Wherever this was perhaps they had a big enough issue to warrant this?? A "nothingburger" lol!

Yes it is stealing and it misshapes the plant taken from. No, I have not seen the sign, but I am sure lots of nurseries want to put one up.

There have been posts on here of people having the plants in their own front yard multilated.

I've seen people taking an 'outing' to go and collect cuttings in aboretums etc. on some of the gardening shows on TV, but it is usually someone who is a professional and has a relationship of some kind with the arboretum and has permission. I would assume because they trust them to take something in an unobtrusive place and not to leave a plant mis shapen.

I wouldn't want someone coming onto my property and attempting to take a cutting of something. I've had the experience of a neighbor stepping into my garden and picking my tomatoes. I now speak to the neighbor and talk about gardening, but it took me a few years before I stopped avoiding her. She never did apologize or mention the incident, but she every once in awhile would make it a point to walk past my front garden and compliment it, so I do respect her for continuing to try to get past it.

It's not the value of what they took...it's the ursurping of your authority over your own property. The disrespect is difficult to reconcile.

And I could say that maybe asking someone for a cutting would be ok, but...lol...I've had that experience too. I've offered cuttings and divisions to neighbors and garden friends, but there was one person in my neighborhood, that i did not know, who made it a point one day out of the blue to ask me for divisions and plants from my garden, plural. Just pointing to everything she liked and being sugary sweet about how nice they were. I did give them to her, but I didn't feel good about it. And I rarely saw her after that. So, I think it depends on who it is and the circumstances.

But sneakily taking cuttings in a nursery, would not leave me feeling good either. I know there was a member here a long time ago who used to post about all the times she used to do that, to me I always believed it is actually stealing.

I think a better way is to buy a larger plant and divide it as soon as you plant it to get multiple plants. And take cuttings of what you grow well and add new plants for free and I'd think that would expand your plant buying budget. Of course, growing from seed and getting good at it is an even better way of increasing plants on a budget.

Taking cuttings without permission is very bad form. Even propagating cuttings from your own plants can be ethically problematic if they're patented. I am certainly not getting on a soap box about this, just noting it and wondering if it is related to the nurseries sign. I wouldn't think the nursery would have any responsibility to patent holders to stop people from taking cuttings, or at least trying, but it's not unthinkable. Most likely they've had a rash of people damaging plants and they got tired of it.

I don't mention this but over the last few years I've been working on starting a small nursery and if someone did that to us, I'd get a little murdery. ;o)

I guess I must be a rebel... I don't see propagating your own plants ethically problematic. Once you own it, unless you are going into business in competition to the patent holder, then there should be no reason you can't propagate your own plants. It's like saying someone has a patent on your DNA. No one should be allowed to have that kind of patent and neither should those who develop plants be granted such rights. That's my view on it.

I guess I must be a rebel...

I would imagine that "this" is not considered much of a rebellious action by many of us ie prograting bought plants to be used exclusively in one's own garden.

It can take years to develop a particular cultivar and I don't have an issue with someone being granted a patent. The patents do apply to home gardeners, though the plant police are not coming to your house. Like I said I'm not getting on a soap box, just pointing out what the patent law covers. I don't think home gardeners propagating plants is really cutting into their business and I don't have an issue with people propagating for their own use.

I don't have a problem with a patent. And I realize the patent law applies to home gardeners. I just don't accept that the law is correct.

Buying the plant , THEN cuting it up is different than cutting it at the nursery or in someones yard.

SELLiNG the cutting is another order of decit.

Slightly off topic, but there’s a lovely high end nursery nearby where a friend works and I was quite surprised when she shared with me that it is known that the nursery’s fancy clientele shop lift (the business does not prosecute).

Lisaam, so the not-so-fancy are paying the cost of the fancy bums? I would never shop there if I knew..

It's enough of a "thing" to have a name for it - proplifting. Other websites have forums dedicated to it. I remember reading about one of the famous English manor gardens that was closed for tours during covid. The gardeners said they found they had to prune and trim a lot more than usual because they didn't have hundreds of tourists all pinching a bit to take home!

I have seen a similar sign in a local nursery in these parts.