Rfalconcam Forum

I got home from work to discover someone had cut most of the flowers off my lilac bushes!  And my neighbor saw someone in a white van pull into my driveway & do it!  And thought nothing of it!  And said he'd seen him in my driveway before! (Yes, I always tell the neighbor when I have work being done when I'm not home)

The nice young trooper of course said there's nothing to be done unless he shows up again...and told the neighbor to call 911 if he does.  Said there's actually a better chance than usual of catching them since someone saw him-usually doesn't happen that way.

The $(&^% just took loppers & cut the flowers off!  There's nothing but bare naked stems sticking up in the middle of the bushes!  And he didn't even take everything he chopped!  Left cut branches with flowers everywhere-which I can't even put in a vase now 'cause they've been laying on the ground all day.   The bushes were big when I moved here 30 years ago-you can only imagine the size now.  I had a lot of old branches damaged this winter...now this *&^%!$## chopped off all the young growth!  I hope they survive.

I think my blood pressure is down out of the stratosphere but still not very pretty.  How could somebody do this?  I always felt safe here since so many of my neighbors are retired & home all day.  I guess that's shot right to heck.

Thanks for listening...now back to our regular programming...

How awful Ei. I'm so sorry this happened to you. I don't know what's going on in this world  but people are &^%#ed up!!!    :grumble: :tickedoff:

 :viking:

How awful!!!!!  And what the heck is going on with the neighbor?  I hope that it is early enough for everything to bloom again. Sheesh.

My lawn guy's son mowed down my butterfly bush (that I had a gate around) and I went ballistic.  But this is worse.  I hope the person who did this gets caught.

Ei - you just named one of the reasons that we sold the lake house and moved on board Valhalla.  I had great luck with Dutch bulbs - giant crocus and tulips hip high - the "city" kids showed up with dog chain and trampled them - didn't take them - just let the dog kill them.  Of course the same kids subsequently broke in and took several things of our parents - never found and irreplaceable.  We've all been there and my BP just went up a few notches in sympathy.

I would suggest that if the house is alarmed to change the codes and get a check-up there.  If it isn't alarmed, do so now - motion is an option, as some exterior action will trigger it. 

What is with people?  This is the sub-human species that I keep refering to.  Protect yourself!  Get the shotgun out, too!

We love Lilacs and have many bushes on our land and I would be furious too if anyone did that to ours.  I'm so sorry, Ei.   

Thanks everyone...I just needed to get it off my chest...solutions will have to wait for daylight...

The trooper suggested I take some pictures in case they catch the guy...I didn't realize just how much of a hack job until now.  This is just one of the bushes...there are 2 others just as huge...this morning it was full of leaves & flowers...



It's just boggling my mind

Oh Ei, I am so sorry.  What a terrible thing to come home to. 

Ei, this is horrendous!  As a child, I remember my parents had lilac bushes between our house and their single car garage.  Actually, they ended up being trees.  They grew so high that they only bloomed at the top and it was difficult to cut the flowers.  My dad made a decision to cut them back - way back!  My mom thought for sure they were done.  Low and behold they turned out to flower beautifully for many more years to come.  I hope yours will come back the same way.

I just don't understand why someone would do this.   :(

Reading Joyce's post and that butcher-job picture, Ei, made me think "this is a job for the arborist or tree surgeon".  Get the experts in to manicure and trim the trees and bushes and also to estimate the damage.  Call your insurance company (you never know).  You are talking HUGE trees/bushes - get the experts involved to both save the lilacs and your pocketbook.
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Vent away! What a nasty trick! But on the bright side (IS there one?) - I need to trim one of our lilacs as it has got very tall and leggy, with blooms only at the top and out of reach. The website from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHA) says they can be pruned all at once... in which case you wait 3 yrs for more blossoms. OR - and this is what I plan to do - prune one-third each year for 3 years. While they say this should be done in autumn, perhaps something like this could work. Good ideas re insurance and pros, tho.

See if the insurance people will let you get a Lilac-Cam so you can catch the blighters!! :nono: :thumbsdown:

Slainte!
Bobbie

The Lilac Festival is huge here in Rochester.  Check it out.

http://www.lilacfestival.com/

I just love the Lilac Festival.  It brings back such great memories of my mom and Aunt taking me there for my birthday every year :happy:.  I LOVE the smell of Lilacs! 

and who has that wonderful picture of the beautiful Mariah amongst the Lilacs that Cornpoppy did?  Please post it if you have it.  I know I must have it at home.

That is a major mean thing...hard to imagine why someone would have done that!  However, as Bobbie said, if you can do a nice job of cleaning it up, leaving some of the older wood for next year's blooms, it will eventually come back nicely.  We prune away about 1/4 to 1/3 of our lilac canes down to the ground (or within a foot) every year and they produce new canes that will make flowers in 3 years.  You probably already know all that if you're a lilac lover...

Anyway, I'm really sorry for your loss and understand how upset you must be.

Carol, this pic? Oh it's a beauty and it won 1st place in 2004.   :clap:

Ok, I'm over medicated on Zyrtec D...Cornpoppy's pic of Mariah won 3rd place... sent in by Paul. Shaky's pic won 1st place. Here it is. Great pic also. And 2nd place was a pic by Granny (Dana).

Absolutely gorgeous!    :heart:

Yes!  That's the one.  Thanks for posting it Donna.   :clap:

My mom, whose gardening skills I inherited (ahem), loved lilacs.  For several years, she pulled out this one "weed" but later found out it was a lilac (must have been transplanted from a neighbor's yard).  After she found this out, one of our neighbors asked to weed the yard (a woman in her 80s who loved doing this and needed more than her yard).  Sure enough, the lilac got pulled again. Mom gave up.

Reminds me of when we had the teeniest of gardens in Dublin years ago... and I asked Rod to pull the weeds... NEVER thinking I had to identify these. When I got home, all my herbs and vegetables were on the compost heap! Most, tho, were rescued successfully... Ah, memories!

Hi Ei, I feel very sorry for you! I hate it when such things happens, it makes me very angry.
Every year I have that problem in my little garden, with flowers but specially with vegetables. They take away your zucchinies and pumpkins, tomatoes etc.
Why are people doing such things? My neighbor always says, you have to think that they needed it more than you.

 :heart: greetings Aafke

Your neighbor is kind - my reaction is, "and if they do, they should ask first"!  I think it is the taking that angers me the most.

There is taking a few flowers but that was mutilation.  :o

First & foremost, thank you all for your kind thoughts & support...it really has helped.  The bushes will come back eventually but I may not get any flowers next year-this is year 3 of the 1/3 per year revitalization project and they cut all the new growth-they left the old woody stuff that was scheduled to get cut back this year anyway.

But there is some good news.  The trooper did as he said he would & interviewed my other neighbors the next day.  One of them came over today & told me he told a friend in the next town over, who had the same thing happen the day after me-not his personal bushes, but the trailer park where he lives.  His trooper told him they sell them in NYC for $1500-$2000 a van load!   :o  So guy #2 was on the lookout because they hadn't gotten all the flowers in the trailer park.  Sure enough, they were back the next day...pictures of the people, the white van & license plate # are now in the hands of the troopers.  Hopefully they'll catch the $^&%#@s!

2000.00 a van load....sheesh, I'm in the wrong business... :laugh:. I hope they catch them, as I'm sure they will now Ei. Yay for the troopers. Hopefully, in a few years your lilacs will be in full bloom and you can enjoy the beautiful aroma again. Still sorry though. What CREEPS!

Hope they bust 'em!  The no good down dirty &$%#@+?'s!!!!    :devil:    :tickedoff:

It seems really strange to me that they would sell for so much money, when in my experience, cut lilacs do not last long at all.  I occasionally cut a sprig for a bud vase, but they look pitiful within a couple of days.

I've seen them $9.99 a bunch at Whole Foods in Annapolis, so a van load with equal about 2K!  I have cut many lilacs over the years - I always asked and was always aware of where the years growth would be (my neighbor loved it because I pruned his bush and left the beauties for all to enjoy).  Gotta admit - this theft really troubles me.  Ei, I hope someone shoots rock salt into the fools backside before the cops arrest him - he'll live, but he's going to remember for a long time to come  :devil: :devil: