There's no such thing as "public land" sadly, but anyway, I agree that these flowers are planted to make the area look nicer, not to be picked, if everyone did it they wouldn't last very long
. The village I live in, being a little posho sort of place, actually has various places where there are potted plants (in half barrels) and if people started taking those for themselves it would cost a fortune...
On the other hand, they were already picked, so they could probably have explained why not to do it more gently and let them keep them this time
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