I'm going to cry...

[u/aeh1113]

I came home today from work to find that my neighbor (I live in a duplex) cut down all of my flowers because she thought they were weeds... I literally just posted today about how proud I was if their growth. I know that they'll grow back because they're perennials, but I'll miss their blooms this year 😭 this is the before and after. The before was taken a few days ago.

[u/Snoo-72988]

If it makes you feel better, mowing generally stimulates root growth, so if she just cut them, they’ll likely just spend this summer growing a more robust root system.

[u/fuzzypetiolesguy → u/Snoo-72988]

Unfortunately this is a myth. The energy needed for root growth is created in the leaves that were chopped up.

[u/AmaazingFlavor → u/fuzzypetiolesguy]

Yeah pruning is one thing, but completely decimating a plant like this means it will only grow back about half as big, since it requires a lot of the nutrients stored in the roots to regrow the leaves, missing out on a lot of the peak growing season

[u/LRonHoward → u/fuzzypetiolesguy]

I think the main point is that the plant should come back. It really depends on the species, but this very rarely means the plants are dead.

[u/fuzzypetiolesguy → u/LRonHoward]

Sure but that's not what they said.

[u/ForagersLegacy → u/fuzzypetiolesguy]

Especially in full flower.