60-year-old neighbor renting the house next door cuts down all of homeowner's 10-foot-tall sunflowers after complaining that they were attracting bees and hummingbirds: 'My husband wants to sue her in small claims court for $100 per plant'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Aug 1, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

Where there exists something in this world, there's going to be someone out there who takes issue with it. But taking issue with flowers? Of all things? That has got to be a new one. 

Living next to anyone can be a grab bag, and you can end up with all sorts of disruptive and inconsiderate people living next to you. Unfortunately, when the house next to you is being rented out, there's a greater chance that you might end up with neighbors who have no consideration for those around them and an absent owner who has no interest in properly upkeeping a property they're not living in. 

This couple lived in their home next door to a rented duplex, one half of which was rented by their neighbor, an older woman in her 60s. The relationship had been cordial up until this point, maintaining niceties to ensure a mutually peaceful existence with the couple, even going as far as to check with her before using pesticides or anything on their property in order to not potentially harm a feral cat that she had been feeding, something that really seems to be overly considerate. 

They had permission from the owner of the property, the neighbor's landlord, to plant sunflowers down the patch of land between the driveways of the two properties. This "permission" was, again, more of a courtesy since anything they were planting was on their property anyway. 

Still, the neighbor found issues with the sunflowers anyway, complaining about the fact that they were attracting bees and claiming that the bees were alarming the same feral cat that she had been feeding.

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  • "Neighbor cut my sunflowers"

    I'll do my best to keep this simple. For several years, we have lived next-door to a woman who rents half of a duplex. She is dis ed, on oxygen all the time, has a home care worker, and is probably somewhere around 60 years old. We've had a distant but cordial relationship up till this point.
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  • sunflowers and bees
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    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • In March, she gave me permission to use extra strength vinegar on ivy that grows from her side of the fence into our side of the fence and yard. The smell was strong, but not intolerable. Some of the ivy d d. She didn't want us using regular yard chemicals because she feeds an outdoor cat and did not want the cat to get sick.
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  • My husband planted sunflower seeds on a small strip of land between our driveways. We got permission from her landlord to plant there, although the sunflower seeds were put in on our side of the property. We also have a number of raised beds in our front yard with lots of flowers of different kinds.
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  • older woman looking concerned
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  • She told my husband a couple days ago, that the bees, who have been visiting the sunflowers quite a lot, bothered her cat when it was trying to eat. When she was talking about this, the cat was eating its food, which was several yards from where the sunflowers are. He told her he didn't really know what to do about that problem.
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  • She also complained about some vinegar that I had put on a blackberry shot that was coming up in our yard. She said it went into the air conditioning in her house and made it hard for her to breathe. She added that she didn't like the bees or the hummingbirds that were all over the place. We like flowers, lots of colorful flowers, and were trying to attract pollinators.
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  • Husband got up this morning, opened the front curtains, and found that she had basically decapitated all of our 10 foot tall sunflowers at about 5 feet. Got rid of every single sunflower. The stalks are still alive. The flowers are gone. She put them in our organic recycling.☺ He got me out of bed to look at this travesty (I have a fractured ankle and it's difficult to move around right now). He was very upset. He decided to call the cops and then went to work. A police officer showed up, and I
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  • The officer told her that she was lucky we were not going to pursue criminal charges. I had called husband while the officer was there and we decided against criminal charges. The officer warned her, though, that it was considered criminal mischief, and she could incur fines and would have to go to court if she did anything else. Now my husband wants to sue her in small claims court for $100 per plant. I don't know if it's worth it. But I am absolutely not going to help her with anything that sh
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  • Mostly, I'm venting, but if anyone has any further ideas on how to handle this, please let me know.
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  • DementedPimento Why aren't you my neighbors? I love flowers, hummingbirds, bees, and cats! I'm a cranky old b ! But not the kind that f s with anyone's flowers.
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  • Deep Fried Oligarch Right? I'm a retired horticulturist who keeps bees. I'd ADORE them as neighbors. I'd even trade seeds. and starts with them, and give them honey for Christmas.
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  • older woman with secateurs in hand
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  • Kathywasright If your husband is willing to pursue it, go ahead. The whole ordeal will make her think twice about doing this crop again.
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  • Msredratforgot You message her landlord because you got permission to plant them there and she destroyed them she will be getting a fine most likely from her landlord for that most places would because they gave you permission and she decided to go above that
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  • Useless890 Funny, she sounded so sickly. Depending on the variety of sunflower you have, they aren't easy to cut if the stems aren't brown and dry. Maybe she's not so helpless. I doubt she got her carer to do it.
    via floofienewfie

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