WIBU to take some cuttings from my neighbours plant...?

[ChatterMonkey]

I know that the usual answer to this is that its completely inappropriate and not ok, but im hoping that my background info might sway people into telling me its ok!

Neighbours garden is very overgrown. He is elderly and is completely housebound. All of the garden is waist high weeds, with a few overgrown plants from a time a long time ago when i assume the garden was maintained. Theres no hate for his messy garden from us, doesnt affect us at all. Other neighbours on the street moan about it but it doesnt bother us at all.

Spotted today that theres a nice plant in the garden that i remember my granny having in her garden when i was little. Its a bush like plant with little red flowers on it that we used to pretend were lipsticks. (Red petals and i think a bit of purple inside?) Not sure if anyone can tell me what its actually called from this vague description 😂

I can reach it by leaning over our fence, and as its so overgrown, could easily take some substantial cuttings without it looking like anything is missing.

So WIBU to grab some of the plant from over the fence to see if i can grow it in my garden?

If people think its acceptable, any advice on how to actually take cuttings so that they can be planted and grown? Total beginner gardener here so no real idea of what im doing!

Love this OP! ❤️

This is lovely, brought a smile to my face.

Voodoo fuchsia I think

Fuschia
Yes why not

Ahh well done OP.

What a lovely person you are! I've volunteered with people with mobility issues before and one thing that came up time and time again was them being so unhappy to see their once loved garden now overgrown.

What an uplifting thread!

Lovely outcome. Well done OP!

That sounds a good outcome, hope it all goes well. My view on etiquette is to knock and ask before doing any - just 'thought I could finish off the hedge if that still suits you' as otherwise he doesn;t have a say.

Can you ask him?

We have a commemorative plant in our garden, and whilst I wouldn’t begrudge anyone a cutting, I’d absolutely prefer to do it myself. I’d be really peeved if someone just did it themselves, especially with what the plant represents to us.

Ahh! I should RTFT! Brilliant outcome OP!

That's lovely of you OP, glad to hear that you are doing a good deed for your neighbour. It sounds quite a sad situation. How did he get on throughout lockdowns if he is housebound? I hope that he has someone buying him groceries and looking after him. He must be very grateful to have another friendly face around now and I'm sure he appreciates some social interaction. It's so horrible to be lonely.

@ChatterMonkey

Aww this is lovely. Thinking about it. If he has a greenhouse he may have been a keen gardener. I'm sure he would be happy to teach you how to take a cutting / grow from a cutting if you were to ask and explain re the fuchsia.

Also. It may be a nice way for him to thank you for helping him and make him happy.

I wouldn't have any scruples about taking a cutting. I'd offer to do his garden though. For older people it's often distressing to them that they can no longer keep their garden nice. And burglars abs scammers often use an overgrown garden as a helpful pointer that an older person lives there and is ripe for exploitation.

Interestingly, I was listening to a podcast the other day which talked about why acts of kindness make us feel happy - they stimulate bits of the brain (I forget which bits now, something about the hypothalamus and a vertysomething) which trigger happiness chemicals. Apparently doing something for someone else triggers this even more than doing something nice for ourselves. So it's been proven by science!

Good on you OP.

Little things (although this is a hard work little thing!) like this make the world go round.

🌻