Flowers will still 'grow'

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by Andre Clayton

Reporter

Twinsburg -- Darrow Park Drive resident Deborah Flowers, who has more than 21 years of gardening experience, is proving wrong those who say retirement should begin at 50.

Flowers, 58, who was named a winner in the American Association of Retired Persons "My Dream Job" essay contest in January, said she is using the prizes she won to prepare her online plant seed business.

"I will grow a lot of plants to collect the seeds," Flowers said, noting she will start planting at the end of May. She plans to sell the collected seeds on the Web.

She will grow African-American heirloom plants, which hail from Africa such as the White Wonder Cucumber, which is white and the Red Velvet Okra, which is maroon.

According to Flowers, African-American heirlooms have a history that piqued her interest, as they were brought to the U.S. by black slaves during the slave trade.

Flowers said she entered the essay contest because she wanted to "to bring the history of the plants" to the public.

The contest judges declared Flowers' essay one of six winners of the contest, and granted her some of the tools to start her own business -- including a laptop computer, a $500 gift card and use of a business consultant.

Flowers said her business consultant, from www.retirementjobs.com, is helping her to organize funding and find a designer for her business' Web site.

Currently, Flowers works as a gardening professional at Home Depot in Macedonia, where she met a Macedonia farmer who is allowing her to use his 2.5 acres to grow her plants for half of what he collects around August or September.

After the Web site launches, Flowers said she will continue to work at Home Depot. However, Flowers said that in a couple of years she would like her heirloom business to expand from cyberspace and into a terrestrial shop.

"When people get a certain age, they think their careers are over, and that's not true," she said.

E-mail: aclayton@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3172