A Katikati grower has had $8000 worth of ornamental shrubs stolen from a display in the Hamilton Gardens.
"They are the best of the best. It is almost like losing a member of the family," an upset Claudia Daley said yesterday.
"That is my livelihood."
A specialist in topiary -the art of clipping greenery into shapes - she had set up her exhibition in the Italian Renaissance-theme garden on Friday night, ready for the national daffodil show over the weekend.
When she returned at 9 am on Saturday, Miss Daley found the pick of her works, including a unique selection of 1.2m to 1.8m bonsai-style plants she calls Zen Clips, had disappeared.
"They [the thieves] were very selective."
A trail of potting mix indicated the night-time raiders had passed plants over a high concrete wall and made off along a path bordering the Waikato River to a carpark.
She said they obviously knew what they wanted. They had selected about 20 of the "big value" mature shrubs, from six to nine years old, and left the younger specimens.
Most were classical tiered shapes made of English box, some with intricate double twisted stems.
Others were stacked cubes or cone-shaped.
About five piles of plants had been dropped during the getaway.
Miss Daley, who runs specialist nursery Standards of Excellence in Katikati, said the thieves would have needed a truck for their haul.
One large spiral conifer would be damaged if it was carried on the back of a utility vehicle.
She would "dearly like to talk" to two men and a woman in their late 20s or early 30s who stopped to chat while she was preparing her display about 6pm on Friday.
They had studied the plants carefully and obviously had a knowledge of topiary.
Hamilton police are investigating the theft and Miss Daley said she would be contacting landscape gardeners in the Waikato area urging them to keep a lookout.
