This glasshouse was a feast for the eye, when Frans opened the door and showed us his daily work surrounds.
Row upon row of the most astonishing gloxinias and exotic anthuriums were ready to be sold.
Christmas time was for him a particular busy time, as the boss and him created dozens and dozens of magnificent decorative Yuletide floral arrangements.

Out of the blue, one day, we got involved in a conversation about the future. Dad's eyes had fallen upon an ad in a horticultural magazine. A flower nursery near Aalmeer was for sale.Nice, not too large and it had several glasshouses and seemed ideal for a family with growing-up children.
Frans was already in that field of work and Dad not happy to stay on a factory floor, remembered his roots.
Flowers, he would say are very much in demand, Dutchies can't live without flowers.
So on a glorious day in the middle of the week, the whole family set off by train to Amsterdam and from there by bus to Kudelstaart, a hamlet hidden by hundreds of glasshouses, criss-crossed by dozen of canals or water channels. Kudelstaart was just south of Aalsmeer, a town well known for its famous daily flower auctions, where the seller brings the price down untill someone makes a bid.
Everything looked rosy and it had the smell of an impending deal...untill the purchase price was mentioned.
Somehow the shock of hearing that sizeable figure was 'verbloemd', disguised quite well with plenty of small talk, with the undertaking that the prospective sale would be given some serious thought in the privacy of our own home. Of course Dad's enthousiasme was not matched with enough know-how and funds to bankroll this undertaking.
Poor Dad, he was so keen to be a grower and follow his Dad's footsteps. Looking back, it seems it was all an illusion, it had become just a nice day out there in Kudelstaart, close to Schiphol airport. It had been a dream - a flight of fancy.