picking flowers in park

I wonder who told them they could? The nice park keeper in his peaked cap?!

I very much doubt that anyone in authority would have told them it was ok, I know the reaction of the gardeners at our local NT property to the children picking daffs at Easter!

Just last night a friend in South Africa posted beautiful photographs of a park and gardens.
Special flowers are in bloom and during this period children under 12 are not permitted in the park, big sign in more than one language.

He said they missed the sound of the children playing but could understand it after seeing children running wild through the flowers a couple of years ago.

Bit drastic perhaps but .....................

Was it daffodils the children were picking? It's getting to the ime of year when they should be dead headed. Perhaps that's why they were allowed to do it.

Or perhaps it was time for a changeover of flowers?

We had snowdrops out in our lane and I was horrified to see a young mother with children picking them. Unfortunately they moved on before I could leave the house and get after them. I was so cross - there are few enough snowdrops and all the locals really enjoy them.

How times change, I use to love picking wild flowers , all children did , now there are so few

At Rutland Water a few years ago- I came across an elderly couple with a trough and 1 hand fork happily digging lots of the primroses that had been planted to multiply along the footpath. I stopped and politely told them they were not allowed to do so and had to replant them. The old man told me quite roughly to mind my own business- so I said, either you replant them or I'll go straight to the wardens office and report them. Just could not believe my eyes- I sat with the dog on a bench nearby and waited for them to replant- and took their number plate. Checked a few days later and the primroses were still in situ!

In our village, what made me really hopping mad was some of the kids just trampling the daffs for 'fun' or picking them and leaving them all over the place .... grrr.

I do pick lovely bouquets of wild meadow flowers every Summer- very carefully, and taking a couple here, a couple there ... so there is plenty left to seed. My favourite ever bouquets...

When we were children it was common practice on a walk in the woods to gather bunches of bluebells! Thank goodness people don't seem to do it now - though they ought to be encouraged to pull up every one of the Spanish ones that appear to be elbowing out our native species. I watched a dog the other day pee on a little patch of daffs in our local park and then proceed to demolish the lot scratching the soil with his back feet! He then dashed off after his owner who was way off in front not taking any notice of what he was doing.

I think Jinglebell is right , the gardeners in my local park allow the taking of flowers when they are about to be changed .

My village has a spectacular display of daffodils around a local historic site. This month there was a note in the Parish Magazine that a parent had been seen helping their children pick daffodils, and when they had had picked enough run around among the daffodils snapping the heads off them.

This was done in broad daylight beside a well used road lined by houses. We have had a bout 300 new houses built in the village over the last 2 years and it was assumed it might have been a new comer who wasn't aware of the imp[ortance of the site and the annual display of daffodils.

Oh dear, I do remember taking bunches of primroses and bluebells home to my mum - do you think that our picking flowers in our childhoods is the reason for the dearth of wild flowers now?

It depends whether they're wild flowers or some specially planted. With some wild flowers it doesn't matter much how many are picked - what's wrong with a bunch of dandelions? Nice and cheerful.
There's a flower in bloom here called Lady's Smock, they grow in thick clusters, and I sometimes pick them, I don't think it does any harm.
Any from bulbs, be sure to leave the bulbs in the earth.
Cultivated flowers - as Jings said the gardeners sometimes let people dig them up and take home when they were about to be changed (in the park where we used to live.)

I hope they made it quite clear to the children that they had been given permission. Otherwise, how are little kids to know they can't usually pick park flowers?

The reason why I was so appalled was that the flowers (miniature daffs.) had just come into bloom, the person who had "given permission " was the person looking after the children, they were not wild flowers and had been planted for all to enjoy and that I do not think it is right to teach children that plants and trees in our local parks can be destroyed at will.Surel;y children should be taught to look after the environment.Ah well !

I did say something to a mum allowing her child to pick daffodils in a local park. 'She's only picking a few ' said mum. My retort was that if everyone did it there would be none left for everyone to enjoy. Deaf ears. Incidentally Westendgirl it's also illegal to pick wildflowers.

Oh well, that's totally different. Silly person in charge of the kids!

How did park keepers get in on this?

There are just a few wild flowers which are protected by law, lady's slipper is one, it is not against the law to pick snowdrops, wild daffs, cowslip, primrose etc growing in the wild , digging up roots is ilegal

Picking flowers in a park, no matter how many there are, to me is like picking flowers in some one else's garden.

There was a bluebell wood just up the road when we were children and we used to come home with big bunches for mum. I understand that houses now stand where the trees and the bluebells flourished. Will the children who live in those homes ever know the joy of bringing home a bouquet for mum? Or am I just a sentimental old woman?

I bought some English Bluebell bulbs to plant in pots. I'm hoping to get clumps going so that I can dig out the Spanish ones in the garden. I don't know if this will work. Has anyone tried to grow english ones in pots?
About 20 years ago in Corsica I admired the variety of wild orchids in the forest. We were staying with a forest ranger . The next day he brought me armfuls of them. being British we said nothing.

We were on a bus passing Clifford's Tower in York a few days ago. The tower stands on the top of a mound which was covered in daffodils and rolling down the hill over the top of the flowers were two young children. The parents were standing at the bottom watching them. Don't understand people allowing their children to do this sort of thing.

Spanish ones have got in with my bluebells. Don't know how it happened. But they are very pretty. And we are not in the countryside where they could encroach.

The children don't know any better but the parents most certainly should maybe another example of how it's easier to allow the children to do as they please than say no and explain why.