We actually did the same but only because the houses were being torn down to make way for a Walgreens (right across from a CVS, sort of pointless) and one of the houses was our former residence. We liberated our own plants... and a few others on the block. A few of them made the move with me to my new house. In our circumstance, we got permission from the demolition crew before them moved in. Others gained permission to remove fixtures from inside.

I don't know about an abandoned/foreclosed home. For me, that would probably entirely depend on the future of the residence. If it were going to be sold, I would not. If it were sitting empty for years, I might consider it.

If it was a foreclosed home, absolutely not. The bank/owner of the house is trying to sell it and having someone pilfer the landscaping would just make it worse.

Remember, going onto someone else's property and taking plants is 1) trespassing and 2) stealing.

I am still furious over what happened a few years back when I was moving. We were building one place and fixing up the other. Once the new place was built we moved and continued to fix the old place before putting it up for sale. During that time people came and stole tons of plants, even though I had worked very hard to make the landscaping the best it could be for when it came time to put it up for sale. Then after the for sale sign went up even more plants were stolen. If I were to catch someone doing it I would have prosecuted to the fullest extent. I felt totally violated - worse than if someone had broken into the house. Every time I went back there for something there was another crater in the yard/garden where something was stolen.

Just thinking about it again upsets me, and that was 4 years ago.

I should have added that when my neighbor and I took plants, the house was overgrown already and we knew the former owner, another time someone moved and gave me permission to take what I wanted. These were not houses that were your extravagant landscaping, but were just run down older houses that needed a lot more help than landscaping.

Kristine

That's pretty much my feeling as well ctopher. You never know what someone has going on with a house. For instance, we have a house on my block that's been empty for 4 years. I finally asked about it and why it has never been put up for sale (it's getting to be a bit scraggly these days). Come to find out, the owner was transferred to New Mexico when his factory here closed. He figured he'd work 8 years until he could retire and then return home to his waiting house.

It would be sad to return home to no plants.

On the other hand, my sister took a piece of a hosta from a house that has been vacant since we were children (30 years). I figure no one is moving in or selling anytime soon since there is no roof, windows, or doors... but there is a tree growing in the living room and up through the second story.

Confession: I have taken extra iris rhizomes from overcrowded clumps and little cuttings of plants growing over the edge of sidewalks without permission. Once I pilfered a big rose bush that had been bulldozed over for new construction.
I have always figured that foreclosure & empty houses were off limits because there must be stories (like the the guy in New Mexico) & would not dig up stuff growing in a yard ~ unless there is a tree growing in the living room *grin*

I'd try to find the owner and then ask permission. In many cases, he or she will be happy to share plants. Obviously, if a place seems abandoned or you're afraid plants will be destroyed during a building project, it's hard to walk away. But as people have commented, you never know what's going on with a property.

I have two really nice Yak hybrids and some azaleas from a nursery that sold out to a developer. It so happened I stopped by there the very day the owner was transferring title. I asked about the HUGE piles of plastic nursery pots; he told me to take as many as I wanted. When I asked about the ROWS of rhodies and azaleas still there, he told me I could take a few, but that he thought the developer was going to want most of them for landscaping. So I took just a few....and to my knowledge, the developer just bulldozed everything that was left. :(

OTOH, I have a little azalea that I dug from an "abandoned" property across the street from a friend's house. The place had been empty for at leasat 5 years, was falling apart, and the wooded property was almost nothing but a mass of weeds and poison ivy. My friend told me she wanted to rescue the few things that were left. I went with her. Then, within months of our trip, the "abandoned" property owner's daughter moved in. When my friend went over there to ask whether she could continue to dig up plants, she was told to get off the property and never come back, else the owner would call the police about the trespasser! Oops. :)

It would be against the law and you would be trespassing and I guess stealing them and I would do it in a heart beat. If someone buys the property and makes a home then offer plants from your home but don't tell them where some or all of the plants came from.

Those who are foreclosing are the same people who lied, misled buyers into bad loans and caused the problem. Save the plants and deal with your conscience later.

How many children's last memory of their childhood home is driving away looking out the back window of the car at a foreclosed sign and our "Government" bailed out Bear Sterns and left people on the street in desperate circumstances.

I'm concerned more about homeowners than I am banks and mortgage brokers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home ownership

foreclosed does not mean abandoned in a legal sense ...

under your logic.... if you go to work ... i am able to come to your abandoned [albeit for one day] yard and steal plants ...

you have no legal right to such plants ... as well as the uninvited guest aka trespass ...

where is the honor???

i suppose adam and eve were just borrowing an apple .. eh????

ken

My neighbor across the street was just telling me about sneaking out in the dead of night and digging up peonies from her old house. She brought them there from her childhood home when she bought it and never took any with her when she sold it.

The property is now abandoned and has waist high grass. She's maybe 5' tall and 60 years old. I would have loved to see her in her black-hooded-sweatshirt, standing in all that grass, attempting to wrangle 5 foot diameter peonies out of the ground... without being noticed... on a busy street at midnight.

In her case, I understand the nostalgia that drove her to liberate the peonies. I'd still worry about plant Karma. We have heavy respect for plant Karma at my house. You steal plants, they die... and sometimes take others with them when they go.

Even when a home has been foreclosed on by the bank, the owner has six months to reclaim the property. The bank doesn't own it until the title transfers...AFTER that period of reclamation passes, which can take six to nine months. Then the bank is the owner, so there's never an "open season" time. The home may be in foreclosure, but someone--either a person or a business/bank--owns it.

I agree with all those who say it is stealing and trespassing.

That said...we have had trees (old, brittle arborvitae) fall ONTO our proprty from a shared privacy hedge (shared with the currently in-forclosure home directly behind us). We have cut those trees away from the stump and are removing the stumps, even though some are technically about six inches over the property line. In that case, however, the trees fell onto our property, making them our problem. We're cleaning up the stumps just to be nice. But I'd never dream of taking healthy plants from their yard and moving them into mine.

if the bank has foreclosed yep have done it will do it again once that person has left they lost there rights to it . know adays so many homes are being forclosed it not even funny I drove threw a doublewide community n which half the homes were in foreclosure n half these homes were so vandalised from the previous owner bleach on carpet whole walls tore out that me takin a plant is the less of the banks worrys....

under your logic.... if you go to work ... i am able to come to your abandoned [albeit for one day] yard and steal plants ...

you have no legal right to such plants ... as well as the uninvited guest aka trespass ...

where is the honor???
Ken

You plead your case well counselor, ask for a directed verdict. If I'm in the jury I vote not guilty.
Remember I explained that I understood the law and decided to break it, of course my attorney would not allow me to take the stand since I would convict myself. Now you are back to making your case to the bench or a jury.

Always a hoot to listen to non-attorneys (like me) discuss the law.

What you going to do when they come for you.

As a former Realtor in the recent past, I can add that plants are considered "Real Property", meaning it's attached to the land just like the trees, home, outbuildings, etc. It's part of the land and considered an "improvement" (whether it looks good or not). Removing plants is in the same line as deciding to take a shed or house off someone's land. For real estate transactions, if you intend to keep any of your plants, you must dig them up beforehand so they are not part of the land sale...or mark them & make it known specifically which plants will not be a part of the sale up front.

The other type of property is "Personal Property" which is anything loose/not attached. Vehicles, window treatments, appliances, benches, pots, etc. Taking those is considered stealing personal property.

I'm of the opinion that abandoned or not, someone or some entity owns the land. Be careful of the entities owning the land. Entities have way more money & legal access than we do to handle trespassers & theft.

I would do a citizens adoption and return custody to the rightful parent when he/she can be identified. Would you stand by and allow a child to be abandoned and mistreated?

When you find a worthy parent then return custody of these adopted babies to the rightful parent, even share generously from your own bounty.

Do we own plants or are they on loan by a higher power with responsibilities to see to their care.

I know many disagree but I think it takes a village to raise plants.

Where is Barney Fife when we need him, I can see and hear him now; "CITIZENS ADOPTION, CITIZENS ADOPTION".

icy, i think they were her plants on loan by a higher power and she should propagate them even by stealth.

The house behind me is not in foreclosure (that I know of) but the owners have moved on. There's a garden that they don't take care of that is immediately behind my sun garden. It's overgrown raspberries, but lots of thistle & dandelions.

I will admit that I have RoundUp'd parts of that garden before I knew that the owners had moved, but I will probably be doing more of it. Frankly, I think that area would keep the home from selling. And I'll admit to asking my lawn guy to spray the weeds that I look straight at when sitting at my 'puter.

My real interest is in these HUGE stands of silverfeather ornamental grass. I SOOOO want to go and take some of those!

The funny thing is that I KNOW that it's wrong of me to do so. I'm a licensed real estate agent and know that the plants are considered "real property". I just HATE looking at it!

Interesting thing is that I actually had strung a line this weekend to see EXACTLY where my property line was. Turns out, I own more than I thought... but with that, I found that I own 1/2 of a couple of ugly box-elder trees!

There is no 'right' in doing wrong, no matter how you cut it! If you do not own something, it is not yours!

Ahh, *situational ethics* a license to go against right--part of the 'spiraling down' of our nation IMHO!
Remember the chant--"if it feels right--do it"?

When my parents 'passed on' through a head-on collision, several years ago, my mother had a beautiful and loved 'Butterfly Bush'!
She may have already shared some of it with her neighbors, as she was inclined to do with her stuff, be it from the garden or of her own
things (she made quilts to auction for the local hospital, etc.) and more, but after they died, we still owned their property.

The second summer after their deaths, I discovered the bush had been dug up! No stump or stubs left--no evidence of it having been there.

I couldn't help wonder which 'neighbor' might have done that! I would have been glad to share it with someone, had they asked!

But--it could have also been a total stranger snooping around since it was known to be uninhabited most of the time! The place was sort of 'famous'
because it was very beautiful (Mother won community awards for her landscaping) and from the way both of them died together in that community!

It was kept up--we saw to that so no one should have felt privy to take anything from the property! Even my mother's prized double-bloomed daylilies
disappeared--a huge majority of them, down their long driveway into the woods and mountainside!!!

All that said, it's not that I haven't thought to do something like this situation--but so far, have resisted!

One of our neighbors, having won the 'auction' of the foreclosed home, was fixing it up to 'flip' and has a huge clump of Plantaginea
on the north side of the home. I asked if I could have a small division sometime, and the owner said I could. I never did take
any--because it was so beautiful as it was, I hated to ruin it's shape and thought to do it at the end of the season. I didn't ever do it
(having forgotten) and eventhough it was on the market for over another year, I just never felt right about going and digging it up when no one
was around! So, I still get to look at that beautiful clump, in the ownership of a couple that seem to have no interest in landscaping, yet.
Who knows, one day they may--and I can have the fun of sharing mine with them!

It's been lots of fun sharing with the new young couple right next-door! She's badly infected with the 'hosta-bug' now--thanks to my 'influence'!!;o)

BTW Kristine--none of this to make you feel 'judged', by me--I just wanted to give you another perspective to doing such things!
I think we have become accustomed to making such calls in our culture--many times, but I still think it is wrong to take something
that is not ours! Thankfully, many of us in 'hosta-world' would agree it is not the 'right' thing to do--and would not find a justification
for others doing it! I am encouraged by that!

I realize you felt the plantings had no emotional ownership by a person, but still---!

Hey J - well said.

If a home was going to rack and ruin, unoccupied in my neighborhood, I would feel well within my rights as a neighbor to go to that property and work on the yard (I'm hopeless with home repairs) in order to keep the place from looking too derelict, attracting squatters and vandals, to keep noxious weeds under control and to keep the appearance of that property from detracting from my own home's/neighborhood's value.

I wouldn't do so without first issuing a complaint to city code enforcement, and waiting for a response from them--noxious weeds and overgrown weeds/mess are violations here. I'd also make sure I got a written copy of my complaint and city response (the owners couldn't be contacted/the place is in foreclosure/whatever) and keep it on file. I'd also keep a photographic record of the property at the time I reported it to code enforcement and through any subsequent maintenance on my part.

At that point, after cleaning up the yard, I wouldn't have any qualms about taking small starts (leaving the bulk of the plant in place), and keeping receipts of all water bills paid for by me for the place (a garden just dies here without additional water). In the event an owner did turn up, I'd have sufficient justification for what I'd done, and if the place had been unoccupied long enough (7 years usually), probably sufficient documentation to take ownership of the property under adverse use laws.

However, I wouldn't just take plants from an apparently unoccupied property without providing value in return in the form of maintenance and adherence to city code requirements, thus preventing the owner from incurring substantial fines and/or misdemeanor jail time, and I wouldn't take plants from a property apparently maintained by anyone else, occupied or not.

To me it's pretty basic. If the property doesn't belong to me, taking anything from it without permission from the owner is theft.

Please get your hostas elsewhere. The house next door to me is in foreclosure and it's all I can do to pull some of the weeds and pick up the pieces of litter that the wind blows in. I am invested in seeing that this property not turn into a run down looking lot. If you were to take even one hosta it would make a difference in the landscaping.

It would depend on the circumstances. My family once bought an old house that had been vacant for about 50 years. It needed lots of repair. My parents restored the whole thing and my mother lovingly brought the garden back to life. A few old plants survived the thicket. So sometimes abandoned plants do eventually find a good home. But if they are being choked out by weeds or really need to be divided, I can see intervening to save the plants. And I would have no problem taking cuttings or baby plants. I wouldn't just dig up established plantings though, without permission or just cause.

I offer if we had seen to our civic responsibility and paid attention to what politician were doing this would never have happened and we could have saved this ethical discussion. Foreclosures may be the most disgraceful thing that has happened since the great depression and it was all preventable.

My thoughts on "Home Ownership" here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Ownership

The other day I drove past this lovely old farmstead, unoccupied, "For Sale" sign. I pulled up to check for rosebushes, to take cuttings, when I find these MASSES of crowded peonies around the garage out back. The poor things really needed dividing ;) So on my next trip I brought a shovel, a jug of water, and a bucket of compost. I divided three of the clumps, took the extra rhizomes, watered the others back in neatly spaced and with a bunch of compost mixed into the soil as a bonus. Weeded all around them too, because I can't help myself. I imagine the farm wife who planted them fifty, seventy years ago, watching out the kitchen window and chuckling. I don't feel even a little bad about it, as I l took nothing that will be missed (and they'll probably be trashed when the new owner tears down the old garage anyway), did no damage, and left the property and plants in better shape than I found them.

I would never just tear up whole plants unless the bulldozers were already parked on the lawn.

Did once when house was going to be demolished. Expensive /old rich $ neighborhood too. I knew neighbor who had permission to remove things. Funny some other neighbors stopped and told me I should go in, and look inside on clothing and stuff...they already conducted some sale auction but there was ton of stuff inside still...

I get free garden introductions from collecting yard waste bags to compost. Bulbs, hostas, ornamental grasses, etc(even a nice Corona trowel with built in saw once).

Have never done this and the thought never occurred to me . I do get neighbors approvals for cutting their peonies. I can't believe how many don't like them!

No, I wouldn't. My next door neighbor moved and left a lovely garden in the back. The new people told me and the neighbor on the other side to just take whatever we wanted because they were going to remove it all and have grass only. Even with permission, I felt guilty. We took only a few small things, but I just couldn't bring myself to dig up shrubs and the like. It just felt odd-as if I were stealing and what if the new folks changed their minds. Too bad. They did indeed remove all the huge old oak and other trees and every plant in the woodland garden that comprised most of their backyard. He likes the "golf course look." Sigh.

Even on a property down the road that was being developed after the elderly neighbor in the large house died, I asked the developer if I could take a couple of the old azaleas in overgrown areas of the yard. He said no, they were going to use them. They didn't. They just threw them on their dump pile. Oh well.

Once, when I was young and foolish, I took a cutting off a plant in an arboretum. I was sweating bullets as I hurried out and nearly pooped my pants as I passed a police car as I drove away. I was sure he was headed towards the entrance to apprehend me. Never again. Later, I discovered they actually propagated and sold plants so I became a member and supported their plant sales.

Yes, i was doing just that today from various endangered abandoned homesteads near me.

I've dug up plants it at abandoned homesteads. I've dug up plants at homes that were going to be demolished for "progress". I've dug where houses were already demolished.

I once stopped someone who was digging up bulbs at a city park. They dropped them and ran. I think that is beyond the pale.

bkay