A post-it note war over who owns the flowers on a public pavement has been deemed the ‘most middle-class argument ever’ online.

The row, which kicked off on a street in London, first began after someone left a note on a tree simply stating ‘please don’t pick my flowers’.

But the message clearly angered one resident of the area, who pinned another piece of paper to the tree arguing that no one could ‘take ownership’ of the flowers.

Using green marker pen, they wrote: ‘In an area massively affected by gentrification it’s sad to see people claiming ownership of even the flowers.’

Someone else then took it upon themselves to add a pink post-it note to tree, proclaiming: ‘Flowers on the public pavements are owned by all the community, not just the house they happen to fall in front of.’

The author also added some illustrations of flowers, perhaps in an attempt to make their message seem more lighthearted.

But the dispute didn’t end there – as a yellow-paper owning resident then chimed in to ask the other commentators if they were ‘serious’

They wrote: ‘Are you serious? This is not about ownership or gentrification, this is about someone trying to make the street a nicer place for everyone by planting flowers and people stealing them and stamping on them.

‘How can you try and justify that?’

Someone else then scrawled their thoughts on the bottom, adding: ‘Totally agree. This was done with love and a spirit of community for Heaven’s sake!’

Writer Rachel Thompson took a photo of the messages and shared it on Twitter, where the images have now gone viral.

She wrote: ‘People on my street are having an almighty row over who owns some flowers.

‘There have been no raised voices, just handwritten notes placed inside plastic wallets and pinned to a post.’

Later a more official typed up letter was added to the tree, which explained that the council does not pay anything towards the the ‘planting or watering’ of the flowers.

It revealed that the flowers do not ‘grow wild’ and instead had to be ‘maintained and replaced by local residents’.

The message then added: ‘This is why we ask that people do not pick flowers or remove plants. It is sad for donors/volunteers to see their work undone.’

But it would appear the damage of argument had been done – as Rachel tweeted the flowers were now gone.

She wrote: ‘Sorry to report that the debacle has ended with the original note-poster digging up the flowers to take them “elsewhere”.’

A green-penned message was then added to the tree stating that it was ‘misleading’ to call the flowers ‘my flowers’ – adding that it was a ‘shame’ they had been moved.

Rachel’s original tweet has more than 15,000 retweets, with other social media users describing the conflict as ‘the most middle-class argument ever’.

One person wrote: ‘I like it when someone thinks they have won an argument by simply saying the word “gentrification”.’

Another joked: ‘Watch out for green pen owner. They’re always nutters’, while a third said: ‘It’s like Twitter if there were no internet.’

A fourth added: ‘It’s ridiculously petty. A small sign saying “do not pick THE flowers” would have done.’

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