Market trader to the rescue after burglars take plants from Sleaford's bloom volunteers

Volunteers of Sleaford in Bloom reported last week that they had suffered a burglary at their plant nursery on their allotment.

Speaking on their Facebook page they reported on May 24: “All involved with Sleaford in Bloom would like to apologise if our displays this year don’t seem up to standard.

“Sadly we have been the victim of theft. Lots of plants we have either nurtured or bought were stolen from our polytunnel.

“We are a charity with limited funds. Our volunteers work very hard all year round to make our town look good.”

However, within a day of posting the message, Chris Ford, the "Plant Man" on Sleaford Market, offered to replace all the stolen plants, free of charge.

Becky Mayfield from Sleaford In Bloom said: “The point is we are a charity, all volunteers and it is very sad people would think to take anything from our polytunnel.”

But she said: “We had a wonderful response from Chris. We get most of our plants from him on the market anyway and he replaced the begonias and bizzy lizzies we had lost.

"Then one of our supporters had a message of support from Will Pennell of Pennells garden centre and I have now picked up 300 fuchsia and geranium plants. He was great.”

Becky said she was grateful to everyone who has helped and donated plants to make up for the ones stolen.