FARMINGTON – A variety of plants and trees were taken from the Franklin County Soil & Water Conservation District on Park Street sometime Monday night.

Items left over from the district’s annual shrub sale have been left outside the office since the original pickup date on May 4, Rosetta Thompson said. They were taken inside over the weekend because the building owner was removing some permanent shrubbery around the building. They were then put back outside by the office door facing Meetinghouse Park on Monday.

Thompson inventoried the items Monday night before leaving around 6 p.m., but did not notice anything unusual until Tuesday afternoon, when she thought there should be more plants, she said.

“Someone took their time doing it as it did not seem to be a random grab or vandalism,” Thompson said. “Pear trees were rearranged and moved around very neatly so that it wouldn’t be noticed and whomever took the plants did it in a proportionate way as only certain amounts of different items were taken,” Thompson added.

The total items taken, she said, included 20 blueberry bushes, 50-plus high-bush cranberry bushes, three Bartlett pear trees, 23 gray dogwood and a small pot of chives.

“There is a security light in the area,” she said, “and the odd part is there is a utility pole across from the office that has been run into very recently and has a fresh wound. Someone may have damaged their vehicle while they were taking the plants,” she said.

Thompson estimated the loss to be worth over $290 at the district’s cost.

The annual shrub sale is the district’s fundraiser to help support educational programming. The district provides Ag Day at Farmington Fair for grades K-4, the Envirothon/Mock Envirothon for high school students, a conservation poster contest, conservation field day for grades four and five, as well as workshops for adults.

The number of plants sold this year, she said, was the lowest in many years. The presale orders, 80, were down by about 30 this year. Since the pickup date, the sale number has risen, but in order to offer better prices, she said, she has to order plants in bulk so there are usually plants left over. These are left outside the office to be sold until the day of Mt. Blue Garden Club’s plant sale, which takes place across the street at the Gazebo.

The garden club sale is this Saturday. What she can’t sell that day, she said, she puts into Harnden’s Harvest Hutch to finish selling. She has 50-60 blueberry plants left, a few apple trees, some high-bush cranberries and a variety of odds and ends.

Plants and shrubs are ordered from northern nurseries, several in Maine, so that the root stock is acclimated to Maine, she said.

Thompson said she has received some comments since she made the loss known. She even received a call from someone who felt so bad he offered to give $50 out of his pocket, she said.