Hi, I;m really upset.! Our iris beds lie along the street, about 10 feet from the edge. We're a small villiage, only about 600 residents.I laid out a new bed this spring, dedicated to re-bloomers (to make culture a little easier, I hope ). I've been laid up a few days, and haven't Been out much, spending a lot of time cruising the Iris forums.Walked out this a.m. to check the new growth on my new iris,and 4 plants were gone! Brand new, just planted, about a week ago. 3 of them I had been hunting for a long time. Foot prints in the fresh bed, muddy( we finally are getting some rain) tracks heading back to the street. Rita was out yesterday to check and didn't notice anythig amiss, so must have been late yesterday afternoon,or during the night.What kind of crumb does this crap??...Arlyn

Dang, that's pretty rotten! Looks like you're going to have to do some looking around for people who have iris blooming next year that match the ones you've had stolen! Now most likely the shipping season is over so you won't be able to replace them for another year. I think I'd invest in one of those cameras that you can hide, and then plant some estra rhizomes, label them with fancy names and see what I could find out!

That would be discouraging. My problem is that I live near a Jr. High School and the kids as they come and go like to pick or break my flower stems so I have roses in the front beds....sometimes they pull off the petals. 99% of the iris are in the back gardens so they don't get bothered. My son has one of those cameras...he calls it a trail camera that he takes into the canyons and leaves on a trail to try and get some pictures. The other day he came over upset. He went to check his camera and some one hadn't stole it but had taken the memory card out....lucky not to loose the camera but he'd waited a week to see pictures and there were none.

Hi,! We live across the streey from the villiage park and the "punks" tend to hang out there in the evening . It's supposed to close at dusk, but the trouble makers seem to hang on past that. From now on ,if I see them there after hours, I'm calling the cops to run them out! we've always lost bloom stalks, and tulip flowers,etc. in the spring to the "little" kids (mostly little girls) who are "picking pretty flowers for mommy". We don't really like it ,but, If we see them ,we let them pick certain ones that they can take home. That's not really theft anyway, That's not really theft, or destruction, at that age ,they're "just shareing" . Rita drove me around town, and we found 1 Rhisome thrown out on the street, about 3 blocks from home, so I'm sure it was"big kids", just being destructive . I re-planted it, and hope it grows. it had been run over, bur the rhisome was hard enough that I think It'll be ok...Arlyn

By the way, Paul, It makes me wonder what picture the camera had taken that they wanted the card for? You would have expected them to have taken the camers, wouldn'y you! If I put ANYTHING out, it'll be a lawn chair, with me and a big club, in it!

I'm guessing that trail cam caught some poachers. We used to live in a neighborhood that had a common area, and my house bordered the playground. People walking into the playground thought nothing of stopping to pick my flowers. I used to grow some pretty expensive daffodils that I showed in our Daffodil Society show. You can imagine my disappointment at seeing a $12 bloom disappear right after it opened.
I finally fenced in the yard, which caused the HOA to have an emergency meeting to try to make a new rule saying no fences. the neighbors on either side of me decided to put fences on their yards, too, because they were tired of inconsiderate parents and kids. I landscaped outside the fence with iris pallida, rudbeckia, a blackberry vine, and older varieties of hosta. Whenever I saw a kid getting interested in a flower, I would pot one up for them and send it home with them. I told them to just ask me, and I would find just the right one for them. When I moved, the whole block had i. pallida in front of the houses. It was really pretty. I told the kids the name was grape soda pop.
Never again will I buy property that borders common ground. Too many people think the common property runs right up to your doorstep, and that everything in your yard is their property also.

something prickly between the irises & the street? It's not only kids (although they are the destructive ones). At our iris convention in 1983 someone dug up an iris in the display beds. Joe Ghio was great about it (his plant) pointing out that the thief had good taste.

When it is a special plant I would plant it out of sight until you have enough increases so that it doesn't matter. Crossed fingers that the found rhizome will be ok when replanted. Irises are tough.

That makes me so mad for you. What kind of people do stuff like this. Darn it all.

Its worse than kritter damage because the punks know what they are doing.

Oh Arlyn -- I'm so sorry. How totally upsetting. People just don't understand the affinity we have for our plants -- the care that we take in our selections, and planting. And how long we wait for that reward, the bloom. All they see is a plant. And take perverse pleasure in stealing/destroying it.

One Spring, after I had spent a great deal of time re-doing my Iris bed along the riding arena, the Irises were finally beginning to bud up and bloom. I went out one morning to cut a couple of blooms to take to a friend -- and found one entire plant pulled up out of the soil and thrown into the yard. The bloom stalk was gone. Someone had obviously admired the flower (my beautiful *Blue Reflection*), tried to pick the stem and yanked the whole plant out of the ground. So they jerked the bloom stem off, and discarded the plant. I was so mad. If they wanted the flowers -- all they had to do was come up to the house, and I would have cut a stem for them. And offered them a rhizome so they could have one of their own. From then on, I plant my more common Irises near the road, and keep the really great ones up near the house. If they're gonna try to steal blossoms, they're gonna have to risk getting caught!!

When we lived in town, kids mainly would pick tulips, hyacinths, irises. I didn't mind it so very much, as they never injured a plant. But, then again, I didn't hybridize. We have a trail cam too. They are pretty inconspicuous, so I doubt someone would see them. But again, The Scarecrow. It would shoot a nice shot of water at them.

Why can't we teach children that flowers are not there for them to pick? they have picked daffs from in front of our stone wall & run when we pull into the driveway. We would be glad to give them some if they had asked. They seem to know it's wrong so they should leave them alone.

I find very few manners in kids these days in general.I sound like a old fuddy duddy but then again I am one.
I think kids live with such paranoia over strangers and adults they just believe they would be turned down if they asked.
My gardens are so far from the street I dont worry about those things.DD's gardens near the street are planted with daises and the types of plants that spread and are plentiful.