HOLYBOURNE, the home of celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh, has been hit by a green-fingered thief who stole plant pots and hanging baskets from houses in the Rakemakers area of the village.

Residents woke on Sunday, July 2, to find garden display pots, plants plus several hanging baskets – their best summer displays – had been stolen.

But strangely a lone conifer in a pot had been left in the road at the end of Lower Neatham Mill Lane and no-one knows who it belongs to.

One of the victims, who didn’t want to be named, said: “The thief or thieves must have walked around the village and along our road and seen the layouts of the pots and the baskets.

“Whoever took the items knew what they were going as, for instance, of my two hanging baskets they took the biggest and best flowering. My neighbour had her marvellous display of tall geraniums, which were in pots against the wall, stolen and other pots and baskets have also gone, but only from the top part of the road.

“They must have had a car or a van and I think they didn’t want to go too far down as it would be difficult to turn around to get out. I also heard plants had been stolen from gardens in Alton.”

“We have timed the thefts to between 10pm and 11.30pm as I was out at 10pm watering my garden, but I didn’t hear anything, and a neighbour put her cat out around 11 pm and noticed her hanging baskets had gone.

“The thieves actually took some of the plants from outside front doors and at one point they would have had to walk down a gravel path and their footsteps would have made a noise. We think they may have been stealing the plants to sell at a local car boot sale next day.

“So far none have been found apart from a single conifer in a green pot which was in the road at the closed end of Lower Neatham Mill Lane, next to some tyre tracks where possibly a vehicle was parked during the series of thefts. No houses overlook it.”

The thefts have been reported to the police but meanwhile the residents are on “detective alert” and keeping an eye on strangers and strange vehicles passing their houses. They would also like to hear from anyone who has suffered the same crime or knows anything about the missing Holybourne plants.

The search is also on for the owner of the conifer in the green pot which is thought to have been stolen but later discarded.