Laws covering flower picking in England fall under legislation which is part of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Theft Act 1968. The main difference between the two lie in distinctions made between picking wild flowers and picking flowers which have been purposely planted or cultivated.   According to the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 it is illegal to: Uproot any wild plant without permission from the landowner or occupier. It is illegal therefore to “dig up” a wild plant that doesn’t belong to you. However picking any part of a plant is legal so long as the entire plant is NOT uprooted. Pick flowers from a special conservation site or reserve. This includes National Nature Reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and National Trust properties. Pick any flower that is on Schedule 8 of the Act. These plants are protected. The full list can be found here, and includes flowers such as wild gladiolus, some kinds of orchids, fen violets and sea knotgrass. It is also unlawful to sell, offer or expose for sale, is in possession of or transports for the purpose of selling, publishes, causes to be published any advertisement likely to be understood that a person buy or sells or intends to buy or sell any live or dead wild plant or anything derived from such a plant included in Schedule 8. However there are some plants listed in the Schedule where the offence is only to sell, advertise, publish etc. any live or dead wild plant or anything derived from such a plant. Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta Creeping Marshwort Apium repens Early Gentian Gentianella anglica Fen Orchid Liparis loeselii Floating Water-plantain Luronium natans Killarney Fern Trichomanes speciosum Lady’s-slipper Cypripedium calceolus Marsh Saxifrage Saxifraga hirculus Shore Dock Rumex rupestris Slender Naiad Najas flexilis    (Exemption: A person will not be guilty of such a crime if it has been carried out under a licence obtained from the relevant authority, the damage is a result of a lawful activity and could not reasonably have been avoided. That the unlawful act was incidental of a lawful operation or other activity, and whilst carrying out that lawful incident or activity that person took reasonable precautions to avoid uprooting, destroying etc. the plant, or he did not or could not have reasonably foreseen that the unlawful act would have occurred during the lawful operation or activity.)   According to the Theft Act 1968 it is illegal to: Pick cultivated flowers in public parks or gardens as well as plants and flowers growing on land which is maintained by the council (for example roundabouts and grass verges). A well-known case in 2011 involved two children picking daffodils in a park whose parents were advised they could be charged with causing ‘criminal damage’. However the Act also says under ‘Property’ (4.3) that “A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers, fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial purpose.”