Clovers Bring Good Luck to Octogenarian

Think back: a bright spring day; a picnic in a sunny meadow; the grownups tidy up the remnants of the feast while the children explore. One kid challenges another: "Bet you can't find a four-leaf clover!" And though youngsters through the ages have spent countless, mostlyfruitfess hours searching for the elusive goodluck symbol, Warren T. Hollis Jr. '24 has found quite a few at the Daniels Clover Specialty Company in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Hollis works as administrative assistant for the Daniels Company, "a small, family-owned firm which is the only one in the world that produces four-leaf clovers commercially." The company also produces shamrocks, the threeleaf clover, especially popular at this time of year when much of the world joins Ireland in celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. The clovers are sold world-wide - attached to calendars, encased in key chains, adorning birth announcements, or floating in transparent cigarette lighters. The Daniels plants were developed as a hobby in 1938 by horticulturist Charles T. Daniels, father of William Daniels, current owner of the business. They bear the U.S. Department of Agriculture stamp of authenticity as genuine white clover (Trifolium repens L. - the same kind kids search for in those sunny meadows) and the method of consistently producing four-leafed ones is a closely-guarded secret. They come in five sizes, ranging from barely half an inch up to three inches across, and the leaves are chemically treated to preserve the color. "At present," says Hollis, "we have a contract to ship 50,000 leaves a month in bulk to Japan and just last October we shipped an order to Germany of 830,000 calendars for 1983."

Hollis joined the Daniels Company in 1970, after his wife Lucille had found employment there. His early career included several years in the service and sales departments of Cadillac, Chrysler, and Ford in the New England area. Then, weary of northern winters, the Hollises moved to Florida in the fifties. They settled in St. Petersburg, where Warren worked first as a warehouse manager for an office supply firm, independently as a jobber of industrial safety equipment, and finally (prophetically?) as "plant" manager for a manufacturer of audio-visual equipment.

Now 80, Hollis finds his "clover days" as rewarding as his salad days once were. He works 20 to 30 hours a week at the Daniels Company. He admits that "the title of 'administrative assistant' may be somewhat farfetched, but it sounds better than 'clover-gardener.' " His duties include everything from sweeping the floors to filling in when "Mr. D," as he calls his boss, takes time off. He opens the plant at 6:00 a.m. every morning for the early shift and then busies himself with shipping, ordering, and general housekeeping chores. He also supervises other workers, and often works himself, in the gardens flats raised to a convenient working height covering roughly the area of a city lot. The garden work includes weeding, cutting back overgrown stands, fertilizing, administering treatments to prevent fungus and root rot "our biggest enemy," and picking. Lucille (with whom he celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary in February) still does occasional light work for the firm, as well.

Hollis has also found himself in the public view as a result of his work. "Several years ago I gave a key tag to a lady who turned out to be one of the officers of a businesswomen's club," he says, "and I was asked to give a talk on the subject." Then a couple of months later he was asked to make the presentation again, this time to a church group. "I could go on at length about this business, as there is always something new," he concludes enthusiastically.

Thus, Warren Hollis seems to provide personal evidence of the value of four-leaf clovers as a token of good luck - surely the source of the industry, interest, and inspiration this spry octogenarian has found in still working.

Looking over a four-leaf clover, Warren Hollis'24 surveys the raised-bed gardens of the world'sonly commercial producer of four-leaf clovers,where he works.