GLOUCESTER , MASS. (WHDH) - A Gloucester volunteer gardening group is asking people to stop stealing their flowers.
The “Generous Gardeners” plant fields of Dahlias along the Gloucester HarborWalk, but recently the group said people have been stomping through the plants and helping themselves to bouquets.
“Volunteers have found lots of people in the beds with their own scissors snipping away, thinking it was okay and it is not,” said Susan Kelly, who works with Generous Gardeners.
The group people said stealing ruins the Dahlias and takes away from the display. A gardeners with the group said she is frustrated.
“It’s a public space,” Antonietta Calabrese said. “You go pick your stuff in your own home. You don’t go to the botanical garden and pick stuff. You don’t go to somebody’s house and pick things, you know? This is the city and its ours and nobody is supposed to take them.”
The gardeners, who are all volunteers, spend the summer perfecting the display for tourists and locals to enjoy. They do not go on sale until October.
Calabrese said if you are interested in buying a bouquet, all you have to do is ask.
The group said there should be a volunteer at the flower beds every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for those interested in making a donation in exchange for some flowers.
“It only takes a donation, five dollars, 10 dollars. I don’t say give me a 100 dollar donation,” said Calabrese. “If you want something, you ask and we are generous.”
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