If they are not in somebody's yard or a park or business I would go ahead and take some. That's just me. I know other people wouldn't. They probably did come from that nursery. It doesn't sound like it is something endangered like natives or replanting of wildflowers. Probably what would happen is that sooner or later that area will be cleared for building and they will be trashed anyway:)
Pat

I agree with Pat on that
and my mother and I are actually rather guilty of it :)

One time at the Mall I just wanted to pinch a tiny piece of coleus but we were driving by and I reached out and the whole 2 foot plant, roots and dirt came flying through the window. I don't mess with Mall plants anymore, too aggressive:))

Pat

LOL this is funny, I was just driving back home today and I was actually scouting along the roadside for any "useful" plants. The only thing I saw was a huge Poinciana tree in the scrub pines on the other side of a large ditch. I didn't have a backhoe with me though....lol

well, I did take some sanseveria once, nothing fancy and it was in a lot slated for building.
I checked the property appraiser site and the land does belong to the state, it is officially on west orange trail property... Maybe I will go for it. I feel so naughty, guess I don't get out much! :)

I can't begin to count the number of weekends I drove around the three counties searching for rare Crotons in peoples yards. Armed with plastic bags, bottles of water, and a pair of clippers, I hit the streets from the Martin County line down to South Miami on a regular basis for several years. Most of the time, I knocked on someone's door and asked permission. But there were several back alleys and not so friendly neighborhoods where it was cut and run.

funny u mention this but i am looking for the seed pods of a poinciana tree in the hope that i might have one someday

i saw some nice looking knockout roses in a strip mall and wanted to get a cutting but i havent had any success trying to root anything.

I have taken a small baby plant before, but never a full grown plant. My mom has even asked places before if she can take the babies that were growing beside a plant and they usually say yes. On my vacation last year, they had an aloe that had tons of babies around it. I took a few very small specimens and now have about 7 aloe plants that are nice size.

Nami, now is the time to root plants, they like the heat and humidity, just make sure to give them plenty of water. Where the leaf comes out of the stem is a bump called a node. Get at least 3 of the leaf nodes in the soil and keep moist. You should have good luck with this method. :)

I just had a piece of pink ixora fall in my car today leaving the parking lot of some stores.

Very timely discussion! I've been searching and snagging plants from public (and private) roads/highways for decades. This past weekend, armed with my highly reflective roadside vest (to make me look official) and my straw hat and sunglasses I stopped on Dale Mabry Highway here in Tampa across from the Bucs stadium and picked all the Indian Blankets (Gaillardia) I needed. Well, I just couldn't resist! Smiling.
I've dug up quite a bit of bamboo (oldhamii) from vacant lots that were destined to be destroyed or homes that were being razed for new construction and after the vicious hurricanes of a few years ago; we rescued scores of wild orchids on the Peace River. Right or wrong, I usually ask permission and if the answer is NO then unfortunately NO it is.

ThereÂs a stretch of I-4 just east of Lakeland by the big construction auction complex that has the most beautiful blue bonnets set back a ways from the highway. When traffic is crawling ahead at 2 miles an hour as it always does in that section (donÂt ask me why), I dream of stopping and digging up a bunch! ItÂs on the south side of the highway and they are the most beautiful blue cuties youÂve ever seen. Has anyone else seen and lusted after them?

OK OK I admit it, I have pinched leaves and stems at HD and at public places and stuck em in my pocket. There, it's out....I feel so relieved! I always feel that pods are for anybody's taking. After all, that's how I got the beautiful yellow tabebuia I have growing in my yard! Tampaart and Fawnridge, you guys are SERIOUS snatchers lol!!!

When I first moved into my house, most of my plants came from the roadside of an undeveloped area near my house, and seeds I snagged from various places. I even have plants I've snagged from botanical gardens. I know one person who takes clippers and bagggies with her to some botanical gardens, and snags things all day long.

Let's see, my elderberry, red salvia, and cranberry hibiscus all came from snags at Selby. My pink dwarf poinciana came from seeds at Crowley's (sorry, Kathy!)

I've snagged seeds from Lowe's and HD and even Wally World.

And yes, I've gone to people's houses and asked for cuttings...many times. Got about half my plants that way. LOL

When my son was young, we would sneek out and dig up caladium pups that were growing in the grass in the development landscaping. We called it"going on a mission."
The pups were left over from the previous season (pull out caladiums/plant impatiens) and were going to get mowed anyway.
So sad to get the kid involved in my crime.

When my son was young, we would sneek out and dig up caladium pups that were growing in the grass in the development landscaping. We called it"going on a mission."
The pups were left over from the previous season (pull out caladiums/plant impatiens) and were going to get mowed anyway.
So sad to get the kid involved in my crime.

When I am driving home from work or from out shopping I usually keep my eyes peel for clipping/cutting that people throw away . I have aquired a lot of my plants that way from bougainville and bromeliads to frangipanis and crotons. I have a teenage daughter who try to make herself invisable in the car when I am retreiving some cuttings from the side of the road LOL!!

When I lived in Minnesota, my husband and I dug some wildflowers from a wooded area. We had a lovely wooded yard that was just like their previous home so they were very happy there. It was in the process of being bulldosed for new homes. I didn't feel too bad because they were going to be run over. We even drug out an old log to add to our landscaping.

We lived in Louisiana for a while and I found some trilium (spell?) on the side of the road. I brought them with me and planted them here. I have not dug up anything here in Florida yet. But I have been tempted :)!

Gabriele

LOL! glad to see I'm not the only one who "rescues" plants and cuttings from the trash piles. It didn't take long for my neighbors to learn that if they offered, I'd accept any plant they no longer wanted. And I nearly always have trimmings to share. cora

Me too! I drag home plants others throw in the trash and clippings that "get in my way" when walking the dog. Roadside plants are tempting, but I always get stung by fire ants. Today DH and I brought a paint roller extender to snag some royal poinciana seed pods. One time someone had this HUGE maybe 4' spread bromeliad with a long spike in the trash, couldn't stop. Called DH to get it, but it was too late. Trashman got it.

Jo

I think that if the plants are going to be mowed down or in an area where the land is going to be decimated and scraped to build yet another subdivision or strip mall, GO FOR IT!

But I would never take plants or clippings from someone's yard without their permission. If I caught someone doing that on my property I might be tempted to get out the buckshot, LOL. After all, if they just ASKED I would probably give it to them.

I don't take wildflowers, but I do collect the seeds of Blanket Flower and Coreopsis and replant them in my yard.

I had a friend who rescued an entire mat of wild native pitcher plants that a county employee was about to cut down with one of those tractor mowers along a ditch once. Those are supposedly forbidden to harvest, but hey, she was saving them! I said do it. The guy didn't care.

I know that there are laws in Florida against harvesting aquatic plants without a permit from the Ag Dept, and there are probably laws against taking terrestrials as well, but I also think it depends on the situation. I won't stand by and let innocent plants get bulldozed.

One Saturday morning my DH and I were driving around and behind a neighborhood there is a woody area with a canal. My DH says sometimes he goes fishing there. So I started looking around and noticed some plants. I told my DH to get me some of that pink lantana he pulled it up right from the roots. Then I saw a small bush with pink flowers and he pulled it up from the roots. Next time he says he will carry a shovel in the back of his truck. We had a lot of fun.

These posts made me laugh because my mother always traveled with a shovel in the trunk of the car! We never went on a vacation that we didn't end up digging something up. My poor father was usually the one sent into some swampy spot or over a fence. I'm too fireant-shy to walk into unknown weedy placed in Florida, but in Maryland I had several azaleas and asters rescued from an old abandoned homestead.

There is a wooded area near where I work, and a gas station/convenience store is going to be built there shortly. I have noticed some bamboo growing there, and I really want some. How easy is it to dig it up? can you cut it down and just dig up the roots? I have never tried anything like that, but the tubs of bamboo at HD are expensive, and too big to pop in my trunk!

We rescued some rouge berry from a construction site, and I'm a veteran trash heap searcher, but I think that pinching from botanical gardens and other public places can make them look shabby, so I leave those babies alone.

Like Bahai, I see no sense in standing around and letting rare, beautiful plants get bulldozed up and burned. That's not stealing, it's rescuing.

Hi,all! I'm on vacation but had to check in with my gardening friends. I was in GA once with my daughter & we kept seeing this white flower growing everwhere, even up in the trees. Pulled over beside the road for a closer look. It was the cherokee rose. Only thing we had to cut a piece with was nail clippers, but we managed. Rooted several pieces but left them behind when I moved. Those thorns reach out & grab you. In the fall when mums are in the stores, pieces are always getting broken off & I pick them up. Tell myself I'm help tidy up.

Lol, I have always dug up plants alongside the road, my dad always did it, so he passed it on to me, it's heriditary. My house in Ohio, had alot of borrowed beauties in the garden. They all came from lots that would eventually be built on, so I was saving them!! I haven't done it here yet however. Give it time...

Brat

The only thing I ever grabbed from the roadside before I moved here was fiddleheads (ferns emerging from their winter nap) in the spring my neighbor would cook them for us. Yummy.
Over Easter I went up to Cedar Key with a friend the roadsides are covered with purple, lavender and white phlox. I did dig up several. I just knew they wanted to live on the Treasure Coast. LOL

I always like it when someone is selling land for building.The fun you can have, but becareful.Best to contact the seller before taking anything.
Otherwise, At Your Own Risk!

Tropicalfreak

Plumeria trimmings off someone's trash pile, three huge staghorns the new neighbor across the street ripped off the tree in the front yard and dumped beside the road (and he's a "landscaper" too!), a dragon wing begonia other neighbors threw out when they were moving. That wild orchid that fell on my head in an old cemetary in the middle of the state.

I won't clip at a botanical garden but trash piles are fair game, esp. when it's right in front of the garbage truck!

Suzanne

I have gotten lots of cool stuff from people yard trash: Bananas, Desert Rose cuttings, Areca Palm, Rubber Tree, White BOP, Elephant Ears, Cacti cuttings, Chilean Allamanda cuttings, Marginata and 3 Ficus trees with braided trunks in pots. That's all I can think of right now. lol Plumeria cuttings from construction sites. Oh, a Diffenbachia and Tapioca. Those were the days....*sigh* ..then stuff happens...

Had a lady in Hollywood almost steal my sunflower until the dogs and I saw her thru the fence. She played it off as she was showing it to her daughter as he daughter said; "Aren't you gonna pick it for the table at home?" LOL I can only imagine if the plumeria were in bloom then.

I miss my 45 plumeria. I was gonna have my own little grove. : (

Tropicalfreak

My most successful "Snatch and Grab" was a blue flower I saw growing along the roadway on my way to a school I started working at part time last year. I noticed it for several months before I finally took a picture and you guys ID it for me as Spiderwort. On my last day of working at the school, I stopped and dug up a cluster. Man that thing was hard to get out of the ground!

I planted it in a sandy area like where I found it and this is what I have now. So pretty to look at in the mornings when it blooms.

Now I have been watching a Morning Glory like flower that is on the ground along the access road to the Polk Parkway. It is a rich blusihpurple large flower. It comes back every year and is mowed over as well but returns. I just might have to "Save' it from being squashed one of these days!

yep, I am guilty!

this one grew outside a yard next to the school my kids went to. Since no one answered the door and the plant was all over the place, I dug some up:
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at a nursery they just had cut back their vine and I picked up a small piece off the ground:
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stopped the car for spiderwort:
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while walking the dog in the neighborhood (touchmenot):
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'found' a piece of this vine at the roadside:
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saved this one of a lot to be bulldozed (obedience plant):
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grew at a ditch (star grass):
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grew in the above ditch (waterhyazinth, water lettuce):
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I keep looking all the time :-)

Evelyn

I have rescued many plants over the years and taken cuttings and/or diggings from many more. But I always follow certain guidelines. This is how I determine what I will take and what I won't, for what it's worth:

1. I never take anything from private property without permission.

2. I never, ever take cuttings from public gardens or botanical gardens, as those are display gardens. If everyone took cuttings, there would soon be nothing to display.

3. I am very cautious about taking wildflowers from the wild, as most don't transplant well. And if there is any chance they are endangered or threatened in the wild, I leave them alone so they can grow and reseed where they should be.

BUT...

4. Anything in the path of a bulldozer is fair game. Like most of you, if I know an area is being developed, I figure I'm saving the plants that I take from certain death. That's how my mother got the beautiful butterfly orchid that I've had for more than 30 years now.

5. Plants that are obviously not natives but are growing in wild areas are usually just fine to dig and take. They don't belong there, anyway. Exceptions would be areas that have been deliberately seeded with wildflowers, etc. But I have found all sorts of neat things that volunteered in areas where they really didn't belong.

6. I have taken plants from roadside ditches, both native and exotics, for my enclosed ponds. I never dispose of any of them in any way that would release them back into our natural waterways. But I've snatched water hyacinths, water lettuce, pickerel weed, arrowhead, duckweed and more from ditches in the past. This is probably an activity that is punishable by fines, at least, since water hyacinths are such a terrible nuisance in our streams & rivers. But I know that any I take are "out of the system" for good, so I don't feel too bad. (Just be aware that if you are caught taking them, you could be fined, at the very least. The law probably doesn't care HOW responsibly you use them.)

7. And lastly, anything already broken off and laying on a sidewalk, or in an aisle, or on a path is fair game. That's going to be a goner if you DON'T pick it up and pot it, so why not?

Just my thoughts. Found plants are a blessing I would hate to be without, but I try to use common sense and be fair to others.

Marcia