Randy,

I'm sorry about the "thief" ripping out your new stand of Indian Paintbrush. I doubt I would have been as nice about it. :-) Perhaps you'd better explain your intentions to her before you replant them.

The pasture coming up our drive is always filled with wildflowers in the spring. They look so gorgeous when in bloom. My DH likes to keep our pastures mowed like a golf course, so I have to beg him not to cut the flowers until they've died back. One year he mowed before the Indian Paintbrush set seed, and now there are very few to no Indian Paintbrush left in that pasture. I just hate that. They were so pretty mixed in with all the other wildflowers. Luckily we do have a few in another pasture that DH missed when he mowed. I guess I need to gather some seeds from them and reseed them in that front pasture!

Either that...or do a burn (if they were long established) and let nature show it's stuff (from the seed bank). In either case, since IP (the orange one at least) is an annual, yes, it needs to be allowed to reseed.
I also feel your pain Randy, I've tried to get a single IP to grow on my property. If I had (and I haven't yet), I'd probably eviscerate someone who plucked my plant.

Yep. I feel your pain as well.
There is a stretch of ground between my neighbor's house and mine that was a wasteland when we moved in. At the time, the house was owned by a nice old guy and his invalid wife who had been a master gardener. He was younger than she but a really sweet and loving man. After strokes put her in a wheel chair, he had his hands full for twenty years just keeping up with the front and back yards.
When the lady of the house died, it wasn't long before he was diagnosed with cancer and died.
The house was sold by the kids and a lady who liked to do DYI moved in.
Since she didn't have a clue about gardening, and was friendly, I helped her a lot. Together we decided to do something about the mossy, yuchy side yard we shared. I told her I'd buy the landscape fabric and we could either share the cost of plants and mulch or gravel or I'd buy the plants and she could buy gravel or mulch.
So, I bought the plants and the fabric and put down the fabric and planted the plants.
The mulch or gravel never happened and she moved out.
The guy who now owns the house turned it into section 8. The new tenants just last week allowed their yard lady to mow down the plants that took three years to establish.

Sometimes the Robert Frost poem applies to these situations. Recall the lines:

He [a neighbor] only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
(from "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, published originally in the collection titled "A Boy's Will." The whole poem can be accessed via the url.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Randy,

You are such a good, kind and patient person! I'm sorry your silly neighbor took your Indian Paintbrush! I'm afraid I probably wouldn't have been quite as nice about it as you were.

We have several really good stands of paintbrush this year (probably the best, thickest stands of these we've had since moving here), and I haven't mowed them yet, waiting for them to finish blooming and set seed. If you want, I can collect and save some seed for you. Let me know.

Dawn

Aaaargh - being that they are so hard to grow - I would have had a temper tantrum right then and there! You're much too nice! You should at least advise her that these are very special plants and for her not to yank them out of the ground!

I think I got lucky on this deal. When I pulled the mower up to this area a few days ago, I saw a few blooms opening up on some stems I must have mowed down before. After taking inventory, there were 16 plants evenly spread over the small area. Bamboo stakes and a grass clipping mulch immediately surrounded those that were left.

I wish I could have seen her face when she saw what had been done. Hopefully it was a "Opps" moment.

It now looks like a "Do Not Touch" kind of thing. WeÂll see how it goes.

randy

Ha - that's good. I hope she gets the message.

It would be interesting to see if she mentions it. :-)
~Heidi