u/Luvtahoe

I am heartbroken. I love to garden and every year I plant dahlias, sometimes from tubers I saved but most often from a nursery. My daughter is getting married this fall and she loves dahlias, and I wanted so badly to grow some for her bridal bouquet. I bought $200 worth of tubers of several gorgeous, unique varieties that she likes in the colors of her wedding, and dreamed about having some in her bouquet. I prepared the ground so carefully, put in a pretty new edging around the bed, and planted them a few weeks ago, waiting until the end of May because I hoped there would be a better chance of them still blooming in October. (I’m in SoCal). I watched and waited with so much anticipation for the first shoots, and as of yesterday several had sprouted. I was so excited! I poured my heart into this garden.
Today I got home from work and discovered that my damn gardeners (mow, blow and go) decided to trim the bushes behind the bed. The bushes they hardly ever trim. They stepped all over my dahlia bed! All the shoots are squashed except for two. God knows what their heavy boots did to any shoots and tubers below ground. Their footprints are all over the bed. How can you be such morons! You see a flower bed freshly and carefully prepared, with new edging and shoots emerging, and you step all over it? I am so utterly heartbroken, and beyond furious.
Please give me some hope that my beautiful dahlias will survive this.

Yesterday I was in the shoe department at Macy’s, and I realized a woman and man were following me around, maybe because I had my phone in view in a side pocket of my purse. I made sure they were following me by taking a very circuitous path among the shoes and sure enough, the woman stayed uncomfortably near me. I turned and walked right toward her and she quickly turned away and pretended to examine a shoe. While watching her I very deliberately took my phone and put it inside my purse and zipped it up. She consulted with the male and they left the department. They looked to be in their 50’s, probably Balkan in origin. She had light brown hair and big, heavily made up eyes. He was balding, black hair and followed her around. Both were about 5’8. I’m certain they were up to no good.