So sad. Someone is picking my daffodils :(

[Plantjungle]

Hello,

i just really needed to vent about this somewhere. I’ve told a couple of friends but really I know people have bigger life problems going on so I don’t want to go on about it… But I thought some like-minded gardeners may understand.

i have been gardening in my block’s communal garden. On the weekend I was out mulching some of the beds and I kept seeing that the patches of daffodils had a cut or broken off stem right at the bottom. I had benefit of doubt at first. Maybe they had broken off in the wind. Or gone over and someone had tidied them up?

On Sunday afternoon there was still one patch in perfect bloom, but by the morning they had also been cut and taken.

I’ve put a little wooden stick with ‘please do not pick’ written on it, and stuck it in final patch of daffs that are just in bud.

I’m so sad, and this morning when I left my flat I felt like I wanted to cry, and then I felt rage! And the thing is I’ve started gardening to benefit my mental health. It’s something that I’m passionate about. I also want to cheer the place up for other residents.

I just really needed to write this out and hopefully get a bit of encouragement to carry on…

I can't stand people like this: the ones who think that something 'just happens' and belittle your work, dedication and financial contribution as virtually nothing; yet they somehow never seem able to put in that 'negligible' amount of work and money themselves.

Even if they did just grow up in your garden without any input whatsoever from you, they clue is in YOUR garden; not theirs.

Plants left in the ground can be enjoyed by everybody for a whole season or more; once they're picked, only one household can enjoy them for a few days before they die.

I would be mad! I am also an avid gardener with a quite large garden mostly in beds, lovely at the moment with daffodils, crocus, hyancinth and snowdrops. I would be very cross it they were picked.
i have a magnificent yellow lupin that comes back each summer and every year people stop in the cars nip out and cut a bloom of to culitvate the seeds. Some ask most dont!

I see it the other way around. As its communal the flowers belong to all, so no one can pick them as it deprives others.

Do people know that it is you who is doing the garden? Just wondering as with the continual dog poo, it sounds like a mini vendetta.

My neighbour planted a lovely tub of crocuses outside her house. One morning she came out and they had all gone! She was upset and thought someone had taken them, until she realised they'd all been eaten by a passing deer! Still annoying for her but you can't be angry with a deer!

This kept happening near my old flat - lovely road in a nice area, but someone kept digging up border plants and things at night. It'd be SO neatly done, but the plants would be gone.

My husband had a palm plant thing that he loved; but someone stole that and our lavender from our front garden... Bizarre.

It's shit. I have someone who every year tries to pick clematis flowers from my front fence. Except it's clematis, so they don't break off easily and this twat damages the whole plant 😡

Some London boroughs give away big bags of bulbs to community gardens in the autumn, check whether that's the case near you. I felt less worried and annoyed about my previous community garden when I wasn't paying for the plants!

I tend to go for wildflower style. They're somehow not as tempting to pick as bulbs. Chicory, vetch, cornflower, knapweed, ox-eye daisy, scabious. If your soil is dry, erigeron, normal poppies or California poppy.

Omg the bike thing sounds awful and rather personal…are you sure this isn’t one of your neighbours trying to upset you?

SO annoying, OP. Such a shame. I would try to tell myself it's well meaning children picking flowers for someone. Of course not OK but it would help me to feel less annoyed!

When I taught reception I'd often get children coming in with a flower picked on the way to school and I was always baffled the parents just allowed it.

Sorry on behalf of my two year old that sometimes manages to get one before I stop him

I had a shouting match once, about this time of the year with a man and his kids picking them from a verge on my village. As Mother’s Day is nearly here I assumed they were for the children’s mother. I told him to buy them from a shop instead of being a tight fisted b

So sorry OP. That’s extremely frustrating.

I remember spending a whole Sunday scrubbing and repairing a set of garden furniture that belonged to our flat’s communal garden. On Monday two blokes pulled up in a van, loaded it on and drove it away.

The poo bag incident is another level of shitbaggery though (literally)!

It's terrible, Op.
Add something extra to the sign..

Please do not steal.
Daffodils are for a charity event.

This is really sad as a bunch of daffodils in your local coop is just £1!!!

It's hard for me to sometimes keep small DD from running over excited and pulling off a flower "for you mummy!" But usually it's pulled off right at the top and I would quickly redirect her speedy hands to something else after one.

There’s horrible and lovely people everywhere. Definitely Google community garden schemes for any local support and flyer your neighbours to get more people involved in your project. The lovely people you meet will restore your faith. Keep going with it.

They stop their cars and come into your garden to cut blooms off your lupin??? Dear god.

Absolutely infuriating. We have tulips and hyacinths in our front garden and a couple of years ago a builder working on the house opposite saw a couple turn up with shears and snip the lot. He said he tried to chase them off but by the time he got down his ladder they had scarpered. Cheeky fuckers. Luckily they haven't been back again.

It did cross my mind but if it is then I have literally no idea what it could be about…

it must have been a massive dog by the weight of its produce, and my neighbour said she had seen some teenage boys walking a massive dog in the garden, but she didn’t think they lived in our block. So I guessed it must be them 🤷🏼‍♀️. Just so weird to bother to pick it up in the first place, so I did consider it was someone being horrible. Thank goodness it hasn’t happened for a while!

Thanks so much for the messages of support and I’m so sorry to hear of your theft stories. Some absolutely outrageous stories here!!! What is wrong with people!! Very cathartic to share with you 💚

Kids can’t resist picking daffodils - I think because it is the first flowers they’ve seen in a while and are so lovely to pick. DC’s school have loads and loads but none of them stay very long once they open unless in an inaccessible spot - it isn’t organisation so much as compulsion. My dc keeps picking my own daffs and arranging them in little vases next to my bed -sweet gesture so can’t quite tell her off, but pleas to leave some for everyone to enjoy mostly go unheeded.

If it is kids then once summer is in full swing they calm down a bit plus more flowers are cut and come again, so less of a loss when they grab a handful. If not, invest in things with thorns!

Why aren’t the parents telling them no?
kids can resist when they are told they should be left for all to enjoy.
I never picked them as a child, neither have my children or their friends.

People are entitled about gardens. Not just communal ones either. I had a spate of someone coming in my garden EMPTYING my large pots out and nicking them. It drove me batshit until I caught a retired gentleman that lives across the back in the act. His face was a picture. I had to padlock my gate and put cameras up to stop people stealing garden shit.

Not really much you can do other than. Plant prickly stuff I think. Or potatoes.

I think it mostly happens during the school day - it is a large garden area within school grounds specifically planted for the children, so the attitude is probably to let them interact with them as they like 🤷‍♀️. My dc are learning about plant biology at the moment, so taking apart a daffodil is probably a good continuation of their learning. Children are quite tactile, and I personally think it’s fine in that context - flowers are more than a visual experience, and they do put the kids to work with the gardening (most of the bulbs were planted by children) so I think it fair that they feel some ownership.

Rules around flower picking can be confusing for children - my dc are generally told not to pick flowers in beds without permission, but daffs are often naturalised so grow the same places as dandelions and daisies, which generally have no limits.

I'd be upset too @Plantjungle. People can be so selfish and thoughtless. I've had plants in pots stolen from by my front door, and it does make you feel miserable.

If you're going to persevere with the garden perhaps consider plants like weigela, snowberry, berberis and buddleia. The communal gardens around here seem to use them successfully. The wild flower idea posted above is very good also.

You could grow herbs, bean sprouts, micro veg, on your indoor windowsills for fun, with no risk of horrible thefts! 🪴 🪴 🪴 🪴 🪴 🪴

So sorry OP! I’d be really annoyed too.

There’s a small park with a pond and trees etc at the end of my walking route, and there’s a group of volunteers who look after it and plant things. Last year they planted lots of small flowers and seeds, bought decorations and pots etc. That same night someone came and took everything! Hundreds of euros worth of stuff, even took shovels and a wheelbarrow. Some people just have no shame.