THIS time last year fields in Wick were awash with coloured petals waiting to be plucked and packed to be used as confetti.

But after this year’s wet weather it is a different story for The Real Flower Petal Confetti Company.

The business has faced its worst harvest ever.

Charles Hudson said: “There has been rain of biblical proportions. We have a critical four weeks when we can pick our flower petals and normally we get days of sunshine when pickers can collect them.

“This year when the petals were ready it rained and rained. We can’t pick them when they are wet. We need dry conditions before hand or the petals get mouldy.”

Last year the company picked 150 boxes of petals but this year they only collected five leaving them reliant on reserves for the next year.

“We have never had it where we couldn’t harvest any petals before,” added Mr Hudson. “We believe we can cope with careful management of our reserves and plan to try and grow some flowers inside.”