Rodley Park to bloom again after Grow Ltd helps out

Residents have expressed their gratitude after receiving numerous offers to replace plants that were stolen from one of the estate’s flowerbeds at the start of this week.

A team from charity Grow Ltd are due to replant the flowerbed today.

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

But they were taken by an as-yet unidentified culprit.

Police sent an officer to the estate yesterday.

Estate team leader Katina Jones had been concerned that more money would have had to come out of residents’ pensions in order to pay for replacement plants, but was delighted to have received an offer yesterday morning from Grow to replace them all free of charge.

‘I’m amazed at the amount of people who have reached out,’ she said.

‘We felt it was right to accept Grow’s offer of help as they are so knowledgeable.

‘They have pretty much all of the plants that were taken as well so they can be replaced quite easily.’

Mrs Jones and estate treasurer Sheila Cornelius visited Grow’s temporary site at Oatlands yesterday to choose the plants they wanted.

‘Personally I’d like some lupins and geums, or anything with a bit of colour as it helps the residents with poor eyesight to see them more clearly,’ Mrs Jones said.

Grow vinery manager Stuart Smale said his team had selected nine different species of plants for the estate.

‘When I read about what had happened in the Guernsey Press I thought it was absolutely appalling.

'The public are always so generous with us, so we thought this was a good opportunity to return the favour.’

Training and development manager Richard Portsmouth added that the plant replacement would form part of Grow's monthly ‘giving back initiative’.

‘It’s always nice for us to be seen by the wider community,’ he said.

Local businesses have also come forward to help, with IT services company Clarity and Beaucette Marina among those wishing to donate towards the cost of providing the plants.

Clarity marketing executive Phil Trouteaud said that the company was happy to help.

‘We’ll work out the cost with the Grow team. It’s great to give them a shout-out while also helping the estate at the same time.’