Plant thieves steal rare orchid from Botanic Park
(CNS): Two chocolate orchid (Encyclia phoenicia) plants have been stolen from the Orchid Boardwalk at the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, one of several thefts from the gardens this year, according to General Manager John Lawrus.
Horticultural Manager Nick Johnson said he was saddened by the loss of the beautiful plants, named for its strong chocolate scented bloom, especially since the plants “were just recovering from a theft of a cutting that happened last year”.
In a social media post Johnson added, “What is frustrating is that one part of the plant was sending up a flower. It is always sad to see our work destroyed. We have put in many hours and a lot of money into making the Orchid Boardwalk look the best it can. Unfortunately, we’ve already had several thefts this year.”
He said people taking cuttings or plants, as was the case in this instance, should remember the time and effort put into these collections.
Lawrus said it was a sad occurrence but plant theft is a real issue the world over, from personal gardens through to botanic gardens and parks. “When plant theft happens, the gardeners and horticulturists who put their heart and souls into their work take it personally,” he said.
The Botanic Park and the Tourism Attraction Board are making an appeal for the thief to return the plants as soon as possible that they can be “placed in their rightful home and cared for by trained experts”.
The park noted that it offers propagation services and anyone interested in purchasing a specific plant housed within the park property can email horticulture@botanic-park.ky for information.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Land Habitat, Science & Nature
Keep people locked up indefinitely on a small rock and you should expect more of this to come.
Are you willfully stupid, or is it naturally occurring?
Racist to tell the truth
Only scented plants I worried about is the ganja and I wish the blue collar criminals would stop raiding and stealing those too.
Police shirts have white collars.
Isn’t the rarer tamarind pod vine blooming soon?
Put a sign on the cow it
Oh boo hoo!
Nice of you to write. Keep practicing.
My daughter had a recent school trip there and came back with a flower she’d picked looking like that. They weren’t within arms reach were they if so rare and sacred?
The flowers at the Botanic Park are not for picking, whether they are in arms reach or not.
Great parenting.. someone should give you and your brat a medal.
Or a smack.
People are scum basically.
I checked and it wasn’t my wife….honest!
Wow! the rape and pillaging of Cayman continues?? Not even the plants are safe now !
Or animals. The person(s) who sodomized ponies is still at large.
Hard to believe scum like this exist
Much worse things are happening in Cayman. Perpetrators have never been caught.
“Riding pony dies after sexual assault‘ https://caymannewsservice.com/2016/08/riding-pony-dies-after-sexual-assault/
“Third horse sexually assaulted at Equestrian Center”
If the park would get any special assistance it would be great. The children’s garden has hit a wall after all the good funds brought in by the mgr. This is where funds should go but nah, fund the votes. How much does the TAB take from here to keep Pedro above watrr
Just put out more rare plants. Put up cameras and you will catch that person. Probably someone working there. People could care less. Fine this person when you catch them and no one will want to rip off plants again.
Anyone who knows the staff at the park can say without a doubt that it is NOT someone who works there.
They are a dedicated, wonderful group of people, who care passionately about the park and its success.
Sad…gave 1 million to the public to assist with farming..now this.
This was not done by any local farmers, this was done some self entitled snob who thinks that it would probably look better on their back porch than the wild,smfh.
Cameras?
Are you really trying to suggest using security cameras in the year 2021? What next will you suggest, legalising weed?
Kind of hard to put a camera on every nice plant at a botanic park.