A Kingswood woman has been charged with neglect and banned from owning any houseplants for six months.
It comes after it was revealed the woman had allegedly failed to keep a monstera alive, the seventeenth of which to meet the same fate in the last year.
Plant welfare inspectors were called to the North Road address early on Sunday morning after receiving a call from a concerned neighbour.
The neighbour who admits she’s “home a lot” said she had noticed the houseplant, usually visible in the bay window opposite her own kitchen window, missing one morning. After scaling the fence unprompted, she discovered the “worse for wear” monstera in the compost bin on her neighbor’s property. She then called authorities as it “wasn’t the first time”, in reference to the plant discovery rather than possible trespassing .
Upon questioning the woman claimed that after returning from a long weekend away, her friend who was supposed to be watering her plants had forgotten to, resulting in the latest plant death. When pressed about previous plant causalities the woman claimed they had died of “natural causes”.
As a precaution, the officers removed three of the woman’s remaining house plants including a dracanena, succulent and unusually three small polyurethane cacti.
The woman was found guilty of gross neglect and has been ordered to attend six weeks of plant welfare classes with a focus on watering can skills. She has also been banned from purchasing or caring for any new plants for six months. However has been granted permission to maintain the kikuyu berm at the front of her house and to buy mesclun at the grocery store.
Local garden centres say they support the sentence but are forecasting a downturn in demand for the foreseeable next few months .