To wish people would stop their children picking wildflowers

[BigBirthdayGloom]

We've just walked home and seen several children with big bunches of bluebells and other flowers. As nice as it is for them, they'll not last long at home and those bunches have wiped out most of the bluebells on out little stretch of road. I do know its not earth shattering but I was always told to leave alone everything except daisies and dandelions and have passed the same onto my children.

*To be fair- it was on private land owned by his family and he's always been used to the free reign of it all.

He thought I was being completlely mad by saying it wasn't allowed grin*

I think if it's private land it is a bit different, not like picking them from a park or other public area, though you wouldn't want to pick too many and disturb the plants.

All the joys of stealing flowers and being selfish?

People in the 30' 40' and 50' and 60' picked primroses.What's so different? Having said that...I would not pick flowers from a park..

I don't allow my kids to pick them.

My husband is a botanist, he would have a small fit if he saw them doing so

my son picked me a dandelion the other day is that allowed

Dont they say you'll wet the bed if you pick dandelions!

Cant your kids get small pleasuresfrom picking daisys and the like?

I was on a train once stopped at Wandsworth Common. There was a lovely cluster of bluebells just within the station fence just the thing to cheer up a weary commuter. Then I saw a stupid woman with her arms through the fence grabbing loads. How bloody selfish. Kids picking a few here and there I don't mind.

Dog poo. That's the problem with daisy/buttercup/dandelion picking. Unless in your own garden. Then according to MN it's cat poo.

I know the majority disagree with the picking of flowers but dd picking a bluebell and other flower each morning on the way to pre school (which she hates and used to cry about before she started enjoying the journey there as she likes to walk the last part past the flowers and pick a couple) is not the most terrible thing in the world. She's four and it gives her a huge amount of enjoyment and considering what she goes through most days I will be letting her continue.

She does in fact grow flowers in the garden at home which she also likes to pick so does understand how long they take to grow.

Mine aren't allowed to pick.

We enjoy them by me teaching them their names and marvelling at how beautiful plum pudding, cow parsley, dead nettles and bluebells look, with a backdrop of flowering rape.

I want my dc's to learn that the countryside is for everyone to enjoy.

Could she spot ladybirds instead Hedgehog and you could count how many you see?

Mine love doing that!

But Hedgehog maybe other people like to see the flowers too. Can't do that if your DD's picked them all can they.

Worth a try,or perhaps looking at birds etc. I can see why people don't agree with picking flowers but I just don't see the harm in it, dd often picks 'weeds' as well such as dandelions or blossom from trees. It just seems to be something she likes doing at the moment.

She picks one tiny white flower and a couple of the bells from a bluebell, she isn't going in each day with bunches of flowers.

Sparkling you forget that bastard cats get everywhere and probably poo in parks too. Call yourself a cat poo thread expert. Tsk.

YANBU! It's so selfish to pick wildflowers. If everyone did it there would be none left.

Thing is, it does matter if people each pick one or two on a journey that's daily. My dd is often overtired and I'm often stressed. It gives us pleasure seeing the flowers. We can get our pleasure at no one else's expense as long as the flowers last. If they're picked (and a biggish patch at the corner of the hedge is now just snapped stems) that's it.

The world is awash with it apparently Fox.

We have the Bluebell Police around here that if they spot a Spanish Bluebell they immediately pounce on it and pull it out. I have even seen them attack one on my front garden! Bet they vote UKIP

Bluebell bigots

There are so many things you can observe instead of picking wild flowers.
We found an empty woodpidgeons eggshell, and a thrush eggshell last week.We rescued two worms from the road.We saw goldfinches, jackdaws, a robin, blackbirds etc.We watched some woodlice on a brick.Today they found a small animals bone from KFC chucked out of car window.

There's no need to pick the flowers.