Landsborough man’s flowers stolen, then community donates plants
By Kirra Livingstone
A GARDEN club and kind-hearted neighbours have come to the aid of Landsborough local, Paul Vella, who had dozens of flowers and plants stolen the night after he had planted his new garden.
As reported by GC&M News (July 16), Paul has a serious medical condition and recruited the help of his friend Anna, to beautify his garden to help him through a difficult time.
However the night after he and Anna had planted about 30 plants, a petal pincher ripped out every single plant overnight.
When the Peachester Garden Club heard about Paul’s trouble with a flower thief, they put up their hands to help him out.
“We wanted to help because it’s a pretty low act, and we are gardeners so we really appreciate where he is coming from,” Peachester Garden Club secretary, Glenda Sellenger, said.
“We would hate it to happen to our gardens, we would be devastated, so we donated a gift voucher to Paul.”
A few days after the theft, a kind-hearted neighbour dropped off a tray of bright, blooming flowers.
Paul said he was extremely grateful for everyone’s generosity, which he says will bring his garden back to life.
“The Peachester Garden Club are beautiful people, I wasn’t expecting anything at all,” he said.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I’m just still so sorry that those people stole those flowers from me, it’s worse than grave robbing, I’ll tell you.”
“We have already replanted a lot of it, there’s still much more to go in, but it’s looking good, but this time because we added the security lights, and there’s a sign that says smile your on camera, hopefully it’s just a deterrent, but touch wood they haven’t come back.”
Although Paul hasn’t used his voucher yet to purchase more flowers, he is waiting on his good friend Anna to pick some flowers out.
“Anna knows more about flowers then I do, she picks them out for me and has helped me with the garden from the start,” he said.
“She’s the green thumb.”
kirra@gcnews.com.au
