DEAR ABBY: I spend lots of time and money on my flower garden. While I'm outside working, it is not unusual for complete strangers to stop and ask me for plants and bulbs. Believe it or not, three women were even brazen enough to ring my doorbell.
It is one thing to share flowers with friends and family -- but with people I don't even know? Please give me a clever response to these nervy individuals. -- APPALLED IN WINCHESTER, VA.
DEAR APPALLED: You should count yourself lucky that these "nervy individuals" are asking for the plants and not pinching them. Sadly, I have heard from other frustrated horticulturalists whose gardens have been denuded by people who simply helped themselves.
As to what to say to people who ring your bell asking for plants, rather than being put off, why not give them the name and address of the nursery where you buy your own? That's what I'd do -- unless I offered them a cutting so they could root their own plants.