Plant thieves make off with pensioners’ display

The plants, which included delphiniums, campanulas and coreopsis, were set to form part of the St Sampson’s estate’s entry into Floral Guernsey in July.

The matter is being reported to the police, with officers expected to visit the site today.

Estate team leader Katina Jones said that the incident had occurred over the weekend.

‘We planted them on Saturday morning, but when we came back on Monday morning we noticed that some of them were missing,’ she said.

‘Something like this has never happened before, usually it’s so quiet here.’

Estate treasurer Sheila Cornelius feared that a broken gate adjacent to the flowerbed in question may have allowed a thief to gain access to the estate.

‘The gate is on a public path that forms a shortcut to the Bridge,’ she said.

‘Currently it’s broken so people can get in and out with no lock. We’ve been told it will be mended and that a motion light will be installed on it, but we don’t know when that will be.’

She added that she often saw children come through the gate, but did not suspect that they were responsible for taking the plants.

‘Whatever has happened to them has been done very neatly. There isn’t any vandalism as such, just divots where the plants were. I just wish whoever is responsible would have taken some of the weeds too.’

Last summer the community was celebrating after their hours of hard work saw them win trophies for Best Local Environment and the Small Community in the Floral Guernsey Community Awards.

Residents were working hard again to try and replicate the success this year.

Plants for the display were bought using money from residents’ pensions.

Mrs Jones said that floral displays were a regular occurrence on the estate.

‘I came here three years ago and we’ve done one every year since I arrived, and I’m pretty sure it was going on before that.

‘Because Floral Guernsey isn’t until July we still have time to replace the stolen plants, which we will probably do this week, but it’s such a shame for something like this to have happened as it costs us all extra money out of our pensions.’

She also confirmed that the police would be visiting the estate today.

‘Hopefully this will speed up the process of the gate being fixed and stop things like this from happening in future,’ she said.

The stolen plants

Achilleas

Delphiniums

Foxgloves

Hollyhocks

Coreopsis

Gaillardias

Aquilegias

Alchemilla mollis

Campanulas

Verbenas

Rudbeckias