Little Flower Thief - the beginning of a floral love story.
The original flower thief, circa 1986.
A true story.
1986. She is six, just a tiny little thing with two long brown ponytails. They mirror the length of the sparkly tassels hanging from her new Huffy handlebars. The bike was a recent Christmas present and now she was going places. Real places. Like straight to the neighbor’s yard with those big purple blooms out front she’d been eyeing for weeks. So perfectly ripe for the picking. She parks her bike right in front of the house, never thinking to hide it, nor that she was doing anything wrong. Flowers were for picking, right? How could one leave them there? And so marching right up to the lovingly-tended flowers, she doesn’t hesitate…pick, pluck, pull. Three blooms grasped tightly in her little hands, she gets back on the bike and leisurely rides to the next house of blooms. Pick, pluck, pull. This time, she lands a combination of white and yellow blooms, and one whisp of purple wisteria joyfully plucked as a last minute grab. Onward she thieves, up and down the streets, slowly putting together the most beautiful-to-her bouquet. She finishes her route and marches the bouquet to her beloved grandmotherly neighbor (Mrs. Cox) who lives across the street. Knock, knock, knock. Mrs. Cox lights up at the blooms, her weathered, joyful smile is everything to the little girl. Her hugs, even more. She quickly hands off the blooms and off the little girl goes, glowing inside and out, brown ponytails bouncing, sparkly bike tassles flying. She is oblivious to the tattered neighbor yards, the watchful eyes from windows, the shaking of motherly heads. She repeats the ritual every week. One beautiful bouquet after another. She’s become a small-town, serial flower thief and Ms. Cox’s smiles never get old.
The little girl’s love of blooms never faded, but she did finally stop thieving blooms to focus on growing her own. Flower Thief Farms was established in 2021, on 1/8 of an urban acre in Napa, California, with a focus on specialty blooms, sustainability and sharing nature’s beauty to generate joy.