This week, a video hit the headlines after police confiscated a bunch of daffodils from a family who picked them from a grass verge.

David Taylor had been visiting his mother in Mansfield when he stopped at the grass verge with his two young daughters - and subsequently got caught by a passing police officer who told him off and took away the flowers.

With spring well and truly on the way, daffodils, tulips and bluebells have been blooming spectacularly across the county.

Daffodils on Esher Common Roundabout

So, what are the rules about picking flowers when you're out and about?

What does the law say?

According to Plantlife, an organisation that works to raise the profile of wild flowers, plants and fungi, it's not normally an offence to pick the 'Four Fs' – fruit, foliage, fungi or flowers', if "the plants are growing wild and it is for your personal use and not for sale".

However, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 it is an offence to "intentionally pick, uproot or destroy any wild plant included on a protected list".

Pick any of them and you will face arrest.

Be careful because the act also makes it illegal to intentionally uproot ANY wild plant, regardless of it being on that list.

FYI, it defines uprooting as to dig up or otherwise remove the plant from the land on which it is growing, whether or not it actually has roots.

What about flowers on local authority-owned land?

It is not permitted to pick ANY flowers in council parks or on council-maintained displays, roundabouts or verges.

Plants displayed by organisations like community gardens and nature reserves are also off limits.

Flowers, wild or otherwise, belong to the landowner and their permission should be sought before removing any part of the plant- otherwise it might be construed as theft.

In the case of these 27 daffodils, which incidentally ended up at a nearby care home, the daffodils were on a public verge presumably owned by the local authority. Although they are not wild or native flowers, they had been planted and cultivated.

So what's the advice?

As you can see the answer isn't clear cut and depends on where the plants have been found, what they are and who owns the land. You can very easily find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

We asked the Royal Horticultural Society, which advised: "There are many excellent suppliers of wildflower plants and seeds grown/collected in a responsible and sustainable manner – we would encourage people to support these growers."