Stolen iris in bloom.

Only a true gardener can understand what I found today. We've had a lot of rain this week and I went outside to check on my plants and my first blooming iris of 2011 that just happens to be blooming at the same time as the tulips and daffodils. I'm glad I took pictures earlier in the week. I found that the rhizome, leaves and 1st bloom stalk had been STOLEN since I last checked on them earlier this week. This means that someone had to trespass by walking 30 ft. into our front yard in order to do this. This is an iris that was a struggle to keep alive last year due to our drought and iris borers. It saddens me that someone could be so thoughtless and selfish to do something like this. I would never have the gall to steal someone else plant blooming in their yard.

Here's what's left of the plant. I hope whoever took it enjoys their new illgotten gains.

I'm sorry, Cem. That does happen especially by lazy as well as dishonest people. I florist south of Boston used to pay kids to steal plant sold them. At one time he recognized one of his mothers irises. We have daffodils in front of our stone wall along the road & occasionally neighbors kids would pick them. If they had asked we would have given them some.
Watch out for walkers or surround them with jingle bells as an alert. Of course, they might steal the bells, but better than plants.

This message was edited Apr 1, 2011 8:46 AM

Mother Nature will get even with them.

I see that there seems to be some left. When the iris has finished bloom, I would move it to another bed.

I know how you feel. It's hard to believe people can be so thoughtless. It happened to me a few years ago. I had bought fifty new ones and planted them on the bank by the street so everyone could see them (I'm on a quiet street that's not a cut through from one street to another). I enjoyed watching people slow down and look at them. Early one morning I saw a car down there and a girl up on the bank. As she moved around, I saw that the iris were moving, too. She had a huge armload of ones just opening that I hadn't even seen yet. As I'm running down the hill, I hear her mother in the car yelling "Somebody's coming!" She jumps in the car as it's pulling off, breaking a lot of the iris as she's trying to get the door closed........

So now my iris are up in the yard behind cedar trees and, regretably, the only people who get to see them are ones I invite up.

I do believe people eventually get what they deserve.

That so true NeilTR. I will be moving it to backyard after it's done blooming irisMA, which is fenced. It's unfortunate that some people have no respect for others.

This message was edited Apr 1, 2011 1:19 PM

I live near a middle school. In the front gardens I have around 70 roses and just a few iris. Almost every day when the roses are in bloom when I go out passing students have pulled the petals off of several rose blooms and scattered them down the side walk. I always think about putting newer iris in the front beds but decide to keep them in the back yard where they are safe. I'd be sick if there were some of my more recently purchased iris blooming for the first time in the front yard and someone broke the first bloom stalks off. They also like to pick my tulips. Can't stand guard all the time and probably if I were to say something they would do more damage another time.

I don't know Paul, A word to the principal about beauty of flowering plants & encouraging the kids to grow annuals. Not saying anything about your plants, just how to bring beauty to the world in general? I don't think that the kids are doing anything except being thoughtless, because they have no identification with plants, just that it is fun to feel the blossoms & watching petals drop.

I agree with irisMA! I live on a street that the school kids use to go to/from school. They were constantly picking my tulips, daffs and anything else that was blooming. I mentioned this to the principal and they have left them alone since then! They just don't think that those flowers are property of someone else even though they are in someone's yard.

I doesnt suprise me in the least that someone would steal something 30 feet up on someone elses property. I lived in a townhouse upstairs and downstairs apartment back in the 90's when i first came to nc..and two years in a row i had halloween decorations stolen right off my front door..then when i moved into a nice little brick house up on a hill out in the country a bit..i thought great no more problems..well the nice little 90 year old women living directly next door who i would bring christmas and thanksgiving food to..decided since i was an outsider to put poison in turkey stuffing out for my dog to eat. and if you think people can steal and be hateful where i live, you should talk to my buddy matt who moved out to arkansas. he bought a mine out there and its very beautiful looking out there, but, the local people vandalized his track-ho causing 10 grand in damage and stole parts out of the engine..he cannot plant any gardens and make his house look nice out where he's at or decorate for the holidays, because if the people where he lives are jelous of his property they would burn his house down to the ground while he slept in it..it has become very evident to me that people can be jerks anywhere, but you have to be real careful not only where you move, but also when taking to much pride in your possesions, home, garedns.etc because their are alot of desperate jelous folks that have no qwams about being happy to destroy something someone else worked hard for just because they can.which is very unfortunate.and it is just gonna get worse now that times are more desperate and alot of people out of work..peace..mike

I guess I'm from the Old School. When I'm out in the woods here and see something blooming that I like, I will dig something up, but not all of it. I found some daffs growing in a field on a back road the other day. Its all grass and weeds and in the middle is these daffs. The flowers are doubles and are yellow with green edges. I've never seen anything like them. I'm going back and dig up a few. There are propably over a 100 of them, but I will just get maybe a dozen. If I see something in someones yard that I would love to have a plant of, like iris, daylilies, bulbs etc I go up and ask if I could dig some up. If they say NO, than I thank them and go on my way. BUT they can't stop me from slowing down past their house to look and admire. This is the way my Dad raised me and the way I raised my son.

About three years ago I went in the front landscape and everything looked very dry and in need of water. this did not make sense because we have automatic irrigation. Someone had turned off the water valve to the irrigation system. It is right up next to the house, under my mother's bedroom window. And then again, several times, someone has turned off the flow on irrigation to my hanging baskets in the front landscape.

Two years ago I was taking cuttings of coleus and was about 40 feet away inside the garage with the garage door open. Went back into the front garden and two very large coleus had been totally ripped out of the ground with soil on the sidewalk leading to the transportation that took them away.

And we live in a guard gated community. Probably landscapers because I make them look soooooo bad.

I have a 2 year old that lives 5 houses down the street. I am teaching here to pick the clover blooms.

Fortunately, there are more of us than them...Sharon.

Sharon, I'm also in a guard gated community. When I told my neighbor this story, she had me laughing about the number of people who stop to look at my garden as they drive by and who almost wreck my mail box be because they're not paying attention to where they're driving. We have a lot of people who also walk by here daily with their pets or while exercising. There's no telling who's the culprit.

I think a baby cam would be great. You know the one they use to catch babysitters doing bad things.

I may have to look into that. My neighbors next door have a camera system for security purposes and I'm going to check with them to see who set up their system. We shouldn't have to resort to this. The fence was already a huge investment to prevent dogs from ravaging my plants in the backyard.

You could always put up a dummy (pretend) camera.

I'd need a real one, they probably wouldn't even notice a dummy camera. I should check my neighbors to see if they captured anything on their film.

I have a small nursery and mainly raise plants to sell at farmers market. Couple years ago when I came back from market,my neighbors across the street,said 4 older ladies(they thought they were my garden club) had been in my nursery. When I walked the area,I found that every last pot clematis vines I had were gone...and they had to walk to the back of the display area,some 75 ft,to get them...in broad daylight.

That's terrible bigred. Some people have no conscience.

I live in an townhouse apt and garden mainly in the small front bed area which I've extended around the corner (end unit) by digging up and installing edging and in numerous containers. Over the years I've experience great gardening/sharing seasons and some that made me so disgusted by my neighbors that I let my garden go to ruins (which ultimately caused me more work to try to recover from the intrusion of weeds and trash). My first neighbor was a gardener like me and we were afternoon and weekend garden buddies until she passed away. The place remained unrented for almost 2 yrs and then had 3 different renters over the next 3 years. One of the ladies had a few kids and for some reason she and her kids decided to wreck all my flowers for the entire growing season until they skipped out overnight one day.
Came home to find an entire large container of lilies (20 or so) with every single bud (50+) broken off and scattered around the pot, same with the TB iris, daffs and some peruvian daffs. So happy to see them go.
Had a Bougainvillea that cost me an arm and a leg to ship from CA stolen--container and all even though I hadn't labeled it and it was looking like a stick--not even a leaf on it yet:lol: Oh and a six foot tall brugmansia snatched off the back patio.
Kids like to take the bamboo stakes and any decorative rocks I buy like river rocks.

I think Karma will do it's thing but more often than not I have great sharing experiences with most of my neighbors but when it's bad it can really seem so beyond the limit for bad behavior. I am not a Zen type but I really do try to not wallow in my crappy mood after something like that happens but I'm human and it's hard:)

Was the iris named? I'm hoping to have a few to share later this year once the season is over. I usually buy too many and have generous bonus iris from my orders too.

I am sorry that happened--hope they didn't do too much damage.

It's frustrating. I have never had a problem so far, but I also haven't had a lot blooming yet, hopefully this year will be different.

30 years ago I was living in government subsidized townhouses. I skrimped and saved to buy some end of season daffodil bulbs in the clearance section. Came home planted them under the evergreen buhes. The next spring, they popped up, and one morning as I wnet to work, every one of those bulbs had a bud ready to open. I couldn't wait to get home from work that afternoon.

When I got home that day, there was nothing. Not a blossom left. My neighbor across the street saw everything unfold - all the daffs bloomed that day, and she said they looked great. Then school let out, and every kid that walked by, picked some to take home....

Kids doing this is actually normal. Although I do agree they should be taught differently. But stealing plants right out of yards? boy, that is just low.

Did the thiefs steal anything else? or just the iris? At least they didn't get it all. ~j

yeah one thing bad about being in an appartment even a townhouse appartment iz you never know whos gonna end up living next to you. i was like dmac085 and was on an end unit so for the years i lived their i thought i only had to worry about the neighboors that would move in and out on the one side of me. i never stoped to think that planting in the little area in the front would cause resentment with people who drove by that lived in other units..i had a similar experience to philljm too the 2nd year i lived their i got some pumkin seeds and started a pumpkin vine on the front near the side. i awoke one saturday to here the landscaping crew with weed whackers and looked out the window and saw them shred it with the weed whacker. i ran out like a maniac and got the manager of the apts over, and the lanscape crew manager came over and said, who do you think you are when your renting planting stuff, were just trying to do our job and protect these shrubs.and i said..yeah right. thats why your foot and work boots are stepping right in the middle of one of the shrubs you stupid sob.. from then on i mostly planted stuff in 2-5 gallon pots on the back patio. i eventually had to keep my kool and save up to lease a house which i was fortunate to do because the drug activity going on the last few years their became real bad..and the first thing people coming up to sling dope probably thought was..gee look at that nice garden out in front of that unit..that would be the best unit to rob.but than again.you should never let someone else ruin your happiness if your happy where you are, you have stand your ground..but safety iz also a big consideration.peace..mike

It seems everyone has had bad experiences with their plants being ruined. I've witnessed my neighbors deliberately letting their dog urinate on my plants as they walk by, and they know what dog urine does to plants, and I've had to clean dog poop off my grass and out of my planting beds. It got so bad that we complained to the HOA, and now all owners walking their dogs must have a bag for clean up, or it's a $50.00 fine, and all dogs must be supervised or leashed or that's also a fine. I love dogs but can't have one because my son is allergic to them, and I feel I shouldn't have to clean up after an animal that I don't own. I'm glad that I still have some of the plant left, and I do have new irises that will only be planted in my backyard. Thanks for the offer dmac085.

I hope no one does that to me! I have a fence though that creaks if people come in. But i just transplanted my Infernal Fire, La Fortune and 3 others in my front flower bed... I would never do that to anyone elses! :O The only culprit i really have to worry about is my daughter who is almost 2. She sees a flower bloom and man, if i am not watching her, I turn around and petals are all over the ground and all she can say while holding an empty stem is, "Look Mommy, Flow-er."...... :D

This message was edited Apr 4, 2011 12:49 AM

Just read down thru this thread and it is heartbreaking to know about plant theft. So many don't have a clue how expensive our collections can be! I grow many types of perennials. I am adding new TB iris and they are not cheap!
The most bizarre story I have heard were shrubs and other plants stolen from a country church. Now how can someone enjoy them?

I have a huge cho lab that wouldn't hurt a flea but people he barks at doesn't know that. LOL. He is my plant insurance.

Teresa in KY

irislover, What a beautifull iris!!! Do you have a name for it? I am slowly adding to my iris garden and would like to find that one.

One morning about 6:30am in the summer I heard our gate on the side creak. I threw on my robe to see who had entered our side garden. There was a neighbor, did not know her name, just her face, helping herself to some tomatoes. I said good morning, and she said she was getting some tomatoes for her married daughter because she loved tomatoes and she heard mine were delicious.

I did not know what to say so I just went back inside. Later that day, I removed the key from the lock. Do you realize how difficult it is to raise tomatoes in Las Vegas. And I do plant enough for my friends and neighbors. But I would like to give them to you myself. Sharon.

Sharon-

I think your story about the tomatoes wins!!!!!! What gall. I guess it wouldn't be right to go over to her yard while she's outside and help yourself to a few things........

I just noticed that sometime over the winter someone stole the ADT security sign from my front yard! lol

Well I do not know if any of you grow baby tears but it is great, very green, fast spreading in the shade, ground cover. I had a landscaper stop one time and ask me what it was. I explained it came into my garden by mother nature but I would give him a shovel full for his client. I got my shovel, dug up a large batch and he was on his way. I know you can see this one coming.

The batch where i take plugs in right inside my front gate to the courtyard. About two days later I go out and about 3 more shovel size portions are gone. I put up a sign. Please do not take any more and it stopped. I did not even know this guy. Just being friendly. Then he rang my doorbell about 8 months later and said his owner was very unhappy with the way it was growing. Did I have any secrets. I told him no. I put in plugs and it takes off. Then politely closed my door, but watched him leave my courtyard before I left the door area. Sharon.

Marti, i will have it for trade as soon as i get some new blooms its Infernal Fire. I have a few others too i uploaded yesterday, but it still says photos pending, So I am not sure if they can be viewed on my profile yet! But yes... it is soooo beautiful. Last year i could have sworn when i leaned over i smelt a light lemon smell too. See, this is why i am scared i moved some to my front yard. I put a few very expensive iris out there, but they were just too pretty to not show off!

Oh and that other picture i just put up is Come Away With Me, another one i moved to my front new perennial garden that i hope makes it without sticky fingers....

I'm just nasty enough to put a sign on my front yard that says "Plant/flower thieves will be SHOT".

If you get extras send one my way :)

Ditto!!!!

I'll see what I can do about a couple of signs!!!

:) Perfect! And maybe a "Squirrel quit digging up my freshly planted Ranuculus Bulbs" sign too! I kept going outside the last 7 days and all my bulbs/corms were dug up! At first i thought, Its gotta be a cat. Then i read tonight squirrels love to snack on them! So i have to add a table spoon of ground red pepper around them so the squirrels quit digging them up! GRRRRR! :P

Iris10, love that pic of the one you posted above!
I have a new named DECADANCE that looks close to it. I need to organize my files better so I can post more pics.
Teresa in KY

Infernal Fire is beautiful ~j