Question

Willie left home with a bunch of flowers for Suzabelle. Halfway to her house, he sneezed very hard and knocked the petals off 2/3 of them. He threw away the petal-less ones and hastily went home and added 4 more to the remaining bunch. Opening the gate to her front yard he dropped 4/5 of the flowers he was carrying into a mud puddle. So he picked three flowers from Suzabelle's mother's prize gladiola patch and rang the doorbell. "How lovely", said Suzabelle. "Now I'll have a dozen flowers--I only had 5 before." How many did Willie set out with the first time?