Truly I have a terrible story for you this week. Well, maybe not terrible in the greater scheme of things but fairly astonishing. Despite its location, it does not involve death.
Does the world really divide in two groups of people? There are those who understand instinctively that pretty, seasonal floral displays in public places are there to bring pleasure to all.
And then there is the other lot. Those who think that the same pretty flowers are in fact their personal picking garden and it is their right to pick bouquets with no thought at all that they might be depriving others of pleasure. First in first served and all that.
The Te Henui cemetery in New Plymouth is known to many, not just locals but also from further afield. The repository of the dead going back well over a century, it is also a popular dog-walking route. But, for many of us, it is a place to visit to see the flowers.
Part of that is the designation of the cemetery which allowed for recreational use (hence the urban dog-walkers) but also the planting of trees which are less common in graveyards on account of their root systems breaking up all that concrete. But most of the credit for the current floweriness all through the year must go to a small group of dedicated volunteers who spend a large part of every week tending the detailed plantings on and around the graves.
Theft is always an issue, especially with plantings in public places. The volunteers at the cemetery have learned to deal with it but it doesn’t stop their frustration and disappointment.
Last week, one entitled woman took it to new heights. She was seen helping herself to tulips and daffodils. When challenged about her actions, she became angry. How dare anybody rain on her parade? Most of us would be embarrassed but not her. She phoned the police and claimed she was being intimidated. Two officers turned up with remarkable promptness. She was waiting for them, holding just one daffodil (having dropped the others along the way to the exit, you understand), claiming she was being harassed for picking a single flower.
No further action was taken but it is hard to believe that this woman has learned her lesson. Volunteer gardener, Susan, made sure to retrace her steps and retrieve the flowers she had thrown away, showing them to the police after the woman had left. While this woman is by no means the only person picking flowers, she is the only one who had the nerve to call the police in retaliation for being challenged.
Susan tells me: “We have lost 17 tulips from the grave opposite the tomb and 8 from the grave on the eastern side – so far. It doesn’t sound many but the season is not over yet and the tulips are expensive and don’t reliably re-flower in subsequent years. So tulip losses in particular are very aggravating. We pay for the tulip bulbs.
We deliberately plant the tulips by the road so that the rest home vans can drive past with residents and the residents can view them from the van (most have mobility issues).”
The moral is clear. Don’t steal flowers (or indeed plants). Especially don’t think it is okay to raid them from public places where they are tended by volunteers. Also, the police have better things to do than to be used as a back-up for some entitled, selfish person.
What is wrong with some people?
On a more positive note, the magnolias in the cemetery are looking splendid this week.
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 
It is a behaviour beyond upsetting. It is, particularly in this context, very disrespectful.
Shameless, Paddy. And very hard to know how to deal with such a lack of common decency.
This self-entitlement is SO frustrating. On Christmas Day I was tending to our butterfly habitat in the local park, and a woman arrived (didn’t see me until I spoke) and helped herself to flowers. I asked her to stop. She said, she was entitled to. I told her no, the flowers were there for the butterflies and pollinators, and the community to enjoy. She told me she was a member of the community and therefore she could take the flowers!
I agree with you Mark/Abbie, it is horrifying!
I think it is indicative of the rise of an extremely selfish world view – the cult of the individual. A breakdown of previously respected shared values with regard to community and the common good. It is a dispiriting divide.
Gads! I wish posts such as this were not necessary!
I wouldn’t have written it if it was the just the usual low grade pilfering of flowers. But calling the police, hiding the evidence and lying to the police was major escalation and particularly upsetting for the volunteer gardeners.
I confronted someone taking flowers from my former garden, and was told that it was okay because it (my home) was just a rental. Because it was in a neighborhood of apartment buildings, I grew only nasturtiums and euryops in front. I did not anticipate anyone going in back for my gladiolus.
Gee, that is next level arrogance. So renters have no rights?
Weirdly, that was the same home where neighbors thought that it was inappropriate for me to mow my own lawn or drive old American cars.
i could only wish the volunteer had taken a photo of this lady and put a post up on Facebook. It’s outrageous, entitled behaviour that deserves to be publicly called out. I hope the perpetrator sees your column Abbie, and feels a bit ashamed but sadly somehow I doubt it.
Like you I doubt the perpetrator’s ability to see what she did wrong. I wrote that piece because I thought her nerve was astonishing but mostly because I could see how upsetting the whole thing was for the volunteers.