Village Squire, 1977-12, Page 5Go 7tin t)y
Mowers
Working with plants
got in Jo -Anne Dinney's blood
and she's made it her career
A part-time job for a 15 -year-old student has led to a
fascinating career for an Exeter woman.
Jo -Anne Dinney took the job helping sweep floors and clean
out refrigerators in an Exeter florists and something about the
business was infectious. She'd been working with flowers ever
since.
Working with flowers does really get into your blood, she says.
Her first boss. Betty Northcott, for example, now lives in the
Yukon, but she's still operating a flower store despite the
tremendous difficulties involved.
That first job in the hectic season led to further work for
Jo -Anne. She eventually worked in both the flower shops then in
existence in the town and when she married John Dinney and
moved to London, she got a job there working in a flower shop.
So it was natural enough that after a year of living in the city
when the couple decided they wanted to come back to Exeter, the
idea of a flower shop arose.
She decided she wanted to come back, she says, after coming
home and doing some shopping and being recognized and
having people in all the stores stop to talk to her. She realized
what she had been missing in the impersonal city atmosphere.
So the Dinneys decided to go home. They talked over the idea of
the flower shop and gave it a lot of thought then enquired about
an old drug store that had been vacant for.. some time. The
druggist had died and the widow hadn't rented the building out.
She was impressed with their idea for the shop however and was
quick to agree to rent it.
They got possession on Dec. 1, Jo -Anne recalls, and she
continued working at her London job until Dec. 24. Then she
returned to Exeter, and for the next two months donned old
clothes while the job of putting the shop in shape was carried
out. The stock of the drug store had never been cleared out so the
Since she first went to work in a Clower shop part-time at age 15, couple went to work, hauling loads off to the dump. They
adapted the old shelves to meet their needs but tried to leave the.
shop as much as possible as before. Many people, Jo -Anne
recalls. felt they would surely lower the ceiling. a dingy,
VILLAGE SQUIRE/DECEMBER 1977, 3.
Jo -Anne Dinney has been in love with plants.