ELDERLY visitors to an Ipswich day care centre have been left shocked after a rare plant was snatched from their garden.A green-flowered Primula was stolen from the St Raphael Club, for the physically handicapped, in a four-day period when the centre was unoccupied.

ELDERLY visitors to an Ipswich day care centre have been left shocked after a rare plant was snatched from their garden.

A green-flowered Primula was stolen from the St Raphael Club, for the physically handicapped, in a four-day period when the centre was unoccupied.

Angie Osborn, of the day care centre, in Highfield Road, said: "We've been keeping an eye on it, waiting for it to seed but now someone has gone and pinched it.

"Somebody must have known it was rare but it's left some of our members devastated."

Although the plant can blossom in a wide range of colours, Evening Star gardener Ric Staines said he had never seen a green-flowered plant.

"A green-flowered primula would be very rare and I suspect someone has taken it thinking it would be nice for their collection," he said.

The theft happened between 3pm on May 4 and 8am on May 11.

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