Hold on to your hostas and grab your gladioli - a basket thief is hanging around.

Gardeners need to be on guard this summer as some burglars bypass obvious household bling of stereos and DVDs to go straight for the ultimate prize - hanging baskets.

Police are hoping to dig up the band of thieves who have been swiping the wall-hung floral displays from houses around the county.

Several thefts from private gardens have been reported in Sittingbourne, Faversham and the Isle of Sheppey and in Maidstone, offenders took four baskets full of busy lizzies from a home in Lenham.

But far from wanting to display the baskets in all their morning glory, the thieves see them as a lucrative source of cash.

John Grant, crime reduction liaison officer for Mid Kent police said: “The thieves sell them on at boot fairs. Hanging baskets can cost around £16 at garden centres, and the baskets alone can be up to £30.

“So even if someone gets a fiver for them at a boot fair, it's still profit.

“I’d be very surprised if they were taking them for their own gardens.”

Mr Grant said this was the first spate of incidents he was aware of in Mid Kent.

Deputy manager of Wyevale Garden Centre near Canterbury, Tim Law, knows first hand how appealing hanging baskets and floral displays can be at this time of year.

He said: “Hanging baskets can be expensive, and there is a lot of demand from them. The store has not had any thefts, but I had a tub taken from my own garden in Ashford.

“People could be selling them on, or it could be kids thinking they’d be a nice ‘present’ for mum!”

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