Oh wow...how upsetting that must be...considering you have shared and would have shared had they asked. I doubt if they will be back though...really. Hmmm...you might watch for them in your neighborhood at someone's house that you have not shared with b4. I wonder if it might have been company at a neighbor's house though...who will take them home, plant them, and you will never see them to catch them....sigh...I too would be fuming at the gall of them doing that.

I am lucky...in the rural, with 3 big guard dogs on patrol at night.

I'm so sorry for you...try not let it upset your weekend.
Maybe put the word out that you have reported the plant thiefs to the police (whether you do or not), just to get the word out...in the hopes of giving them a scare.

Sue

That would infuriate me. A friend likes to put ceramic ducks, etc. in her garden. She awoke last month to find that statue of St. Francis, the ceramic duck and ducklings (inherited from her mother) and a few other things gone.

I'm so sorry someone did this to you. To walk into your yard and do this is such a violation of your personal space and privacy.

I hope it was plants that can be easily replaced.

If I had that one I'd be sending you some right now.

I don't blame you for being angry but please don't let it eat you up. That only hurts you, not them.

I have had hanging baskets removed from my porch in the middle of the night. Thieves steal them and sell them at flea markets.

Sorry this happened to you. It's incredible what some people think they're entitled to. A few years ago when I had bought over a hundred new iris and planted them on the bank by the road - this is basically a private street - one Saturday morning I notice a Lexus parked and someone admiring the iris. A few minutes later I looked again and noticed when the person moved, so did the iris blooms..... I headed down the driveway and I heard the woman in the car yell, "Someone is coming." The teenage girl runs for the car with a big armload of flowers. This happened the week end before Mother's Day and I thought how sad the woman was teaching her daughter it was ok to steal.

All my "good" iris - about 850 of them - are now up in my yard behind a clump of cedar trees, shielded from the road. So the only people who get to enjoy them are people I invite. Which I think is sad. Down by the road are the typical yellows, blues, and whites and nobody ever bothers them.....

I would call the police and report it. If there are other reports in your area, they might patrol occasionally at night. And I'd talk to the neighbors or put fliers in their mailboxes. It might be your flowers now and someone's lawnmower or yard equipment the next time.

I'm so sorry, while I haven't had this happen recently, I have had plants stolen.

Somebody actually dug up and stole your irises? Wow, that sucks. Here I was, only worried about someone stealing my potted plants after I move later this summer, and now I have something new to worry about!

I feel bad for you - it is stealing and somehow worse than losing other items to theft.

Many years ago I had established a nice siberian bed on the edge of a wetland near my property. They had really took off and put on a spectacular display each June. I had moved out of the house near this area but made a point of getting back to check out the display.

Last year every single clump had been dug up with only large holes where they had been! I immediately suspected my ex-neighbor who I had once caught stealing peony plants from my property. Sure enough, after walking down the street by his property there were a bunch of brown siberian clumps around a large spruce tree in his yard!

I felt such anger that I wanted to call the police or even come back at night and destroy his plants. In the end, I did nothing - I don't speak to him and don't visit the property anymore. He could have enjoyed the display by walking a half block down the road - now he has a bunch of dead plants.

Makes you kind of lose faith in people...

Wow! I believe people have gone mad! I had a yard sale last week with my bf and wouldn't you know that we had one lady shoplift things in her big purse, one lady was caught with a pen and sheet of stickers taking off our prices and writing new stickers and putting them on our things, people stealing games and leaving the cases....it was simply mad! I had been thinking of taking some iris over there to sell and praise Jesus I didn't because that would have been the final straw!!!! People around here do things like steal plants all of the time and it is beyond pathetic! If they aren't stealing them they are poisoning them just to watch them die! I would suggest that you put lights with censors on them outside around your gardens, if possible, that way when they come on unexpectedly it startles them and they run. We had to do that believe it or not and so far so good....so long as I don't try to have a yard sale that is, lol.

Anyway, I am really sorry to hear that this has happened to you and I hope it doesn't again. I am a firm believer in karma and what goes around comes around. God never leaves things unnoticed and this person will reap what they sow! You however will receive a blessing for not retaliating which is so tempting to do. God bless ya hun and I hope things get better for you.

I really feel for you. I haven't had any stolen, but I had someone deliberately take a weedeater and mow down a whole row of blooming stalks back in 2006. I got back home from work, and it was like a massacre--bits of flowers torn and lying everywhere, ravaged leaves, etc. I found out that the landscapers (and I use the word loosely) were mad at our HOA, and on their last day they decided to "get us back." Luckily, I arrived after they had left. Had I driven up on it, I would have beaten the guy to a pulp.

The advice to let it go, though, is good. They likely won't be back, and there isn't anything you can do about it at this point.

Mike in SC

That's terrible. I just had a couple hanging pots stolen and one window planter that I worked on for a couple years (it was beautiful). Whoever took them are idiots. I truely doubt that they're gardeners because if they were they would respect the amount of time and cost it takes to make the plants really beautiful. In the end, no one can take away beauty, as with the neighbor who stole the plants that ended up dead. Gardening is a love affair with the earth and God. Anyone who thinks they can break up that love affair is sadly mistaken. If you buy plants at the flea market, shame on you too. Most likely they are stolen so don't buy them unless it's from a reputable seller.

I have my iris among old garden roses. So far the wicked thorny canes have kept the iris safe from thieves.

Hi! I recently have had 4 of my roses bushes stolen from my yard. They thief seems to come in the middle of the night. I have reported it to the police department and they have said several people have called in with the same complaint. What can I do?? I have invested alot of time and money into my landscaping! Is there anything I can do to keep them safe?