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Thieves digging up and stealing plants from popular Colorado Springs demonstration garden

Posted at 7:15 PM, Sep 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-25 21:34:18-04

COLORADO SPRINGS – Plants are disappearing from the popular Horticultural Art Society, Demonstration Garden. Caretakers of the popular public garden on the edge of Monument Valley Park say over the summer more the 60 plants have been dug up and stolen.

“We came in this morning and in the last 48 hours we had a Blue Star Juniper that was just pulled out of the ground,” said Master Gardener Diane Brunjes.

One young tree stolen recently is only one of two in the state. It is so rare, Brunjes, put up a note asking for its return. “This beautiful, unique, rare plant, it’s not replaceable. So it really hurts to lose that,” said Brunjes. Specific information on the tree is not being released because it is so rare they know they can identify the thief because of it.

“They literally could not prove they got that plant legally, it is that rare. So it really was a treasure and we would prefer to have it back.” There is only one other tree in the state like this. It is at the Denver Botanical Garden.

The Horticultural Art Society is a nonprofit operating off of fundraising money, donations and membership fees. Some future garden plans may be scaled back to divert some budget money toward security cameras.