AIBU--bluebell picking

[Abra1d]

OK, I know it's not actually illegal to pick bluebells in England, but AIBU to think that if you are at a National Trust beauty spot and you allow your children to pick large bunches of bluebells (four or five children picking) you are not really being very considerate? I'm not talking about a couple of flowers for a jam jar. The mothers were taking photos of the children with the bunches, so they knew what was going on.

When we went to the car park the children had dropped some of the bluebells on the ground and they had been trampled on. I felt so sad. These are beautiful flowers, and quite rare now as they are 'proper' English bluebells, not the Spanish hybrids.

Perhaps I am being grumpy, but it just seemed a bit selfish. What do others think?

I thought it was illegal if they were cultivated, the digging up bulbs bit only applied to wild flowers. I would have thought NT counts as cultivated.

Hmm. My understanding is that it?s ok to pick wildflowers on NT property if there isn?t a by-law in place, and if there is there must be a notice at the entrance to the property. So people should make sure they read the signs. However, you?re right about the cultivated bit ? you should normally obtain permission from the landowner before collecting wildflowers.

It?s a shame people can?t just use their common sense when it comes to these things though.

Get some seeds and grow your own wild flowers.

YANBU.

Selfish behavior.

Weetabix - what a ridiculous attitude. It's selfish even if it's not something that's in danger of dying out, but even more so when it is. It's no different than someone coming into your house, wandering through to the back garden and taking stuff - would you be happy with that?

It's no different than someone coming into your house, wandering through to the back garden and taking stuff

It really, really is.

It's the sort of thing you only do once though isn't it, since they die so quickly. It's t good, but nor is it the crime of the century.

yANBU in my eyes. We don't let them pick daffodils planted by the side of the road or the abundant numbers of bluebells in the woods

Id have said something. But im a bitch like that. Really makes me .

YANBU

Another country bod who cares deeply about leaving the wild flowers in place. Hate seeing people pick them. In fact, one of the reasons bluebells are rarer than they should be is precisely because they don't seed everywhere - if you have loads, then the patch of land was likely to have been woodland at one time and they're a remnant of that. People have even tried transplanting them into newly planted woodland - they don't do well.

We just need to look after our own back yard. Interesting comparison - I work in conservation and the organisation was heavily involved in Madagascar, where they had a bugger of a job convincing local people that a very endangered lemur was rare. Why? Because they had loads of them outside their back doors and couldn't believe that not everybody did. They reasoned that if they saw loads, then the animal couldn't possibly be rare. Which clearly wasn't true - the lemurs were very limited in their distribution so the ones they saw were the only ones there were. I just find it interesting that people are using the exact same argument here. It's also worth noting that rarity isn't just about numbers - it's about how easily the species breeds/spreads, linkage between habitats so if one area is destroyed could the species spread to a new area, rates of loss vs rates of colonisation, past distribution vs current distribution etc etc. So saying 'I see loads so the species is doing fine' isn't valid I'm afraid.

On the positive side, how lovely to see so many people keen to protect a rare flower. Long may that continue, so that our kids can be having the same discussion in twenty years time (rather than a discussion about how they used to see the flowers everywhere when they were little but you don't see them no....)

YANBU. Good post by babybythesea. Worth remembering too that the UK is home to possibly 50 per cent of the world's 'english' bluebells so we should bloody well take care of them. Very selfish to pick them.

Great post baby.

You are right op, it is selfish. I teach my children that dandelions and daisies are ok, but not anything else as they are there for everyone to enjoy.

Good post baby

Encouraging kids to pick wild flowers is selfish and short sighted. It also teaches the children no respect for wild flowers.

Selfish gits, YANBU

Great post baby.

Its amazing how many people seem to forget that the plant doesn't produce flowers for the purpose of attracting humans to pick them!