I like your take on it, but the poison ivy idea also makes me giggle. :)

What a wonderfully harmonious idea!

My own not-quite-so-harmonious idea is to leave her little notes saying "Try this one today, it's nearly ripe for picking!" or "Don't steal this one yet please, I'm saving it for my Aunt Mavis." Bet that would stop her right quick...

She could also just grow plants like mint for example that spread energetically to replace the loss...

I'm curious about what sort of plants are getting stolen? (I didn't see that info in her post.) Perhaps another sort of plant would be less appealing?

I don't know that plant stealing is such a problem here, but I do remember reading about rampant political sign removal. The key to prevention seems to be to smear the signposts with shit. I wonder if this would work for the plants, too?

Sign*posts*. Not the sign.:)

I don't know how important the color scheme is to you, and I don't know where you live. But you might want to think about daylilies or coleus. You can find the former in orange and yellow, and the latter in hot pink and yellow--maybe orange, too. Or cannas--mine are yellow and orangy red.

Stealing basil really SUCKS!!!! (I know some people love dahlias; I have no attachment to them.)

some folks who steal plants are acting out of compulsion... there've been local cases of klepto gardeners who have lots of containers in their homes/yards/porches--and all were stolen from other gardeners.

but since these are *in the ground*, i think the thief is more likely to think these things out. i'd be likely to plant something thorny. to be quite honest, i have to skimp and save to buy the plants i buy. i have to forego some things in order to buy containers, dirt, etc. i put a lot of effort into my plants and if they were to get stolen, i'd be upset. there's no cosmic gift--i was growing those plants for the birds, butterflies, and for MYSELF, not for some slacker who lives down the street.

Maybe they had dealt with the local klepto gardeners and had developed an unmanaged habit of buying extra plants. This formed a nice stasis for quite a while, with a steady number of plants present in the beds. Then, a few years before you moved in, the klepto gardener went on vacation. Your predecessors were used to buying extra plants for the klepto and so the stasis was broken. They dutifully crammed more and more plants into the space they had like some sort of crazed phytophilic automata.

poison ivy

nobody who steals dahlias really "needs" them. i sorta like your karmic viewpoint, but i think i'd just be pissed instead. i'd probably install a hidden webcam to sniff out who's doing it, and then confront them. if they really "need" the plants, i'd be happy to give them some, but no stealing the ones i've lavished attention on, and look forward to seeing bloom.

when i grew a lot of plants from seedlings, i would set out the ones i had no room for with a sign that people could take them. i'm all for sharing, but not for stealing.

i might replant with a sign asking the thief to please leave those alone because it's so disappointing to walk out and find my plants gone. if zie has any heart, maybe that'll do something.

poison ivy! *grin*. my nasty side really likes that. it also likes coating the newly planted balls with cayenne pepper.