The garden of 88-year-old Opal Waters appears to be something out of a children’s book. Nestled in the corner of a quiet Durango neighborhood, the fauna greets any viewer with a plethora of colors.
Waters says she spends more than 40 hours a week tending to her yard, which consists of lush green ornamental grasses, lofty purple lupine stalks and golden marigolds with blooms so full they appear to be spilling over their sepals.
When Waters awoke Saturday morning to discover her red poppies had disappeared, she was astonished.
“I looked out the window, and I thought, ‘What in the world?’” she said.
When she entered the garden to investigate, Waters says she discovered a large hole and confirmed that only four of the 12 stalks remained.
“They trampled down my bushes, and then they took most of the poppy plant,” Walters said. “It was huge; it had been there for years.”
For Waters, who has been planting, pruning and propagating her garden for over four decades, the theft came out of left field.
“I’ve never had anything like that happen; I was shocked,” she said.
When she first noticed its absence, Waters cried.
Of the 100-plus flowering plants she has in her garden, the burgled red poppy was one of a kind.
“They’re very hard to get. I bought poppies, poppies, poppies at the nursery trying to get a red one,” she said.
When she finally landed her prized red poppy, Waters planted it in the front of her garden, where she has been cultivating it for 12 years.
“That’s the only one I had; it was my pride and joy,” she said before looking up and smiling. “But you know, I said I’ll just plant some other plants here, and life goes on.”
Despite her apparent composure, the loss of the plant left Waters with what she described as an “uneasy feeling.”
“I called the police, because I said, ‘If they’ll come in my yard and steal a flower, what will they come back tomorrow night and steal?’” she said.
Durango Police Department Cmdr. Deck Shaline said Water’s report is one of three plant burglaries the department has dealt with since April 1.
The first two reports came from south City Market and Alberstons, and Shaline said both perpetrators were identified and ticketed.
In Water’s case, a perpetrator has not been identified.
Walter had taken several precautions to ensure the safety of herself and her garden. She plans to install three security cameras and has started locking her gate at night.
“I use a bicycle lock,” she said. “I’ve never locked my gate, but I will from now on.”
Despite the loss of her prized red poppies, Waters refuses to let her cheery demeanor and radiant garden be daunted.
“Oh, I was upset, they just ruined this part of the garden,” she said. “But that’s OK, I’ll get it back. I’m determined.”
Waters said she has already ordered new poppies, which she hopes arrive red, not orange.
lveress@durangoherald.com
