As I neared the end of my first yeat at Uni (June 1996), I reflected on how long it had taken me to get a job the summer before. As West Row is known for it's flower picking trade, I thought I'd see if I could get a job helping out somewhere.

I went to see someone called Titch, who I didn't know, but who lived about 1/2 mile down the road from me to see if he would have any work for me over the summer. He was a funny old chap, but I thought he was OK. The only thing I needed to do to qualify for the job, was to count to 10 and bend at the waist and touch my toes!!! I got the job and so was relieved that at the end of the term I had something to go straight to :)

I'm not sure what I expected when I asked about flower picking. The first day I didn't manage to pick many bunches at all, though. Took me about a week to learn how to hold a knife properly!!! Still, I got the hang of it in the end, and used to pick every Easter and Summer during my time at Uni and until I found myself a full-time job after graduation :)

The flowers I picked most of the time are known as "Scabies". I know that's the name of a disease before you tell me that, but "Scabies" is the shortened name of this flower with a longer more complicated name (such as Scabious). Then there's Status, commonly known as the dried flower. Never did get the hang of how to pick it! The third main flower I picked were the Asters. They were usually grown on other people's land down the fen, as opposed to at Titch and Andy's house. I only picked the Singles, Powder Puff, and Princess variety. (Titch didn't usually come picking with us, so for quite a lot of the time it was just me and his wife Andy, plus anyone else who may be around to help at the time.) Other flowers were grown, but I was never around at the right time to pick them. I did, however, tend to the Chrysanths in their early stages, and I also planted some Pansies and Polyanths for sale at car-boot sales. (The flowers we picked went to Covent Garden in London, and also to Birmingham wholesale market.)

The perks of the job were flowers for the house, and also flowers for the garden whenever we cleared out the greenhouse. I also got some "Sweet William" one summer when we were thinning them out. Andy said she wanted to see some colour in the garden when shes drives down the fen!!!

Sadly, Andy became ill and passed away since my time working with her. But the Sweet William in the garden still live on!

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