Plant thefts sprouting up everywhere - Simple steps can help gardeners in protecting treasures

Plant thefts have become more frequent during the past decade, and thieves have been getting bolder and better informed.

Sometimes thieves take perfectly ordinary plants -- even newly laid sod lawns! -- but the worst losses are of valuable, old or rare plants. It's not just the money. People cherish their favorite plants on the level of beloved pets and fine art.

Thieves hit nurseries and public gardens, nature reserves and national parks. They take "mother" plants, which growers use as sources of the clones or seedlings they sell; they take long-coddled rarities that can no longer be imported or collected. They kidnap endangered natives, like saguaro and barrel cactus, swamp orchids and lady's slippers, and rob the already limited gene pool of their contributions.

But it's the home garden thieves who hit where it hurts. Stylish plants, like thread-leaf Japanese maples, are dug out and whisked away, apparently by experts who know both how to take a good root-ball and which cultivars are most marketable. One disappeared from a yard just down the street from us; another, in front of a garage on San Pablo Avenue, "was five minutes from being taken overnight," according to a regular there. "Everything was cut and dug, except the last bottom root, when the owner came to open the shop."

Some thefts are clearly custom jobs, done to order. Any bargain specimen plant, especially from a dealer you don't know, is suspicious.

Others are less commercial. Merritt College suffered a rash of plant thefts some years ago. A staffer's husky husband tucked himself up in a dark corner one evening and, sure enough, he saw a stranger climb over the gate with a shovel. He chased and tackled the guy and ended up clutching his baggy pants, watching him escape in his shorts. But the captured trousers contained a wallet with identification and an address, and staffers were able to recognize the plants they'd lost in a new front yard in a neighboring development. Since they'd reported the losses in detail, prosecution and recovery were successful.

Without a private bouncer, what can you do to protect your plants? Some desperate nursery owners swear they stalk their grounds with shotguns. I talked to one bonsai owner who mentioned booby traps: "Not punji stakes or anything like that, but when I happen to leave a roll of barbed wire or an upturned rake lying around, or have a rotten board over a hole, it's always by the fence. And if someone comes over that back corner, he'll land on my big sago palm and I'll hear him squeal."

Bonsai owners are the most organized lot in opposing theft because their prizes are small, valuable and portable; the rest of us can take some nonlethal cues from them. Homeowners' insurance covers some possessions; check your policy, and consider extending it. Getting your garden specimens appraised by a professional might make that process easier.

Walk your garden daily at irregular hours, giving thieves less getaway time and letting them notice that the place isn't ignored. Chain or cement containers to the ground or a convenient fence post -- or, as Piedmont police Capt. John Hunt suggests, "Use heavier containers." A bottom layer of brick or stone will add weight.

Fencing and security lighting are useful, of course, and so is keeping valuable plants in the backyard while presenting a bland facade to the street or making an interesting front garden of inexpensive plants.

Photograph your plants. Bonsai folks do that, and they microchip their trees like pets. National and state organizations have online stolen-bonsai registers. Stolen trees don't necessarily end up in exhibitions, but alert maintenance gardeners and contractors can see and remember them.

An East Bay bonsai maven said, "Camera phones are really useful tools now. Someone spots a suspicious tree and it's on the Internet in minutes." (One is reminded of the Hollaback Web sites, where women post cell phone pictures of street harassers caught in the act.) Bonsai collections, public and private, can be rigged with motion sensors and circuit alarms. Bonsai exhibitions don't include the names of the trees' owners these days.

One safeguard is more low-tech and traditional. "My neighbors know me, and they know I have this collection," said one Bay Area expert. "I've invited everyone over to see it, at one time or another. If they see anyone walking out of my yard with a plant and I'm not with them, they know something's wrong. Good neighbors are the best insurance."

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