To be FURIOUS that the new neighbours have chopped down our entire rose bush?!

[itstimeforchange]

Their garden backs onto ours and they have been tidying up the garden since moving in recently. I have just seen that they have cut down the entire wild rose bush at the bottom of our garden!! There is a (pathetic) wire fence and a few stalks are probably on their side, but they have clearly crossed the line literally and figuratively and chopped down the whole thing, most of which is at our side of two small concrete posts, so not even any excuse about knowing where the border is would work here. It was my favourite plant in the whole garden. I can't go round to speak to them right now as I have to go out, but I am so upset

[OhWotIsItThisTime]

We're the roots in your garden? If so, definitely complain. Ask them to buy you a new one.

[AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered]

That's terrible, and is criminal damage

They need to buy a new mature rosebush as a replacement and apologise profusely.

[Emphasise]

They shouldnt have done it, but an old wild rose will benefit from being cut back hard and will soon recover

[Itstimeforchange]

Yes, all but maybe two or three roots/stalks in our garden. The bush didn't even cross over into their territory - the whole thing leant into our garden.

[SailAwaySailAwaySailAway]

To cut the rose right down they'd have had to trespass on your property. Time to make it very clear that they are not to do that again.

[Mothervulva]

If it's on your side then that's criminal damage. What a bunch of cunts.

[itstimeforchange]

I really hope you're right emphasise

[SailAwaySailAwaySailAway]

Name change problem?

[RebootYourEngine]

Im sure that it was just a misunderstanding. But you wont know until you speak to them. Go round and intoduce yourself and speak to them about it.

[itstimeforchange]

Not actually name changing just trying to type in my original one as a different one has auto-filled. And failing

[rookiemere]

Oh lord - DH did this to our neighbours clematis on their side of the wall. It was a total accident, he got over enthusiastic and felt awful when shown what he'd done ( yes - I've no idea how he didn't see at the time either).

Luckily our neighbours are lovely people and were mollified with DH buying a replacement plant for them and we got them a bottle of wine. Actually they are lovely - we've also flooded their garage with overflow from the plastic hot tub as DH forgot to switch it off when it was filling , they wouldn't let us pay for extractor fans to resolve it.

Hopefully it's a genuine mistake. I'd google what type of rose bush you'd like and let them know once you're calm enough to do so, that you are upset by it, you hope its an honest mistake and that you expect a replacement.

[RatherBeRiding]

If it a genuine wild rose, these things are almost impossible to kill by cutting back! It will regenerate but you're right to be furious - it is an object owned by you and they have damaged it, so it's criminal damage.

I would politely ask them to replace it (and never mind that it will come back again). And ask them to refrain in future from touching anything that is growing on your side of the boundary.

Who is responsible for the wire fence? If it's you, can you run to beefing it up a bit?

[Bambinho]

Time to improve your fence I think.

[Wando1986]

Time to get a proper fence and also go and kick off. What twat does that?!

[P1nkP0ppy]

If the stems are on their side of the fence they can do whatever they like, regardless of the bulk of the bush overhanging into your garden.
It will regenerate very quickly so unless you actually planted it I wouldn't think that they're out of order.

[BaronessBomburst]

It will shoot back up, honestly! And probably be a mass of flowers too.
They were totally wrong to do it though.

[RatherBeRiding]

If the stems are on their side of the fence they can do whatever they like, regardless of the bulk of the bush overhanging into your garden.

Actually they can ONLY cut back any over-hanging stems to the point of the boundary fence. They absolutely cannot cut back any part of the plant that is not on their property.

[Mummyoflittledragon]

Exactly Riding. Moreover they're legally supposed to throw the trimmings back over the fence otherwise they could be had up for stealing.

As others have said it will grow back. I don't know what kind of fence it is but at the very least I think you should reinstate the wire mesh if it is that type of fence.

[SomewhatIdiosyncratic]

The good news is that it's early enough in the season for it to grow back heartily and flower as usual. They are still completely out of order.

It still rankles me that at our previous house, the people over the back removed the top of our young silver birch while we were on holiday which permanently ruined the shape of the tree. Bastards. It was a vast improvement of the 6 leylandii that we cut down and dug out of that corner! Other neighbours had commented about the extra sunshine they got from all that work, so I've got no idea how one smaller deciduous tree would have been an inconvenience in comparison.

[Twingler]

It may not be an accident, or they may not realise they're not allowed to do that. My next door neighbours chop back bushes in the garden behind theirs every few years. It's very cheeky and strange. It's no accident and they aren't coming over into their garden. Thy actually go and get a set of ladders and lean right over to chop it down to the height of their fence! The people behind don't seem to care, as the bushes were just there when they moved in and they dont bother with them. I would be extremely angry. They were clearly planted to provide privacy and it affects my privacy too.

I think they generally have strange ideas and are a bit uptight. They just have grass and make sure they can see every inch of their unattractive fencing. It's all very sterile and they really seem to think that everything should be the height of the fence so as not to block any light for them... We have south facing gardens so light is not an issue. They then planted a leylandi tree in the corner, without knowing what it was. It grew pretty quickly and they now keep that level with the top of the fence too. So it's all grass with a stunted blob of evergreen in the corner. I plan to grow some taller things to provide privacy (the fences are also too short for my liking) and can already imagine the mutterings.

[itstimeforchange]

RatherBeRiding I don't know who's responsible for the fence that's there but DH said after a brief chat with one of them on Tues that they are putting a new one in, which is prob why they felt the need to prune so heavily in the first place. The lady was cutting things back in that spot a couple of days ago and pulled out some dead wood but I didn't mind that. I watched carefully for a while. This must have been done today by the guy who was there this morning. They've been filling our garden (and house, despite closed windows) with smoke too for most of yest (I politely asked them to stop at about 6pm) and much of this morning too, burning greenery and other garden waste.

I'll reiterate that the whole bush, stalks, and everything was on our side! Except for maybe two stray stems.

[Kokusai]

OMG that is so bad :-( sorry about your rose bush.

I would go round and speak to them, be clear that the rose bush was on your side of the boundary, they had no right to cut it down, trespass and criminal damage and you want a mature rose bush to be reinstated at their cost.

[Morphene]

That is so rubbish of them. You definitely need to speak to them about it.

[HappyFlappy]

They have no right to chop any of your plants, or to go onto your garden. And if they needed to for practical reasons, it would have been courteous to ask.

[NotMyPenguin]

I promise that your rose bush will come back.

Something very similar happened to me.

But you've every right to be upset -- they've trespassed on your property and damaged something belonging to you, which you cared about. I'd be clear about it being unacceptable to make sure they don't do anything similar in future.

They're not planning some sort of land grab with this fencing, are they?!