A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 SOMEONE STOLE MY SUNFLOWER

This year was the first time I had ever grown sunflowers from seeds, so I put them in pots in the back garden. They came out very late, in fact only starting blooming a couple of weeks ago, and I was over the moon with the results.
Anyway, one in particular was fabulous, about 10"-12" in diameter, and every member of the family used to admire it when going down the drive. But this morning, as my husband was having his cup of tea, he looked out of the front window and asked me what had I done with the big sunflower? I of course told him nothing at all, and to our dismay, it had gone!! stolen....pinched...flower nabbed!!
None of us can believe that someone had walked all the way up the path to the front of the house, just to cut off my sunflower.
It's a lovely neighbourhood that we live in, very quiet, and with lots of retired people, so this is unbelievable. All we can think of is that someone wanted to take it home with them to put in their home, or it was some deranged phantom sunflower thief that had been let out of the hospital for the evening
Anyway, just wanted to vent because i'm really angry and upset that someone has done this, so sorry to bend your ears.
Take care
Mrs.D.

I've been there and know exactly what you mean. It's hard to believe what some people will do. I'm so sorry you lost your flower.

And I know how hard it is to find out that your neighbors aren't quite as pleasant as you thought they were.

That's sad...
I know how you feel..
in a round about way..
The first year here with my first garden,
I had some small pumpkin's, and one big one
I'd grown.. and a couple odd ball gourds/small
pumpkins a relative gave my baby...
and for Halloween, kids came and smashed all
of my pumpkins and the one's he'd been given.

They apparently had done it to alot of houses'
so I wasn't the only one..
and come to find out they found out who did it,
and made them scrape up every bit of every pumpkin
they'd thrown...

Hopefully, we can look on the bright side for
your big sunflower, maybe they wanted some seeds to grown their own and or feed the birds...
We can hope it was something nice behind the bad action..

ANDDDDDDDDDD, ask your neighbors if they saw anything, you'd be surprised how many neighbors
actually do see things...never know...'til you ask.

It's the retired folk. They are on a fixed income.

Hi HOOP....Hi WEEZ

Thanks for the kind thoughts, they are appreciated.

Mrs. D. - my mommy is Mrs. D too but unless she picked up and moved to the UK...
Anyhow, nice to meet you - but sorry it's under these circumstances - I can understand how frustrating this theft is for you. We had our first garden this year and I had a fit over a neighbor dog that decided to 'water my flowers' and burn them up - an animal, that doesn't know any better (hmm...or DO they) and for you, to know a person came and took it - not like they could have even thought you might miss it - must be so very upsetting! I hope the person that took it is allergic and it makes them itch in strange places!

I'm hopin' for the best, that they
wanted to feed the birds and didn't have
enough money???

but doesn't justify the taking it...

But also, maybe GOD's way of putting
several people in your path, to chat with, like
the neighbors....post here and get some good
response's * !!!!!

And the thrill of not giving up, and to do it again next year...
And a lesson to learn in gardening as well...
*the birds do drop them, or they fall to the ground the previous years' sunflower* and are
wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy bigger than one you can ever direct plant or start early in pots..
So, you learned a valuable gardening lessen..
and next year, you'll plant a ba~zillion of them,
enough to enjoy, share with the birds, and the passer's~by!!! *ohhhhhhh and keep some seeds for yourself, that is too*

I grew all sorts of lovely's this year, lemon colored one's, giants, powder puff one's like~Teddy bear one's I think they're called..
rust colored ones, ohhhhhh, I can't think of the diffent one's I grabbed... but the birds are sure enjoying themselves this year, and it's between mine and my mom's house, so the two of us are getting some extra enjoyment watching those wee~birds get some good chow...

Glad I could lighten the mood of a terrible tragedy.

Are you confessing, Weezie?

Dianna

I know EXACTLY how you feel! Last year I finally found a plant that was worthy of the heart shaped hanging planter I'd brought home from my daughter's wedding the year before. (Spray-painted white, & hung on every pew with bouquets & ribbons/lace... beautiful!) Anyway, I hung it on the front of our house, & 4 days later it was GONE!

At first I was confused & wondered if I'd just dreamed putting it there or if I was having some sort of insanity episode!
Then came the anger! (Mind you, we live on a dead-end street & have only 1 neighbor, so nobody BUT NOBODY casually passes by here on their way TO anywhere... except deer & skunks, heading for the abandon field, west of us! Someone had to deliberately come into my yard & blatantly steal that planter!)

I tried not to let my mind suspect my neighbor (Mr. Nasty), simply because it's not a Christian thing to do (he & his wife live on the east side of us & just so happen to be the most un-neighborly, rude, unreasonable people I've ever met in my life), and I had absolutely no basis on which to accuse anyone... other than having seen Mr. Nasty come to our yard & look around 1 day when my car was in the shop & he probably thought nobody was home here, but that's hardly grounds to indict him!

Then, came the paranoia! We stopped leaving the keys in our cars, & stopped leaving the garage wide open all the time, & I even locked the doors when I was home alone all day & locked everything up tight at night for a while, even though nothing else was missing when the planter disappeared!

So anyway, long story/short (AHH! too late!), I was very saddened by the loss of such a special souvenir, & also because I couldn't even find another plant to replace the 1 I'd lost. (I'd left the marker in the planter, so I can't even say what it was!)

OK, so fast-forward to this year ~> ~> Upon hearing that my planter had been stolen, my daughter shipped hers to me from Maui (even though she'd ended up with only 1, too). Still paranoid & not wanting to take any chances again, I found a plant for it & hung it on my garden gate this time...INSIDE MY FENCED BACK YARD! Upon our return from a week's vacation in Montana, we discovered that... you guessed it.... the planter was GONE! Only this time, the mundane plant that had been in it had been dumped out! GRRR!

A few weeks after that, we put an iron plant hanger next to the walkway in front of the house & I bought a beautiful Fuschia & a fancy hanging planter for it... which also grew legs/wings/whatever, a week later! I thought about setting up the camcorder in the front window, aimed at the plant hanger, & turning it on whenever I went to the store... but I never got around to it! Instead, I fished out a yucky regular hanging planter from the shed & stuffed a couple fistfuls of Creeping Violet in it, which had taken over part of a flower bed, & tied the planter hook to the iron hanger with about 2 feet of bailing wire! (A thief would have to had thought to bring wire cutters with him if he wanted THIS 1!) Needless to say, that stupid looking set-up still hangs there today!

Incidentally, I've learned thst Mr. Nasty will be gone soon, & while I'm still not comfortable about accusing him in my mind, somehow I feel that next year when I hang something nice in my yard & turn my back, it'll stay there! (and wouldn't it be great if they have a yard sale after he's gone, & I can maybe buy my heart planters back!!!)

I do wish you better luck next year with your Sunflowers & I hope they turn out bigger & better than the potential prizewinner that got pinched from your yard this year! (I think it was just plain meanness on someone's part, as Sunflowers don't even make good cut flowers, & nobody got more than a couple hours of enjoyment of its beauty!) SMILE... there ARE more where that 1 came from... ... & we keep on planting!

Hi Mrs.D,
I am really sorry for this incident. We have shifted newly here and I have been having the same kind of experiences.I had planted two of my aloe veras outside my house near the compound wall. Ten days back one of them disappeared. I couldn't believe that somebody would have stolen it. My mom warned me to remove the second one and keep it inside, but stupid of me not to have listened to her and few days back the second one was also taken away.There are some people who have joy when they see others feeling bad.When we spend so much of time and energy taking care of our plants as our own kids it is quite natural to get emotionally attached to them.Try putting a fence around your valuable plants. Take care!

To all of you, thank you so much for all your experiences and kind thoughts for me. It saddens me that I am not alone in this, though to be honest, i didnt think i would be.
I only wrote this post because i was so upset and angry, but i knew you guys would understand.
I'm really sorry to all of you that have had similar things happen to you, i know how you feel.
I just thought that people would maybe pinch expensive, extravagant plants or shrubs, not just normal ones that grow quite easily. But judging from all of your anecdotes, it is quite the contrary. My family are just as angry as me, coz they've seen the time and effort i've put into the garden this year, but my youngest said to me i should take it as a compliment really. He said they were just very sad people who probably couldn't grow one like it, so took mine.
I've another 2 great big ones in pots in the back garden, which, only the day before my huge one was pinched, i was going to ask my hubby to carry to the front. Needless to say, they are not going anywhere!! lol
The birds don't feed off them because we actually go to the wholesalers to buy different bird foods in bulk. It's like a continual feeding machine around here!! Since i had to retire in March, and i've spent so much time in the garden, i put food out regularly and now we have an astonishing array of wildlife that come from about 6am to 1am or 2am the following morning. I feel really blessed to witness all of this first-hand, right in my own back garden and i thank God daily when i stand and look at them in awe. Even my husband went out and bought a bird book so we could find out what they were, where they're from and what they like to eat!! Bless him!!

Mrs. D, how refreshing that your "youngest" has such an outlook! (That you should take it as a compliment.) You didnt mention how young "youngest" is, but maybe that doesn't matter! That sort of a positive mind set isn't something that we hear enough of these days!
Hats off to you & yours!!!

Hi Patty,
Thanks for the post.
My youngest is 17....18 in January, my eldest is 24......both boys.
I brought them up the same way i had been brought up. My parents were European. My mummy was from Austria, and my daddy from Hungary. We never had much money, but the emotional security was unbelievable. We always had lots of affection, hugs and kisses. So i didn't know any other way

Mrs. D. You're a woman after me own heart!!!

Every word you wrote is soooo true...
If every parent took the time...wouldn't it
be a better world...

And next year, for your sunflowers , maybe plant
a Ga~zillion of sunflowers... then, if one or
two are taken, there's still more for ALL to enjoy.

I'm tryin' to think of some way to plant in a huge long row sunflowers.. and on either side of the row something that looks like a ballerina bar,
or when some one goes thru therapy, to re~walk again, they use those bars to balance..
and plant the sunflowers between those two bars..
and then they're held up by something sturdy and
I can put about 100 of them in...all different colors too.. what fun I had with the different selections I had...


And have you been in the bird section we have here? There's a wonderful section there that says
Butterfly and Bird Gardens There's alot
of gardeners here that love the wild life too...

WEEZ....Thank you so much. I think you are absolutely correct. If parents took a liitle more time with their children, it would really make a difference. I think that if you can help instill appreciation for good family values and for the amazing world that God created, including all the animals and nature, then hopefully, they will then carry it on to the next generation with their own family.

Anyway........back to sunflowers!!

I am almost doubtful about getting any
seeds from me, as I've let the birds in
there and never netted any to keep for my self..
*Oh, I take that back, I got 6 off of one of the
heads, until picking them my fingers were purple
*from the seeds' oils'* and I got side tracked
and didn't get a chance to get back to them..*

We loved watching the little one's come in for
food and it was fun for all of us here...

I will try to tell you the names of them..
and see if I can find some pictures for you..

I had gotten mine a Wal~Mart here, but they were
off the shelves very quickly...
Come spring time, they should come back in stock again..

I will look up in some of my gardening catalogs,
to see if I can find some reference to them for you ...

Okay, I'll tell you the one's I remember first..

Lemon Queen

Velvet Queen

Teddy Bear

Autumn Beauty Mix

Sunflower Sunset

And a Giant something or other,
I think Russian Giant, but can't remember..

Thanks a lot WEEZ, really appreciate that

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh and steal the idea
away~Please do!!!....
I was hopin' you'd like it, and try it.
*I love to hear how people did things, and we
all love to see pictures of the outcomes of them..

#1. Burpee\'s Sunflowers

#2. Wildflowers/ www. wildseedfarms.com
*I was lookin' at this one, and the prices are
cheaper it seems and for more seeds than what
I paid for them...

If you go to my photobucket link
at the bottom of my posts,
click on page 2 and 4 and there's a bunch
of them...*I still have more pictures
to download not only from the camera,
but upload them to Photobucket..
*Did some one say, Winter Project*

WEEZ

Thank you so much...the pictures are great!!

Hi, I lost my sunflower too. I looked up at the gigantic stem one day, all 12 ft or more of it believe it or not, the sunflower was gone. I found it on the ground close by, so I'm assuming the wind took it, or one of the blackbirds that love to go after anything yellow may have taken it off? I have a couple in my garden, and they are only about 6 ft tall, but have nice sunflowers on them. I prefer these to the jack in the beanstalk one I had in the backyard.