Seal the cut trunks and leave them in a sunny place and they should send out new branches before the season is over here in So Cal or in spring. Where was your plumies that the theif had access to them...???

Here's a pic of one of them.

OMG... I thought you had like 5 gal pots with maybe 2 or 3 brnaches on them... wow...!!! That will definitely come back because of the size, just leave it be. What variety is it? Was it blooming when it was cut??? I noticed that usually plumie thieves steal during the day, either early morning or late after noon. I had to get a locking gates and video surveillance system and I still have people who steal. When your plumie grows back you may want to move it or take couple of cuttings and root it if you really love it as either the thieves or a cold winter could get to it where it is. Sorry about your loss...

Here's a pic of one of them.

{{!gwi}}

PS. The police will not help unless you have a witness and a license plat number and or pics of them stealing. Do you have any idea of who it might be????

I don remember the exact name but the colors rembled a typical california sunset with yellow, violet pink reddish colors. Funny thing is I had just taken a couple of clippings to root them but those were stolen as we'll. Oh well. So long as they grow back I'm happy. Thanks for h quick responces a

Were they in an open area where the general public could see them, or in a backyard? That's a bit scary.

Oh my, I am so sorry! Isn't it crazy what people will do?

I had a marijuana plant stolen out of my yard a few years ago. It actually was a false aralia but I truly feel like it went up in smoke.

The plumeria was blooming better than it had ever bloomed. It was located in my front yard with no fecing. Funy thing is there are plumeria trees every other house where I live. All of them in front yards with no fences. So why mine? The others around ared just as beautiul and mostg where much bigger. Hmm?

They obviously knew they were worth something, otherwise for vandalism, they would have just left them laying there. That's quite disconcerting, there's a few good size trees in the front yards around here. If they can sell the cuttings and make some good money, they may be back for some of your neighbor's trees. They could be selling them at some local swap meet.

Oh, I'm so sorry to see your tree butchered like that! Del's right, those cuttings will end up sold at a swap meet somewhere for $10/piece, making it worth their while to come back again.

My mother had two beautiful plumies in her front yard in big pots for years and one morning came out to find them both stolen. She was sick about it.

James, have you ever caught anyone on camera pilfering cuttings?

Unfortunately, if you have nice plants the backyard may be where you have to keep them. Sad, but less heartbreak.

That happens alot here in San Antonio, that is why my plants are in Rockport. I had my amaryllis stolen from my backyard, only the Appleblossom, she left the red ones. I found out about 5 years ago, when my daughter told me my neighbor was in my backyard when she got home from school. She had a shovel, and was digging up my bulbs. She told my daughter that I told her to do it, so she never told me. I did not notice until the next spring, since they were not in bloom. Now that my daughter has her own house, and I told her how someone dug up my bulbs, she told me who it was. Would you believe it was a person who was very wealthy, and did not need to steal. Thank goodness she moved away. Barbra

OH NO!!! I am shocked! How can anyone do that?! That's so wrong. I am so sorry that happened to you. How heart breaking and sad. I pray that the tree will survive and thrive next year. :(

I want this type of thing to blow my mind but it unfortunately doesn't. I would certainly let your neighbors know about it and of course any neighborhood association, or Volunteers such as Cellular on Patrol (COP), Volunteers in Policing (VIP), etc. Maybe there are some other local community based law enforcement assistance type programs to talk with.

The key thing to do at this point is network and get the word out that this happened. If it was a neighbor then there is enough discussion/heat that he might consider it too risky to do again and if it was a random theft then the chances are better more of your neighboors will be watching for it and dissuade it from happening again.

Criminals can rarely be stopped but you can "unmotivate" them to go after your stuff.

I just don't understand people who do things like this. There are plumerias at the condo complex my mother in law lives at. I had some one come over when I was there to swap cuttings. She said she'd be running around with her saw taking cuttings from everything. These are plants that were planted by the people in their yards but nothing is fenced. I was horrified that she would even think that. Hopefully it will recover. Peg

Peg, unfortunately, I've seen posters here encourage visitors to Hawaii to do just that, which to me is no better than stealing in the dead of night. Most people would be glad to share a cutting or two if asked.

Barbra, I can't believe your nasty neighbor dug up your bulbs! Ugh, some people are trashy no matter how much money they have. I know as kind and generous as you are you would have shared had she asked you instead.

James, that's terrible about your poor trees, and the fact that you have to protect Lani by stripping her flowers is very sad. Eyes on the ground--aka wonderful neighbors--is the best defense, I guess.

I'm so sorry that happened to you- wow, that's absolutely sickening. I'm so appalled that this type of thing happens so frequently.

I have 3 dogs and my plants are all in my back yard but our house is kind of on a hill and there are a few spots where people / neighbors can see into our yard.

Even recently when we hired someone new to do our yard, it freaked me out because I don't even want anyone to know I have them - isn't that terrible??? He asked me if they were for sale - at least he asked instead of stealing but then it occurs to me, he knows what they are, and he wants some too. I'm paranoid about it because I would not take it very well if someone did that to my plants, I would be crushed.

Hearing that James had to cut his inflos off to protect his plants is heartbreaking :( And that many of us can't / won't put plants in the front yard so as not to draw attention to them is very, very sad too.

Well I guess the point is unless you have your plumies behind locked gates you have less of a chance of theft. Juan aka Guapo has an alley in back of his property and some of his plumies were by the fence facing the alley and someone cut a lot of branches of his plumies also. John From JJ's had stated that even though is Nursery if fenced and locked at night he has had people steal from him at night, and I know of a person who stole from him during they day. Doug Jones told me when he had his own Patch in Solano Bch that had a really tall fence surrounding the property that someone dug under the fence to get in and steal.
So dosn't matter the demographics if its a high end neighborhood, middle class you have to watch your plumies. I had a lady in a new BMW X5 pull up while I was watering my plumies and try to chat me up about them, she tried to take a look and I told her that it was private property and I did not allow garden tours... I last saw her outside the fence on the sidewalk looking at my large blooming Thai Splash and a few other plants and thought since she was driving a New X5 she was harmless so I went to water the plumies on the side of the patch. When I came back out after watering I noticed she was gone but when I walked to where she was standing I saw latex and noticed that a few branches from differnt plnats were missing. I went to the property Mgrs unit to check the video surveillance I saw her taking the cuttings. Since her car did not have plates as it was new I had no way of tracking her down and have not seen her since. So you can never tell.
Just FYI.

All these stories are heartbreaking and it makes me sick, mad, afraid, etc.
I'm so sorry some of you have to go through this (though I know I'm not immune).
I often wonder what I'd do if I come home only to find my precious plants missing from my backyard.
Hopefully there are more honest and good people out there than bad.

-Robert

That is awful! I love seeing pictures of landscaped yards, but thievery is driving everyone to be defensive in so many ways. It's bad enough when someone breaks off a branch, but it is horrifying when they cut the entire tree down.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

astrl

I have to say that sadly, I am not surprised either. James, Bill, and a few others had told me before that they had also had many plumeria stolen from there property. Even I, living in New York, am concerned about plant thievery, esepcially when plant enthusiasts, and even just people on the street, stop and admire them. I have had so many people say "I never would have thought that you could grown Plumeria, Pineapples, Mangoes...here in western NY. I have even had a few people say, "I cannot find anyone that sells these, where can I buy them?", I hate to say it, but that's what scares me. People who are not willing to order ovwer the internet, and cannot find them locally, will steal! I have heard of it happening here in NY, and in PA. I like going to Potratz in Erie, PA. They specialize in tropicals, and harder to find plants, and trees. Anyhow, they have had people steal right from there greenhouses!

People don't realize how much time, love, and plain old hard work we have all put into getting our trees/plants to the point where there beautiful. They just come and mangle them, not even realizing that there is a right and wrong way to even cutting them! They do so much more damage. What's wrong with just asking if they could get a cutting, not saying that everyone would do this, if anything people like James, and all the others that have had there trees damaged so badly are probobly more reluctant to just hand out cuttings! I remember Bill saying one time that he had a crate of cuttings in front of his door. The cuttings were even numbered with blue tape, and people thought that they were up for grabs and they were stolen!

I have to say, the other issue that really fries me is when James says that the polic consider it to be a petty theft! So, if someone comes, and chops off a 4ft branch from lets say...Makaha Sun, or J.L. Dane, it's still considered petty theft when that cutting would have sold for 100's of doolars?!

My heart goes out to all of you who have had this happen to you. I also have to say that I feel so bad for the people that genuinly just wanted to see your spectacular gardens, and cannot because others have ruined it! It's just not fair!

Andrew

Andrew,, That is is..they just dont care... They dont think about us as growers tsking our time to nuture are trees to get them healthy and then they come and strip down out trees to the bare minium. Makes me sick...

I remenber Bill saying how he and a few other, Maybe Henry Apples Dupree and othes from SCPC wanted to try and plant trees along some park... well it didnt take long for people to start snilpping off limbs and then they went for the whole bottom thrnk and rootball. I know it made him sick, as it shoud have. People have no respect for what he and others were trying to do.. Beautify the area for others to enjoy, instead of having a place to come and get what you want"

Really gets my goat... i would love to see someone do that to my trees or any of my friends trees. Heck..even if i didnt know them, i would ask if they had permission and make it known that i saw them taking cutting. get the license plate and call the cops.. stolen property..

I worry that people are getting to the point they just want to make a quick buck.. It is so sad when we have to plants our trees in the back...

Im so sorry for your loss.. that was just mean.

Ialso agree that they will grow back, like James said...seal the tips and let it be. I would check out craigs list in your area to see if any one is sellinf something like yours... Hmmm

This makes my blood boil...
Laursa

I have read that even in Hawaii people have stripped roadside trees down to stumps. I would imagine that would be tourists.

I read an online article from Aloha Airlines inflight magazine where the author was interviewing Jim Little. The author was talking about how plumerias are so common there that he barely even noticed a huge tree in front of his house and that if you ask someone if you can take a cutting from a tree of theirs, they always say yes.

He also mentioned that Jim never gives tours of his farm as he is afraid of theft if too many people know about it.

I caught a lady one time with her clippers just merrily cutting away at plants in my front yard. When I asked if I could help her she just smiled and said no thanks! I then told her to get the "%#$&&! out of my yard, took my plants and ran her off. For awhile the building across the alley housed one of those send your spoiled kid here instead of jail places and those people stole anything that wasn`t tied down, fertilizer, shovels, my fan off the back porch! We now have locks on the gates, barbed wire on top of the gate and the dogs are loose every night. Luckily they are gone and it is a resale shop.
I have never lost plumeria from the front beds, plenty of other stuff including cactus, zinnias and some annuals. Caught the guy down the street with his GRANDDAUGHTER carrying off plants he pulled up because "they were just growing there".

Someone has been jumping the fence at the community garden and stealing vegetables and eggs.

Shameful we have to grow our plants behind locked fences and are afraid to let anyone in.
Tally HO!

yesterday in broad daylie a car pulled up along side my plumeria tree brokre off a six foot brach threw it in thier car and left. police didnt do anything and there was a witness, and they knew the person that did it. police think its only a plant.