I'm sorry to hear that someone, much less a whole group, took advantage of the gardens generosity like that. And pulling out whole plants is nothing short of theft!

How do you go about making an appointment? Do you need to make the arrangments before arriving at the garden or is there somewhere you can do so once there?

Kara

I imagine you must call ahead - the definition of an appointment, IMO.

Sounds like a those plant raiders were a bunch of jerks = (

That's quite a bit of misinformation and exaggeration there, Robert.

Susieqsie and I met at Leu Gardens on (free) Monday. We had a cooler with us, yes... with our LUNCH and DRINKS in it! That "large cooler" is the size of a bowling bag, for pete's sake.

When we had each taken cuttings from about 8 plants (and I do mean CUTTINGS, not plants from the GROUND), we took them to the car to put them in water, rather than leaving them in wet paper towels. On our way back in, Mr. Bowden clarified that their policy at the time was "no more than six cuttings per person, per visit." We apologized and stopped. Mr. Bowden told us someone from GW had "tipped him off" that we were coming to take cuttings... which made no sense, considering that at the time they allowed cuttings. He also admitted to lurking in the forums, to which I ask, why didn't he clarify the policy on here before we came to Leu Gardens? In addition, he said that he had later gone back and written a clarification in response to Susie's open invitation post. He, in fact, had not.

There was one other couple at Leu that we were aware of that was there to take cuttings. All they had with them to carry cuttings was a fanny pack.

On our way out of Leu Gardens, Mr. Bowden was "nice" enough to drive us in his golf cart to try to identify a specific plant... stopping on the way to PULL A PLANT OUT OF THE GROUND and hand it to me, causing me to joke that I already had exceeded my plant limit!!!

He further explained that in the past, people had come with shovels and dug up plants, so they set the six-cutting-rule. He said that their goal was to have you become a member and keep coming back and getting cuttings and learning and sharing. He then told us that the other couple we'd run into from GW had been pulling plants up by the roots. Not likely, as I said they had no way to carry such.

I had plans to go to Leu Gardens this coming Thursday with my grand-daughters, buy a family membership, and have a picnic. I was going to then go back again on the 5th with another GW member.

After the implication that two groups of two people constitutes a "herd," and that any of the four of us (who weren't even together! We don't know them from Adam!) were pulling plants out of the ground and have thus "spoiled it for everyone", I've decided against going back to Leu Gardens.

Bad form, Mr. Bowden.

This post was edited by shear_stupidity on Mon, Jun 17, 13 at 16:08

What an amazingly strange post.

I would think that if Mr. Bowden had a problem with visitors, it should have been addressed directly with said visitors rather than posted on a message board for all the world to see.

Agreed, Tradition. I find it somewhat strange, too.

He spoke to us, and acted like it was no big deal, just a misunderstanding... which it WAS.

Now this???

It hadn't even crossed my mind that he could have been talking about you! His post sounded nothing like what you described of your visit. I thought that he was refering to some other group that had visited. If he is referring to you then it's very sad that he posted such a message after treating you so nicely while you were at the garden.

He was referring to the MANY people, not just 2 or 4, that was taking advantage of the cutting policy. That day had LOTS of people taking and staff was busy all day stopping it. All it takes is a few bad apples to ruin something. And that day wasn't the only, it has been happening a lot recently so he decided to put an end to it. We have many valuable and rare plants and have had many disappear or hacked to death because of unscrupolous collectors.

Eric, after the multiple jokes he made about us having "a cooler full of plants," I'm quite certain who he's referring to.

We spoke to him at the very end of the day when we were leaving, and he told us that the ONE other guy "was pulling plants up by the roots." He made it a point to tell us that.

You say that day wasn't the only day, yet Robert only mentions the (free) Monday... and only specifically mentions the cooler he kept joking about that day, and pulling plants up by the roots, which he also kept referring to that day.

Ironic, no?

Regardless, this subject is beginning to bore me. I'll leave the rest of the thread to the rest of you all to dissect.

Me think you doth protest too much. It's over -- so let's move on.