ORCHID THEFT- Grandma's orchid collection stolen out of her own backyard! :(
 

Hi all-

I don't know whether I'm more mad or sad right now! I can't even fathom who or why someone would do this.

As some of you may remember, I came to Orchid Board last year for help rehabilitating my grandmother's cymbidium collection which she'd been growing since before I was born. She was unable to care for them anymore and the last 25 or so plants left had been neglected for several years.

Well, over the last year or so I started tending to them each week and re-potted all of them and thanks to the help here, they came back to life!
Just last week, 11 of the orchids had flower spikes with 10+ buds each all just about to open up any day now.


I went over to check on them this morning, expecting to finally have some orchid flowers for my Grandma. Instead all I found were 2 knocked over pots that some of the younglings had been potted in, and outlines in the dirt where the rest of the large mature plants had been. Someone took them all, right out of the backyard!
These orchids were large standard cymbidiums in heavy pots so there's no chance the wind blew them away or anything, they were definitely stolen :((


This is all so baffling and upsetting, there's no way anyone would have even known the orchids were there because the yard is on top of a steep hill and can't be seen from the street or anything. Also one would have to go up a long windy driveway to even get up to the house, I'm guessing someone must have driven right up, loaded up their car and took off with them.


My apologies for ranting here, but no one else understands why anyone would care about some missing plants, but I knew you guys would. I also want to thank you all for the help and guidance that allowed those orchids to make a full recovery, even if someone else is now enjoying them instead of her!

Has this ever happened to any of you guys??

That really sucks! I have been fortunate that it has not happened to me yet.

wow! I'm so sorry that happened :( Especially brutal as you had nursed these plants along, and they were soon to be blooming.

I have read some posts in the past of plants being stolen, tho not often. It's so crazy that anyone would want to steal plants! I have had small rose 'trees' vandalized - they were planted near the curb - only one survived.

I can imagine how upset you must be :(

I'm at loss for words, that's just horrible that someone would do that! You put so much work into them, and can imagine that they have a lot of sentimental value for both you and your grandma. And after all your work to nurse them back to health you were so close to finally enjoying the blooms, but now you can't. I think that's what gets to me the most in this story, that you didn't get to see a single bloom.... :(

We've had someone steal a potted geranium from the yard in the past, but that's just a geranium, I quickly got over it. (was more upset about losing the nice pot). But having orchids stolen, I think I'd react differently!

I am so sorry to hear about this! I know how sad and angry you must be. It is just another one of those things that make you wonder what this world is coming to. I could send you a few plants to get started. Just send a personal message with your address. Everyone here at orchid board will get you fixed up in no time!

:((:((:(( That is just plain rotten .. I am so sorry it happened . We had our ATV stolen a few years ago and I am in a peaceful area. Know how you feel . I would report it might not do any good but would anyway at least it would be on record in the event they show up ..

What a cruel thing to do! How can these people live with themselves? These are our babies!

Thank you all so much for the support, I'm glad I can talk to people who understand that the thief stole so much more than just potted plants!

I definitely don't understand the reasoning behind it either, what value, either monetary or sentimental, could they possibly be to that person??

There is a sheriff who lives on my grandma's street, maybe I will let him know what happened and ask other neighbors if they saw anything suspicious. I know they're not going to be recovered and doubt the thief will ever be caught, but I wish I at least knew what happened!

That's terrible! I'm really sorry to hear about it. I know it's happened around here in the past also. It's amazing what some people will do.

It may not hurt to let the neighborhood know what happened. If for some reason it was some local kids, maybe someone would try to get them back to you if they understood the sentimental value to you.