PICKING FLOWERS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 12

PICKING FLOWERS

TWO MILLION BLOOMS EACH DAY.

In almost every nook^and cranny, as well as in acres of cultivated fields, huni dreds of blue-eyed Scillonians —men, ! women, and children—are busy from day-' light to dark gathering' the flower harvest of these granite Scillies, writes Sidney P. 'Wells In the ".Daily Mail." It j is a very anxious time for us, for it is going to be a short, rushed season. Is the magnitude of. our harvest realised generally? Last season the Scilly Islands exported to London over seven hundred tons of flowers, and although we have exported this autumn more than 180 tons of flowering bulbs to-the .'mainland and. abroad, there is every indication that we shall exceed last year's figures for flowers. In. one consignment our little steamer carried 23 tons of '. flowers to Penaance. Even this figure may not appear startling to .the average reader, but this tonnage represent* 2,085,000 blooms all picked, packed, and shipped within 48 hours! ", ' ' It may be of interest briefly to relate what is done with these 2,000,000 blooms before they' eventually grace tho homes of thousands of flower lovers with light and colour, • fragrance and; beauty. ; According to its stage of development, a field of flowers is selected for picking, and gangs of men and women are concentrated upon it. Each person "takes" a bad, and the sang slowly passes up and down the field accompanied by the sound of a sharp click, click, click of snapping stalks being severed from the parent bulbs. ; When they have been picked and tied in large bunches of four dozen blooms they are carefully placed in wicker "maunds" and slung over the shoulders of the pickers,, who carry them to the developing and tying house. The bloom is here rapidly bunched and tied, after which it is inserted through a kind of perforated wooden vack. into a long shallow concrete tank which faces the huge glass front ,of the house. The flowers are then given twelve, hours' drinK, and it is marvellous what the sheltered warmth and clear light of the developing house will do. The petals become firmer and the colour is intensified, until market standard is reached. We have now nearly done our "bit" —the flowers are rapidly packed in our own boxes at 4 o'clock in the morning and the wains take them to the boat.