see some of that, but it's not my general view.