Seasons Greetings to all.
Just a quick note to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and jolly New Year.
No list this week as we are hoping to have a quiet few days over the next couple of weeks while we have a catch up and try to get ready for 2015. However you may have already noticed the our extra email Christmas message which is something I put together this week. It is actually the image and text from our card we sent out earlier this week to a few special people who have looked after us in 2014, usually by sending us some dosh after we sent them some lovely hairy stuff. It’s a system that just about keeps us afloat! If you feel ‘special’ but didn’t get a card, please accept my apologies, resources are limited, you can always print it off and experience that warming glow yourself. Bonkersly busy last week getting stuff lined up for the coming season. More colour label preparations, new printing plates for the herb wooden labels ordered, header board blanks ordered, and a new tray liner being sorted out, of which more news in the New Year. More driver training being organised (a free one to one, eco-driving session for each of the van drivers), tree decorated and photographed, Christmas cards designed and made, 2015 catalogue started and new sets of back-up memory sticks put into use (back-up, back-up, back-up). We lost a bit of time on Thursday with the staff Christmas lunch at ‘The Plough’ in Sparsholt which was fantastic, definitely a level above ‘pub grub’. I can certainly recommend them as a good meal out for anyone close to us.
I hope you all have a lovely break and a relaxing time (don’t forget one man’s stress is another’s excitement). We will be in touch again in the New Year, as soon as I can think of something to say.
PS We are here until the 24th if anyone desperately needs to contact us, we will pop in and check emails etc on and off over the break when we are doing our other daily checks. Back to full capacity on Monday 5th.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 22 December 2014
Monday 15 December 2014
Hairy Decorations!
Good morning all.
Hope those till bells are ringing and those Christmas trees flying out of the door. That will hopefully release a cash flood and get us all in the mood for a big sales push on plants as soon as the weather smiles on us all. We all live in hope.
Getting quite excited here with the dawn of a new hairy labelling era creeping up on us, the bamboo skewers are here, the blank sheets of ‘new shape’ labels arrived this week for those extra varieties that we will print ourselves, the confirmation of printing (and cost, ouch) of the Floramedia ‘new shape’ labels arrived and we are well underway with setting up all the new picture formats to fit on those blank label sheets. We have even put together the next label order for the early summer. That’s confidence for you. The matching of our home printed labels with the Floramedia ones should make such a difference in presentation impact. Last year we had a fantastic range of super stock with propagation material coming from more varied sources, but we had at least 6 different label designs decorating them which was ok but perhaps a bit disjointed at times. Watch out 2015 coordination is coming to town, well to labelling anyway!
I am going to warn you now that when we get into 2015 I don’t want to see any of the new management catch phrases popping up. Apparently the latest couple are ‘derisking’ and ‘unbuying’. I know there has been quite a bit of this going on over the last 2 or 3 years, but I hadn’t actually heard the terms for it before. They are pretty self explanatory but just in case you are as slow on the uptake as me, ‘derisking’ is not ordering or buying any stock and ‘unbuying’ is cancelling orders or sending stuff back after delivery. Now I know we all have our jobs to keep but let’s get a bit of empathy going for the plant suppliers,who take huge risks growing their crops for very marginal or non-existent return. We all have to shoulder some element of risk in selling stuff, isn't that what makes commercial enterprises prosper in the longer term? Shove all the risk onto one level and it will all collapse. Growers currently struggle to find the motivation to be innovative and forward thinking when there is not the commitment and sensible thinking in place further up the line. Is there something wrong with working together for all our mutual benefit and is short term bullying really such a positive tactic? There is a New Year round the corner let’s work together and make it a good one.
Must get off and decorate the tree before I run out of weekend. Great decorations in Waitrose I noticed, all very tasteful, simple corrugated card cut-outs. Someone had thought about it hard at an early stage, a combination of sustainability, style, simplicity, value, image, practicality and christmasyness. Well done them, you can do it all, if you believe. I did make a point of letting a member of staff know of my approval, ‘Nutter On The Bus’ aisle 6!
Availability
If the weather holds off getting too wintery we should have an expanding range looking good going into early 2015. The new labels are due in week commencing the 19th January so the complete new refreshed display will be ready for then, if any brave souls want to get started on their perennial displays.
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering. Even the ever popular Bowles Mauve has good bud appearing.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. There were 3 great new H. viridus varieties looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ and ‘Rose Green’ have sold out but ‘White Green’ with its deep green leaves with strong cream veining is still looking great. A nice short variety with the odd flower shoot appearing and looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Hope those till bells are ringing and those Christmas trees flying out of the door. That will hopefully release a cash flood and get us all in the mood for a big sales push on plants as soon as the weather smiles on us all. We all live in hope.
Getting quite excited here with the dawn of a new hairy labelling era creeping up on us, the bamboo skewers are here, the blank sheets of ‘new shape’ labels arrived this week for those extra varieties that we will print ourselves, the confirmation of printing (and cost, ouch) of the Floramedia ‘new shape’ labels arrived and we are well underway with setting up all the new picture formats to fit on those blank label sheets. We have even put together the next label order for the early summer. That’s confidence for you. The matching of our home printed labels with the Floramedia ones should make such a difference in presentation impact. Last year we had a fantastic range of super stock with propagation material coming from more varied sources, but we had at least 6 different label designs decorating them which was ok but perhaps a bit disjointed at times. Watch out 2015 coordination is coming to town, well to labelling anyway!
I am going to warn you now that when we get into 2015 I don’t want to see any of the new management catch phrases popping up. Apparently the latest couple are ‘derisking’ and ‘unbuying’. I know there has been quite a bit of this going on over the last 2 or 3 years, but I hadn’t actually heard the terms for it before. They are pretty self explanatory but just in case you are as slow on the uptake as me, ‘derisking’ is not ordering or buying any stock and ‘unbuying’ is cancelling orders or sending stuff back after delivery. Now I know we all have our jobs to keep but let’s get a bit of empathy going for the plant suppliers,who take huge risks growing their crops for very marginal or non-existent return. We all have to shoulder some element of risk in selling stuff, isn't that what makes commercial enterprises prosper in the longer term? Shove all the risk onto one level and it will all collapse. Growers currently struggle to find the motivation to be innovative and forward thinking when there is not the commitment and sensible thinking in place further up the line. Is there something wrong with working together for all our mutual benefit and is short term bullying really such a positive tactic? There is a New Year round the corner let’s work together and make it a good one.
Must get off and decorate the tree before I run out of weekend. Great decorations in Waitrose I noticed, all very tasteful, simple corrugated card cut-outs. Someone had thought about it hard at an early stage, a combination of sustainability, style, simplicity, value, image, practicality and christmasyness. Well done them, you can do it all, if you believe. I did make a point of letting a member of staff know of my approval, ‘Nutter On The Bus’ aisle 6!
Availability
If the weather holds off getting too wintery we should have an expanding range looking good going into early 2015. The new labels are due in week commencing the 19th January so the complete new refreshed display will be ready for then, if any brave souls want to get started on their perennial displays.
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering. Even the ever popular Bowles Mauve has good bud appearing.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. There were 3 great new H. viridus varieties looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ and ‘Rose Green’ have sold out but ‘White Green’ with its deep green leaves with strong cream veining is still looking great. A nice short variety with the odd flower shoot appearing and looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 8 December 2014
Hairy Overload
Good morning all.
Critical week for Christmas tree sales I’m sure. The weather here has just perked up and yesterday was fine, the colder snap and early retail consumer activity seems to have got Christmas sales moving. Hopefully not everyone has run out of money yet and those Christmas specials all get sold. I must admit we manage to avoid the annual tree costs by redecorating my own homemade tree. The current model knocked up out of a bit of 2x2 and an old wooden venetian blind is still going strong and always attracts plenty of attention, despite it coming last in the village show craft section! I’m not bitter. I always like a bit of creative thought to go into Christmas, you can’t buy it all off the shelf. Paper chains are one of my favourites, memories of sticking gummed paper strips together as a kid were revisited when I made some new ones a few years ago. This time I upgraded to a more subtle version by cutting the strips into 4, 8 and even 16. The smallest size made little loops just big enough to go round my little-finger tip, it was a bit fiddly and took forever to make any length but the overall effect was very dinky and looks great on the tree. They have kept for years by storing in a biscuit tin, just watch out if you try it yourself, you will need the strips with gum/glue all over the back not just the ends. Get the kids on it , should keep them quiet for hours. I must get out more.
No time for decorating this week, Nearly all Tuesday disappeared with a trip to get a vehicle recall issue sorted on the big van and a visit from the new bank manager to sort out the overdraft for the next year. Bit stressful as the years figures are vastly improved over the previous two disastrous seasons but still not a pretty sight. Luckily he could see the positive side and assuming he can get it all approved by his bosses we should be able to squeeze through another winter until the cash starts appearing again.
Wednesday was a very educational day with a trip to Lowaters nursery for an IPPS workshop on compost tea, biological controls and the latest pesticide updates. The sheer volume of info was slightly mind numbing by the end of the day but life on the growing side of things looks like getting increasingly challenging as more chemicals are lost (usually because growers don’t buy enough) and we try and maintain quality by nurturing more of natures assets to combat the weeds, pests and diseases. We are certainly going to have a go ourselves at extending our natural armoury to get a better balance and reduce even further our use of the occasional pesticide. It is an area with a rather ‘muck & magic’ feel but hearing from different grower experiences and advisors at the workshop has pushed me over the edge. It appears not to be a magic bullet to cure everything but it more of a general protectorant and tonic with combined benefits of higher disease and pest resistance and lower nutritional demand from artificial fertilisers. The large variety of ‘good biology’ growing in the tea which we brew up on site for a day or two before applying to the crops, gives it the broad spectrum of benefits. We already have a lot of the infrastructure in place to accommodate this new development so hopefully we can get it going quite easily. Thursday was another mind blower, having to proof read again 355 colour label designs. Then Friday was a rodent control seminar where I learnt some scary stuff. Brown rats can deform their skulls to enable them to get through a 13mm yes that’s not a typo, 13mm, hole, and mice 6mm! Mice are inquisitive but rats are neophobic (afraid of new things). So snappy traps are good for mice who will investigate them but with rats it is best to leave any traps unsprung for a week until they get used to them and then set them. Rats can breed at just 3 months old, 9 per litter, mice 3 weeks and 6 per litter. Rats can jump 1 metre vertically and drop 15m unharmed. Poor sight but excellent smell, touch and hearing. They will get used to deterrents like sonic devices so only use then intermittently to keep up the strangeness factor. That’s me done brain full.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment.
There are three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Critical week for Christmas tree sales I’m sure. The weather here has just perked up and yesterday was fine, the colder snap and early retail consumer activity seems to have got Christmas sales moving. Hopefully not everyone has run out of money yet and those Christmas specials all get sold. I must admit we manage to avoid the annual tree costs by redecorating my own homemade tree. The current model knocked up out of a bit of 2x2 and an old wooden venetian blind is still going strong and always attracts plenty of attention, despite it coming last in the village show craft section! I’m not bitter. I always like a bit of creative thought to go into Christmas, you can’t buy it all off the shelf. Paper chains are one of my favourites, memories of sticking gummed paper strips together as a kid were revisited when I made some new ones a few years ago. This time I upgraded to a more subtle version by cutting the strips into 4, 8 and even 16. The smallest size made little loops just big enough to go round my little-finger tip, it was a bit fiddly and took forever to make any length but the overall effect was very dinky and looks great on the tree. They have kept for years by storing in a biscuit tin, just watch out if you try it yourself, you will need the strips with gum/glue all over the back not just the ends. Get the kids on it , should keep them quiet for hours. I must get out more.
No time for decorating this week, Nearly all Tuesday disappeared with a trip to get a vehicle recall issue sorted on the big van and a visit from the new bank manager to sort out the overdraft for the next year. Bit stressful as the years figures are vastly improved over the previous two disastrous seasons but still not a pretty sight. Luckily he could see the positive side and assuming he can get it all approved by his bosses we should be able to squeeze through another winter until the cash starts appearing again.
Wednesday was a very educational day with a trip to Lowaters nursery for an IPPS workshop on compost tea, biological controls and the latest pesticide updates. The sheer volume of info was slightly mind numbing by the end of the day but life on the growing side of things looks like getting increasingly challenging as more chemicals are lost (usually because growers don’t buy enough) and we try and maintain quality by nurturing more of natures assets to combat the weeds, pests and diseases. We are certainly going to have a go ourselves at extending our natural armoury to get a better balance and reduce even further our use of the occasional pesticide. It is an area with a rather ‘muck & magic’ feel but hearing from different grower experiences and advisors at the workshop has pushed me over the edge. It appears not to be a magic bullet to cure everything but it more of a general protectorant and tonic with combined benefits of higher disease and pest resistance and lower nutritional demand from artificial fertilisers. The large variety of ‘good biology’ growing in the tea which we brew up on site for a day or two before applying to the crops, gives it the broad spectrum of benefits. We already have a lot of the infrastructure in place to accommodate this new development so hopefully we can get it going quite easily. Thursday was another mind blower, having to proof read again 355 colour label designs. Then Friday was a rodent control seminar where I learnt some scary stuff. Brown rats can deform their skulls to enable them to get through a 13mm yes that’s not a typo, 13mm, hole, and mice 6mm! Mice are inquisitive but rats are neophobic (afraid of new things). So snappy traps are good for mice who will investigate them but with rats it is best to leave any traps unsprung for a week until they get used to them and then set them. Rats can breed at just 3 months old, 9 per litter, mice 3 weeks and 6 per litter. Rats can jump 1 metre vertically and drop 15m unharmed. Poor sight but excellent smell, touch and hearing. They will get used to deterrents like sonic devices so only use then intermittently to keep up the strangeness factor. That’s me done brain full.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment.
There are three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 1 December 2014
Clouded Yellow Sunday
Good morning all.
I’m not sure if I was the only one but I managed to get past Black Friday with my wallet unscathed? I can’t help but get rather anxious about the blatant promotion of unbridled spending and consumption. It might be to do with the fact that I have got so tight on access to cash over the last few years with things the way they are for the plant production industry, or possibly the combination of waste and deception that goes on within a lot of retailing these days. Let’s face it there are very few real bargains in promotional events, either they were over priced before, dodgy quality or it’s old stock/models. Add an extra 30+% to the retail price so we can knock it off later. There are some outlets I know Caroline never buys at full price because if you wait a week or two it will all be discounted by massive amounts, what sort of message of trust, service and loyalty does this give to the buying public when they start to see through it? Ikea and John Lewis seem to be able to manage their customer’s expectations with a more sustainable approach which I assume means steadier sales and more loyal and appreciative customers, a nice asset to have.
Last Thursday was my quarterly therapy session at our NBIS (Nursery Business Improvement Scheme) meeting. The usual mix of figures and trends to analyse and experiences to share, coupled with a large dose of irreverent Mickey taking and laughter. We all overcame the hurdle of having to admit that we were horticulturists and not making any money years ago, and it’s been downhill from then. There are very few meetings that we don’t come away with information or ideas on how to improve something, save some money, reduce our workload or lower our risk levels. It can be a shockingly open discussion but all the
more refreshing for it and much cheaper than a session at The Priory. I often wonder where we would be and how isolated we would feel without this support over the years, it’s a shame that not more people have the vision to see what a valuable exercise something like this can be. I do have an admission to make. I had said that we were going to put QR codes on our new bespoke labels but it looks like this won’t happen now. We had always been a bit worried about their practical application and just how much they would actually get used, but the cleverness of the codes is so attractive. The codes are easy enough to generate and print but the target of the codes was where we could have fallen down. We had started to create mobile friendly web pages for each variety with the dawning realisation that we couldn’t realistically create enough captivating content to provide that gripping or invaluable user experience. We were planning to load up our best pictures and plant info but it is so easy now, and just as quick, to Google search for info or images. We may still do a few limited codes and new webpages to give more detailed background on the pots and the nursery etc, but to try and compete with Google for content is a touch ambitious for us on our weeny scale. The nail in the coffin was a tale of a QR code being issued on a nursery info leaflet taken by many thousands of gardeners at big retail shows, resulting in only 12 website visits. For most people life is just too short unless you are after a very specific piece of individual information. One very useful use I heard about was putting QR codes on house sale boards, taking you straight to the estate agents page for that house. Promoting a sale through an efficient and detailed individual service.
Had a very pleasant flash back this week when I reached for a beer. While in St Ives a couple of weeks ago I saw my first Clouded Yellow butterfly. Stunning colour in flight, invisible when it lands. I only guessed it's name by the reports of sightings on the local birding websites and a quick Google image search provided the backup. Later the same day we spotted another in Hayle and just to prove all good things come in threes I spotted another in the off-license that evening. The third was actually a St Austell wheat beer called Clouded Yellow, but it was just as impressive. Brought one or two home, hence the flashback.
Almost as good as being on holiday again.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. There are three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
I’m not sure if I was the only one but I managed to get past Black Friday with my wallet unscathed? I can’t help but get rather anxious about the blatant promotion of unbridled spending and consumption. It might be to do with the fact that I have got so tight on access to cash over the last few years with things the way they are for the plant production industry, or possibly the combination of waste and deception that goes on within a lot of retailing these days. Let’s face it there are very few real bargains in promotional events, either they were over priced before, dodgy quality or it’s old stock/models. Add an extra 30+% to the retail price so we can knock it off later. There are some outlets I know Caroline never buys at full price because if you wait a week or two it will all be discounted by massive amounts, what sort of message of trust, service and loyalty does this give to the buying public when they start to see through it? Ikea and John Lewis seem to be able to manage their customer’s expectations with a more sustainable approach which I assume means steadier sales and more loyal and appreciative customers, a nice asset to have.
Last Thursday was my quarterly therapy session at our NBIS (Nursery Business Improvement Scheme) meeting. The usual mix of figures and trends to analyse and experiences to share, coupled with a large dose of irreverent Mickey taking and laughter. We all overcame the hurdle of having to admit that we were horticulturists and not making any money years ago, and it’s been downhill from then. There are very few meetings that we don’t come away with information or ideas on how to improve something, save some money, reduce our workload or lower our risk levels. It can be a shockingly open discussion but all the
more refreshing for it and much cheaper than a session at The Priory. I often wonder where we would be and how isolated we would feel without this support over the years, it’s a shame that not more people have the vision to see what a valuable exercise something like this can be. I do have an admission to make. I had said that we were going to put QR codes on our new bespoke labels but it looks like this won’t happen now. We had always been a bit worried about their practical application and just how much they would actually get used, but the cleverness of the codes is so attractive. The codes are easy enough to generate and print but the target of the codes was where we could have fallen down. We had started to create mobile friendly web pages for each variety with the dawning realisation that we couldn’t realistically create enough captivating content to provide that gripping or invaluable user experience. We were planning to load up our best pictures and plant info but it is so easy now, and just as quick, to Google search for info or images. We may still do a few limited codes and new webpages to give more detailed background on the pots and the nursery etc, but to try and compete with Google for content is a touch ambitious for us on our weeny scale. The nail in the coffin was a tale of a QR code being issued on a nursery info leaflet taken by many thousands of gardeners at big retail shows, resulting in only 12 website visits. For most people life is just too short unless you are after a very specific piece of individual information. One very useful use I heard about was putting QR codes on house sale boards, taking you straight to the estate agents page for that house. Promoting a sale through an efficient and detailed individual service.
Had a very pleasant flash back this week when I reached for a beer. While in St Ives a couple of weeks ago I saw my first Clouded Yellow butterfly. Stunning colour in flight, invisible when it lands. I only guessed it's name by the reports of sightings on the local birding websites and a quick Google image search provided the backup. Later the same day we spotted another in Hayle and just to prove all good things come in threes I spotted another in the off-license that evening. The third was actually a St Austell wheat beer called Clouded Yellow, but it was just as impressive. Brought one or two home, hence the flashback.
Almost as good as being on holiday again.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. There are three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 24 November 2014
I'm alright, Are you alright?
Good morning all.
A bit grey and damp today, but still nice to be home again after our fantastic Cornish break. I always envisage this being a really quiet time with sales dropping away, potting all done and just those tasks put off through the busy seasons to sort out in the run up to Christmas. Just the time for a break without too much hassle. Naturally things don’t always work out quite so well and a series of IT issues completely messed up our holiday preparation and our return too. I won’t bore you with the details but a combination of a hard drive failure in the main computer in the week before the break (close to a complete disaster, backup, backup, backup), followed on our return by a circuit board failure in the best printer and another DOS attack on the modem router (no or very intermittent internet for 3 days) The DOS attack came with a recommendation from our broadband supplier to fit a different modem which was of course followed by taking nearly two days to fit the ‘simple plug and play’ kit. A slightly complex computer and telephone IP address set up meant that with the new kit in place nothing could find anything else. Anyway big thanks to Widenet in Romsey for recovering the hard drive data, OKI for finding and hopefully mending the printer problem (luckily still just inside its 3 year warranty) and Joseph at Daisy Broadband who was one of very few helpful experts we got hold of. Suggesting we hand over the modem issues to our IT department is not much help as this is one businesses where IT is limited in its resources in just about every way imaginable.
Back to happier times in Cornwall. Brilliant break, too much delicious food, delightful company, more damp in the air than ideal but yet another valuable life enhancing experience. Last year it was rock solution basins and understanding how the Men-an-Tol (unusual prehistoric standing stones) got its hole, this year it was holy wells and birding psychology. The holy well bit was further investigation in our understanding the importance of springs to prehistoric people and their quite common conversion into Christian sites as time went by. We know how to have a good time! Do bear in mind it did involve some great walks and lovely pubs. The birding experience was probably more entertaining and satisfying with a couple of valuable life lessons. There was plenty of twitcher activity this year and consequently I suffered more than the usual degree of feelings of inadequacy being only a casual participant. Getting the book out to check stuff in public is just not cool, the smart phone and Google is less conspicuous, in fact almost invisible as everyone is always looking at their phones these days. More tricky is judgement on telescope use. It’s easy to look part of the set with reasonable binoculars but can I bring myself to set up my ‘Mighty Midget’ on its tripod next to the monster kit already on show. It’s a really nice ‘scope with good lenses and zoom but size wise it’s no beast. It was a mental battle I won in the end with a realisation that I couldn’t see without it and I’m getting too old to care now anyway. We had one very positive experience at high tide on Hayle Estuary one afternoon watching and listening to the massed ranks of waders and ducks pushed together by rising waters. They were all feeding and happily babbling away when it was pointed out what was going on at the social community level. The contented babbling was actually performing a valuable function and the conversation proceeded something like; ‘I’m alright, are you alright?’ answered with the same reply and question from their neighbour and so the reassuring conversation goes on. Then there may be a scare with the passing of a buzzard and the conversation changes to a more urgent message, they may take off for safety to wheel around and settle again moments later, gradually resuming the reassuring conversation again. The feel good factor of listening to those birds was a gentle reminder of how good reassurance feels. Silence followed by alarm calls is much less enjoyable than reassurance and alarm. The emergencies may be no different but the in between bits are so much more fulfilling.
I’m alright, are you all right? And may be a bit of you're alright, am I alright?
Availability
A new strain of hardy Cyclamen coum (Cyberia) is coming into colour, three colours which are due to flower from November to April. Nice chunky, tidy plants with lots of potential. Sold out of white for the moment.
We have several new Saxifraga urbium varieties coming out of the micro-prop lab of which we have a few still in flower.
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already and the Red Jep have already started producing bud.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A bit grey and damp today, but still nice to be home again after our fantastic Cornish break. I always envisage this being a really quiet time with sales dropping away, potting all done and just those tasks put off through the busy seasons to sort out in the run up to Christmas. Just the time for a break without too much hassle. Naturally things don’t always work out quite so well and a series of IT issues completely messed up our holiday preparation and our return too. I won’t bore you with the details but a combination of a hard drive failure in the main computer in the week before the break (close to a complete disaster, backup, backup, backup), followed on our return by a circuit board failure in the best printer and another DOS attack on the modem router (no or very intermittent internet for 3 days) The DOS attack came with a recommendation from our broadband supplier to fit a different modem which was of course followed by taking nearly two days to fit the ‘simple plug and play’ kit. A slightly complex computer and telephone IP address set up meant that with the new kit in place nothing could find anything else. Anyway big thanks to Widenet in Romsey for recovering the hard drive data, OKI for finding and hopefully mending the printer problem (luckily still just inside its 3 year warranty) and Joseph at Daisy Broadband who was one of very few helpful experts we got hold of. Suggesting we hand over the modem issues to our IT department is not much help as this is one businesses where IT is limited in its resources in just about every way imaginable.
Back to happier times in Cornwall. Brilliant break, too much delicious food, delightful company, more damp in the air than ideal but yet another valuable life enhancing experience. Last year it was rock solution basins and understanding how the Men-an-Tol (unusual prehistoric standing stones) got its hole, this year it was holy wells and birding psychology. The holy well bit was further investigation in our understanding the importance of springs to prehistoric people and their quite common conversion into Christian sites as time went by. We know how to have a good time! Do bear in mind it did involve some great walks and lovely pubs. The birding experience was probably more entertaining and satisfying with a couple of valuable life lessons. There was plenty of twitcher activity this year and consequently I suffered more than the usual degree of feelings of inadequacy being only a casual participant. Getting the book out to check stuff in public is just not cool, the smart phone and Google is less conspicuous, in fact almost invisible as everyone is always looking at their phones these days. More tricky is judgement on telescope use. It’s easy to look part of the set with reasonable binoculars but can I bring myself to set up my ‘Mighty Midget’ on its tripod next to the monster kit already on show. It’s a really nice ‘scope with good lenses and zoom but size wise it’s no beast. It was a mental battle I won in the end with a realisation that I couldn’t see without it and I’m getting too old to care now anyway. We had one very positive experience at high tide on Hayle Estuary one afternoon watching and listening to the massed ranks of waders and ducks pushed together by rising waters. They were all feeding and happily babbling away when it was pointed out what was going on at the social community level. The contented babbling was actually performing a valuable function and the conversation proceeded something like; ‘I’m alright, are you alright?’ answered with the same reply and question from their neighbour and so the reassuring conversation goes on. Then there may be a scare with the passing of a buzzard and the conversation changes to a more urgent message, they may take off for safety to wheel around and settle again moments later, gradually resuming the reassuring conversation again. The feel good factor of listening to those birds was a gentle reminder of how good reassurance feels. Silence followed by alarm calls is much less enjoyable than reassurance and alarm. The emergencies may be no different but the in between bits are so much more fulfilling.
I’m alright, are you all right? And may be a bit of you're alright, am I alright?
Availability
A new strain of hardy Cyclamen coum (Cyberia) is coming into colour, three colours which are due to flower from November to April. Nice chunky, tidy plants with lots of potential. Sold out of white for the moment.
We have several new Saxifraga urbium varieties coming out of the micro-prop lab of which we have a few still in flower.
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already and the Red Jep have already started producing bud.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 27 October 2014
Hairy Crossing
Good morning all.
It’s still so mild down here, doesn’t really feel like November is about to hit us. I hope it will be gentle with me, I’m fee ling a bit fragile at the moment. It’s not just to do with the fantastic casino and cocktail party we went to last night where I lost all my money in an instant (a bit like investing in a nursery), luckily it was only pretend money this time but the cocktails weren’t pretend. It’s also not due to the previous weekend break we had, on a package deal to Tresco, which proved to be just as eventful as predicted. All flights cancelled on Friday due to low cloud and high winds, got soaked to the skin in a deluge while walking along Whitesands bay before an overnight stop in Sennen and an early start Saturday only to find no flights again and seats on the ‘Big White Stomach Pump’ (Scillonian 111) booked for our pleasure. We checked-in on the quay side as waves crashed over the harbour wall and news filtered through that the ship had not returned from the Islands the day before as it was too rough! Nearly came straight home. In the end it was all very exciting, a bit like a very long roller coaster ride as we crashed through the huge swell. Although there were a lot of very ill people the staff were great at keeping everything clean and fresh and luckily our group of 4 were fine which was a relief as I usually feel sick on the tea-cup ride. Over the next 30 hours we did some walking, a lot of eating with a little something to wash it all down, bird and red squirrel spotting (6 Water Rails which we had never seen before), 3 party/gigs, two trips round Tresco Abbey Gardens and a very quick plane ride back to the mainland. A real adventure of a weekend, meeting some lovely new faces and a destination thoroughly recommended for a refreshing break. Tip number one has to be to take the plane!
The bigger fragility is being felt with the usual impending dip in cash flow combined with not very positive news in the ornamental nursery sector. Hort Week is full of lots of ‘Garden Centres’ revealing their true colours as ‘Home and Leisure centres’ with greatly diminished emphasis on plants and gardens. To be fair, you could see this coming and hopefully it will open some opportunities for some retail plant specialists but for the plant producers it seems to point to a continuous fall in range grown and market availability. On the back of this we are seeing many nurseries being sold off, closed or getting into difficulties (at least one big one is currently trying to take up a CVA arrangement with its creditors to avoid the final crunch), this is after two years of rubbish weather and then a nicer year of disappointing sales for most. Thin or non-existent margins even when times are better, are bringing about the inevitable consequences, what a good job we do this for love and life style! We are just thankful that next season looks so much more positive for us, with plenty new developments and demand building up, just need to batten down the hatches until a busy new year arrives.
Why, when it says ‘Speed up browsing by disabling add-on’s’ does it give you three options none of which allow you to do it? Send me back to Tresco, they were looking for a new propagator.
Availability
A new strain of hardy Cyclamen coum (Cyberia) is coming into colour, three colours which are due to flower from November to April. Nice chunky, tidy plants with lots of potential.
We have several new Saxifraga urbium varieties coming out of the micro-prop lab of which we have a few in flower already. They are named varieties but at the moment those names are under review and they may well be renamed by the breeder in the near future to something more attractive!
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already and the Red Jep have already started producing bud.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers still showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last few weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will try and pop in sometime and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
It’s still so mild down here, doesn’t really feel like November is about to hit us. I hope it will be gentle with me, I’m fee ling a bit fragile at the moment. It’s not just to do with the fantastic casino and cocktail party we went to last night where I lost all my money in an instant (a bit like investing in a nursery), luckily it was only pretend money this time but the cocktails weren’t pretend. It’s also not due to the previous weekend break we had, on a package deal to Tresco, which proved to be just as eventful as predicted. All flights cancelled on Friday due to low cloud and high winds, got soaked to the skin in a deluge while walking along Whitesands bay before an overnight stop in Sennen and an early start Saturday only to find no flights again and seats on the ‘Big White Stomach Pump’ (Scillonian 111) booked for our pleasure. We checked-in on the quay side as waves crashed over the harbour wall and news filtered through that the ship had not returned from the Islands the day before as it was too rough! Nearly came straight home. In the end it was all very exciting, a bit like a very long roller coaster ride as we crashed through the huge swell. Although there were a lot of very ill people the staff were great at keeping everything clean and fresh and luckily our group of 4 were fine which was a relief as I usually feel sick on the tea-cup ride. Over the next 30 hours we did some walking, a lot of eating with a little something to wash it all down, bird and red squirrel spotting (6 Water Rails which we had never seen before), 3 party/gigs, two trips round Tresco Abbey Gardens and a very quick plane ride back to the mainland. A real adventure of a weekend, meeting some lovely new faces and a destination thoroughly recommended for a refreshing break. Tip number one has to be to take the plane!
The bigger fragility is being felt with the usual impending dip in cash flow combined with not very positive news in the ornamental nursery sector. Hort Week is full of lots of ‘Garden Centres’ revealing their true colours as ‘Home and Leisure centres’ with greatly diminished emphasis on plants and gardens. To be fair, you could see this coming and hopefully it will open some opportunities for some retail plant specialists but for the plant producers it seems to point to a continuous fall in range grown and market availability. On the back of this we are seeing many nurseries being sold off, closed or getting into difficulties (at least one big one is currently trying to take up a CVA arrangement with its creditors to avoid the final crunch), this is after two years of rubbish weather and then a nicer year of disappointing sales for most. Thin or non-existent margins even when times are better, are bringing about the inevitable consequences, what a good job we do this for love and life style! We are just thankful that next season looks so much more positive for us, with plenty new developments and demand building up, just need to batten down the hatches until a busy new year arrives.
Why, when it says ‘Speed up browsing by disabling add-on’s’ does it give you three options none of which allow you to do it? Send me back to Tresco, they were looking for a new propagator.
Availability
A new strain of hardy Cyclamen coum (Cyberia) is coming into colour, three colours which are due to flower from November to April. Nice chunky, tidy plants with lots of potential.
We have several new Saxifraga urbium varieties coming out of the micro-prop lab of which we have a few in flower already. They are named varieties but at the moment those names are under review and they may well be renamed by the breeder in the near future to something more attractive!
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already and the Red Jep have already started producing bud.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers still showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last few weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will try and pop in sometime and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 13 October 2014
Hairy Hat Trick
Good morning all,
Things getting a bit quieter here now as the temperatures fall away. Just rushing round now trying to make the most of the remaining warmth. There is the usual autumnal burst of plant growth from all the perennials before things start going dormant. Always nice to see the heart of the young stock build up before the winter, ready for that early strong spring burst of growth and sales. Looking forward to that.
Relief all round as we got three more tunnels re-clad last week which just leaves one little one to do and we need to do some constructional repairs on that one before covering so that might take a while.
I’m now getting stuck into ordering young stock for potting next spring which is always an interesting exercise. On one hand I know the cash-flow is about to dive in the wrong direction along with the temperature so it feels like time to batten down the hatches. But in reality I really need to prize open my jar of optimism and assume we will sell some stock again when the days lengthen and with demand looking really strong for 2015 we are going to need plenty to sell. There is always that scary unknown factor of the weather to work into the equation, but hopefully we will get a good run at some point through the season to pull it all together.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the stock next season resplendent behind our new design of label. I’ve always been quite jealous of those nurseries big enough to run with their own bespoke labels creating a smart coordinated look, even if they might sometimes be a bit overpowering. Recent changes in digital printing means the size and cost of minimum print runs has come down, together with the ability to print our own short runs on site to the same design, which makes having our new look economically viable. The added bonus with our new labels is the really practical and innovative design providing so many extra benefits to us, the producer, and you, the customer. It all helps add to my excitement. It does take much!
Talking of excitement, we are off very soon for our weekend trip to Tresco. The build up has already begun with the successful purchase of new holiday socks last weekend. The weather however, looks pretty scary for our little airplane ride across from Land's End, just wondering if new holiday underwear might have been a wiser purchase. Just wonder if the venue might change to Penzance Tesco’s after all.
Just wondering if things are beginning to turn in our favour again, the signs are there I feel. If I can ignore IS and Ebola for a minute and look a bit closer to home, things are beginning to look a bit rosier. The nursery is looking promising, holidays are close and one of our long standing staff is moving into the cottage by the nursery gate which will help us both out, we get the added security and help and he can move out of Mum and Dad's place, win, win. On top of it all, after 44 years playing club hockey I scored my first hat-trick on Saturday, just hoping I don’t have to wait that long again.
Availability
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last few weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will try and pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Things getting a bit quieter here now as the temperatures fall away. Just rushing round now trying to make the most of the remaining warmth. There is the usual autumnal burst of plant growth from all the perennials before things start going dormant. Always nice to see the heart of the young stock build up before the winter, ready for that early strong spring burst of growth and sales. Looking forward to that.
Relief all round as we got three more tunnels re-clad last week which just leaves one little one to do and we need to do some constructional repairs on that one before covering so that might take a while.
I’m now getting stuck into ordering young stock for potting next spring which is always an interesting exercise. On one hand I know the cash-flow is about to dive in the wrong direction along with the temperature so it feels like time to batten down the hatches. But in reality I really need to prize open my jar of optimism and assume we will sell some stock again when the days lengthen and with demand looking really strong for 2015 we are going to need plenty to sell. There is always that scary unknown factor of the weather to work into the equation, but hopefully we will get a good run at some point through the season to pull it all together.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the stock next season resplendent behind our new design of label. I’ve always been quite jealous of those nurseries big enough to run with their own bespoke labels creating a smart coordinated look, even if they might sometimes be a bit overpowering. Recent changes in digital printing means the size and cost of minimum print runs has come down, together with the ability to print our own short runs on site to the same design, which makes having our new look economically viable. The added bonus with our new labels is the really practical and innovative design providing so many extra benefits to us, the producer, and you, the customer. It all helps add to my excitement. It does take much!
Talking of excitement, we are off very soon for our weekend trip to Tresco. The build up has already begun with the successful purchase of new holiday socks last weekend. The weather however, looks pretty scary for our little airplane ride across from Land's End, just wondering if new holiday underwear might have been a wiser purchase. Just wonder if the venue might change to Penzance Tesco’s after all.
Just wondering if things are beginning to turn in our favour again, the signs are there I feel. If I can ignore IS and Ebola for a minute and look a bit closer to home, things are beginning to look a bit rosier. The nursery is looking promising, holidays are close and one of our long standing staff is moving into the cottage by the nursery gate which will help us both out, we get the added security and help and he can move out of Mum and Dad's place, win, win. On top of it all, after 44 years playing club hockey I scored my first hat-trick on Saturday, just hoping I don’t have to wait that long again.
Availability
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last few weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will try and pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 6 October 2014
Hairy Socks
Good morning all.
Very busy week, squeezed on 3 more tunnel covers before the weather turned and shipped out plenty of lovely plants. Lots of boxes here now, all spaced out and stacked up to dry out before winter storage. We just have a few more to hoover up, so if you find any more needing collection do drop me an email and I will add you to the list. I know we still have a couple of pick- ups in the Wiltshire direction as well as some towards London.
Last week’s surprise expenditure completed its third instalment with an odd incident when the plastic mounting bracket that holds our little Dosatron diluter on it's trolley broke while no one was on site, unfortunately it then landed on its hose tail and snapped it off so had to buy two specialist new parts. They were delivered brilliantly quickly via Fargro only for me to discover on reassembly that there was a hairline fracture of the top casing as well. Fiddle de dee!
Wood store full of old conifer hedge trunks all seasoned, cut, split and ready for winter, just the nursery store to fill now and there is plenty of scrap wood to fill that too. Chimney swept too, bring it on. Keep those oil deliveries down. Wind turbines have been a bit slow over the past couple of months in the good weather but at least our electric consumption continues to fall too which is good to see (wouldn’t know if we didn’t measure it. Dull but true).
Off to the shops to see the outside world today, very excited as I’ve got to do my holiday shopping (nearly out of hole-less socks, thought I might struggle through till Christmas but no such luck). Rock on.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well ready for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Very busy week, squeezed on 3 more tunnel covers before the weather turned and shipped out plenty of lovely plants. Lots of boxes here now, all spaced out and stacked up to dry out before winter storage. We just have a few more to hoover up, so if you find any more needing collection do drop me an email and I will add you to the list. I know we still have a couple of pick- ups in the Wiltshire direction as well as some towards London.
Last week’s surprise expenditure completed its third instalment with an odd incident when the plastic mounting bracket that holds our little Dosatron diluter on it's trolley broke while no one was on site, unfortunately it then landed on its hose tail and snapped it off so had to buy two specialist new parts. They were delivered brilliantly quickly via Fargro only for me to discover on reassembly that there was a hairline fracture of the top casing as well. Fiddle de dee!
Wood store full of old conifer hedge trunks all seasoned, cut, split and ready for winter, just the nursery store to fill now and there is plenty of scrap wood to fill that too. Chimney swept too, bring it on. Keep those oil deliveries down. Wind turbines have been a bit slow over the past couple of months in the good weather but at least our electric consumption continues to fall too which is good to see (wouldn’t know if we didn’t measure it. Dull but true).
Off to the shops to see the outside world today, very excited as I’ve got to do my holiday shopping (nearly out of hole-less socks, thought I might struggle through till Christmas but no such luck). Rock on.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well ready for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 29 September 2014
Hairy cover up
Good morning all.
Sun is still out but the house martins have flown south now for their winter break. Looking forward to mine with a long weekend booked on Tresco. Or was that Tesco. Times are still tough.
Still have some winter interest stock, including lovely Asters and Hellebores, scooting off to new homes but the impending cash-flow lull is looming and it’s nearly time to batten down the hatches until sales start to pick up again in the New Year. Lots of winter projects pencilled in but all on a tight budget so lots of recycling and imagination on the cards.
One big change this winter will be the new colour perennial labels threaded on their bamboo skewers. The specially designed skewers are due in during October and the printers are busy preparing the set up for the bespoke coloured part. We have managed, ahead of schedule, to gather together the final list of plants for them to print and generated individual barcodes and QR codes for all varieties. So well done us! Now we just need to generate about 450 pages of plant info on the web pages so the QR codes actually show something when they come into use in the New Year.
We are hoping to develop a bit more water collection from some of the tunnels, but it’s a tricky thing to balance with the price of water still being fairly cheap and the water recycling installations not. I’m sure we’ll come up with something.The cash-flow took a bit of a beating this week with a couple of those sneaky bills coming in that you hope not to get. The routine checks on the forklift showed a worn bearing, no longer a standard available part of course, and they have had to take the truck away, more cost, to get done as they couldn’t get the pins out on site. Then the propagation area environmental control computer needed repair after it stopped holding on to all its settings when the power went off. One of those specialist bits of kit that needed the maker to come out and deal with. Just £8 for the replacement backup battery but £400 for labour and travel costs. The battery was a soldering job so I would have struggled to do it myself and the engineer did do several other checks of the attached kit and resetting of data but still a bit of a bitter pill.
What did go brilliantly this week was the recovering of 3 tunnels which got damaged and temporarily repaired after last winter’s storms. I ordered 7 sheets late the previous week which arrived very promptly, thanks to Fargro & XL Horticulture. We then had one very still day on which we covered two and a short window the following morning when we slipped over another. The second day was touch and go as the wind picked up as soon as we got the sheet over. It can get pretty tense when that happens, as a sheet 50m x 11.1m with the wind under it is a very powerful thing. However in favourable conditions, once the cover is over, it only takes 4 of us about an hour or so to fix it down but as so often it’s the preparation and tidying up t hat takes most time. The warmth in the air meant all three are on nice and tight and I am hoping we get another couple of warm still days in the coming week when we can get the rest done. That would be quite a relief going into the winter.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue & Snowsprite. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers) and the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sun is still out but the house martins have flown south now for their winter break. Looking forward to mine with a long weekend booked on Tresco. Or was that Tesco. Times are still tough.
Still have some winter interest stock, including lovely Asters and Hellebores, scooting off to new homes but the impending cash-flow lull is looming and it’s nearly time to batten down the hatches until sales start to pick up again in the New Year. Lots of winter projects pencilled in but all on a tight budget so lots of recycling and imagination on the cards.
One big change this winter will be the new colour perennial labels threaded on their bamboo skewers. The specially designed skewers are due in during October and the printers are busy preparing the set up for the bespoke coloured part. We have managed, ahead of schedule, to gather together the final list of plants for them to print and generated individual barcodes and QR codes for all varieties. So well done us! Now we just need to generate about 450 pages of plant info on the web pages so the QR codes actually show something when they come into use in the New Year.
We are hoping to develop a bit more water collection from some of the tunnels, but it’s a tricky thing to balance with the price of water still being fairly cheap and the water recycling installations not. I’m sure we’ll come up with something.The cash-flow took a bit of a beating this week with a couple of those sneaky bills coming in that you hope not to get. The routine checks on the forklift showed a worn bearing, no longer a standard available part of course, and they have had to take the truck away, more cost, to get done as they couldn’t get the pins out on site. Then the propagation area environmental control computer needed repair after it stopped holding on to all its settings when the power went off. One of those specialist bits of kit that needed the maker to come out and deal with. Just £8 for the replacement backup battery but £400 for labour and travel costs. The battery was a soldering job so I would have struggled to do it myself and the engineer did do several other checks of the attached kit and resetting of data but still a bit of a bitter pill.
What did go brilliantly this week was the recovering of 3 tunnels which got damaged and temporarily repaired after last winter’s storms. I ordered 7 sheets late the previous week which arrived very promptly, thanks to Fargro & XL Horticulture. We then had one very still day on which we covered two and a short window the following morning when we slipped over another. The second day was touch and go as the wind picked up as soon as we got the sheet over. It can get pretty tense when that happens, as a sheet 50m x 11.1m with the wind under it is a very powerful thing. However in favourable conditions, once the cover is over, it only takes 4 of us about an hour or so to fix it down but as so often it’s the preparation and tidying up t hat takes most time. The warmth in the air meant all three are on nice and tight and I am hoping we get another couple of warm still days in the coming week when we can get the rest done. That would be quite a relief going into the winter.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue & Snowsprite. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers) and the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 22 September 2014
Hairy and Ancient
Good morning all
Last gasp of summer weather lingers on, along with a few House Martins that are still flying around the house.
Next spring’s Erysimum’s got potted this week and they are looking really strong. The policy of slipping the little modules into a larger one for a few weeks certainly seems to be paying off at the moment. Let’s hope the winter isn’t too harsh and the buds appear nice and early again to get those early sales going. We always grow them hard to get a really strong plant and give them plenty of room by double spacing them from the start. They seem to respond well and always look great among the other early starters. The early bulbs are sat waiting to grow away as well, out of reach of the mice in their pots on trolleys until they start shooting. It certainly fooled the little tykes last year and hopefully will again.
We watched the second of the BBC2 Stonehenge programmes last week which, like the first, was a bit hit and miss. The overall impression of a big, complex and important landscape rather than simply a circle of stones was great and something not always appreciated by the casual visitor. Just a bit disappointing was the lack of detail again and a few rather odd distractions. The oddest divulgence was the story behind the little gold studs found back in the 19th century in one of the nearby Bronze-age barrows. They found 140,000 tiny studs (1mm x 0.2mm) originally fitted into a dagger handle. This was slightly old news but still an astonishing find. They then seemed to suggest they had been made by cutting ultra thin shavings of gold twisted together by children (good eye sight) and all based on the experience of a modern artist who made miniature jewellery under a microscope. On screen, even to a pleb like me, it looked a dubious theory but as soon as the programme finished I had an irate call from our tame arcaeologist Brian who was, in a previous life, a research fellow metallurgist. Apparently you make studs like this from ‘drawing out’ metal from a fatter piece, a bit like making Blackpool rock with the lettering in the middle. Still a skilled job but relatively simple. Apparently you can even see the striations on the studs where it was pulled through a sizing hole. I know there is quite a bit of fanciful thinking in archaeology already, but at least it is usually built on using the evidence in front of them. Come on BBC we’d like to believe what you tell us in a documentary.My archaeological education took another step forward this week with the suggestion that the three broken bits of iron pyrite nodules I pulled out of the base of a small pit dissected by a trench on the farm, could be a deliberate deposit and may have been used as part of a fire-lighting kit in ancient times. This kit is now rusting on the kitchen table while I think of a good home for it. Caroline got the star find in the trench with a possible worked piece of slate. For the first time I have reported the finds to the local Portable Antiquities lady, on Brian’s advice, and sent a couple of images so they can at least identify the finds and record the locations for their records, if they so desire. Images below, just in case you are as sad as me.
.jpg)
A week of learning new stuff was unfortunately brought to a close on Friday with the demise of one of our local Sparrowhawks. We found a bird in very poor health, managed to pick it up, cage it and drop it off at the brilliant local Hawk Conservancy near Andover where they have a bird hospital as well as a fantastic venue for showing off birds of prey. We had assumed injury by a car or similar as its beak area was a bit messy but it turned out to be an infection called Frounce which can be picked up from pigeons and finches. It affects the throat area and can kill in just a few days. If the bird is ill enough to get caught then it is often too far gone for treatment as was the case with our bird. Still, we had a go and the hospital was pleased with the donation we made.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Last gasp of summer weather lingers on, along with a few House Martins that are still flying around the house.
Next spring’s Erysimum’s got potted this week and they are looking really strong. The policy of slipping the little modules into a larger one for a few weeks certainly seems to be paying off at the moment. Let’s hope the winter isn’t too harsh and the buds appear nice and early again to get those early sales going. We always grow them hard to get a really strong plant and give them plenty of room by double spacing them from the start. They seem to respond well and always look great among the other early starters. The early bulbs are sat waiting to grow away as well, out of reach of the mice in their pots on trolleys until they start shooting. It certainly fooled the little tykes last year and hopefully will again.
We watched the second of the BBC2 Stonehenge programmes last week which, like the first, was a bit hit and miss. The overall impression of a big, complex and important landscape rather than simply a circle of stones was great and something not always appreciated by the casual visitor. Just a bit disappointing was the lack of detail again and a few rather odd distractions. The oddest divulgence was the story behind the little gold studs found back in the 19th century in one of the nearby Bronze-age barrows. They found 140,000 tiny studs (1mm x 0.2mm) originally fitted into a dagger handle. This was slightly old news but still an astonishing find. They then seemed to suggest they had been made by cutting ultra thin shavings of gold twisted together by children (good eye sight) and all based on the experience of a modern artist who made miniature jewellery under a microscope. On screen, even to a pleb like me, it looked a dubious theory but as soon as the programme finished I had an irate call from our tame arcaeologist Brian who was, in a previous life, a research fellow metallurgist. Apparently you make studs like this from ‘drawing out’ metal from a fatter piece, a bit like making Blackpool rock with the lettering in the middle. Still a skilled job but relatively simple. Apparently you can even see the striations on the studs where it was pulled through a sizing hole. I know there is quite a bit of fanciful thinking in archaeology already, but at least it is usually built on using the evidence in front of them. Come on BBC we’d like to believe what you tell us in a documentary.My archaeological education took another step forward this week with the suggestion that the three broken bits of iron pyrite nodules I pulled out of the base of a small pit dissected by a trench on the farm, could be a deliberate deposit and may have been used as part of a fire-lighting kit in ancient times. This kit is now rusting on the kitchen table while I think of a good home for it. Caroline got the star find in the trench with a possible worked piece of slate. For the first time I have reported the finds to the local Portable Antiquities lady, on Brian’s advice, and sent a couple of images so they can at least identify the finds and record the locations for their records, if they so desire. Images below, just in case you are as sad as me.
A week of learning new stuff was unfortunately brought to a close on Friday with the demise of one of our local Sparrowhawks. We found a bird in very poor health, managed to pick it up, cage it and drop it off at the brilliant local Hawk Conservancy near Andover where they have a bird hospital as well as a fantastic venue for showing off birds of prey. We had assumed injury by a car or similar as its beak area was a bit messy but it turned out to be an infection called Frounce which can be picked up from pigeons and finches. It affects the throat area and can kill in just a few days. If the bird is ill enough to get caught then it is often too far gone for treatment as was the case with our bird. Still, we had a go and the hospital was pleased with the donation we made.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 15 September 2014
Shallow and Hairy
Morning All,
Another very pleasant week’s weather and next week looks ok too. Still warm but possible damp later. At least the breeze has picked up a bit, those turbines have been a bit too stationary for my liking over the last couple of weeks. A nice gentle breeze is all I ask and that meter ticks over very nicely.
My 5 days of driver training is complete and my faith in humanity restored after a much more encouraging last day. We did nutrition and stress on the last day. Just got started on the nutrition part as the burger van pulled in to the training yard car park at 9.00 and we all had a break dashed out and refueled! I took a purely observational role. Our last batch of predators were released this week and our third late summer/autumn packets of mixed nematodes are in the fridge awaiting application. I’m sure there will be the odd vine weevil that eludes them but we have seen a really big reduction in adults spotted around the nursery this summer with hardly any damage or adults seen at all. Last winter’s mild temperatures could have easily seen a population explosion with the adults overwintering well and starting egg laying early as well as it being a good winter for larvae survival, all potentially swelling the summer populations. The combination of efficient and multiple applications (6 in total this year) seems to be a much more effective strategy than the fungal spores previously used. Now we have fined tuned the process over this year, next year’s control could be really effective with low over wintered populations and well timed controls. One crop that is very attractive to the vine weevil is strawberry’s and I am told there are fruit growers who are now applying lower levels of mixed nematodes throughout the summer to cover the whole weevil egg laying period so perhaps this might be another strategy worth taking a look at. Things never stand still.Nice to see the BBC catching up with the latest Stonehenge stuff this week (another programme on next week). Bit disappointed with the lack of specific information, too much wishy washy CGI stone-age hunting and riding over fields on buggies with electric kit on for my liking, but it did give a nice glimpse of the larger Stonehenge landscape. ‘My’ Blick Mead Spring site just outside Amesbury got a nice spot with the archaeologist showing the meseolithic layers in the soil and the magenta coloured flint (rare algae taint from one of the springs). But lots of really important info was either not given or edited out for the sake of entertainment, I felt it missed out on an opportunity to get some more in-depth info out there so we can try and understand things better ourselves rather than just be jollied along through the evening. Perhaps indicative of a general assumption that we need short little nuggets of excitement to keep us interested but best not to let us know too much. After a bit it all gets a bit shallow and boring doesn’t it? A bit like instant gardening perhaps, only buying things in bud and flower rather limits the experience. Quick get me an expensive caffeine drink and a slab of cake before I get bored.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Showing colour particularly well are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Helenium’s seem to be the in plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Another very pleasant week’s weather and next week looks ok too. Still warm but possible damp later. At least the breeze has picked up a bit, those turbines have been a bit too stationary for my liking over the last couple of weeks. A nice gentle breeze is all I ask and that meter ticks over very nicely.
My 5 days of driver training is complete and my faith in humanity restored after a much more encouraging last day. We did nutrition and stress on the last day. Just got started on the nutrition part as the burger van pulled in to the training yard car park at 9.00 and we all had a break dashed out and refueled! I took a purely observational role. Our last batch of predators were released this week and our third late summer/autumn packets of mixed nematodes are in the fridge awaiting application. I’m sure there will be the odd vine weevil that eludes them but we have seen a really big reduction in adults spotted around the nursery this summer with hardly any damage or adults seen at all. Last winter’s mild temperatures could have easily seen a population explosion with the adults overwintering well and starting egg laying early as well as it being a good winter for larvae survival, all potentially swelling the summer populations. The combination of efficient and multiple applications (6 in total this year) seems to be a much more effective strategy than the fungal spores previously used. Now we have fined tuned the process over this year, next year’s control could be really effective with low over wintered populations and well timed controls. One crop that is very attractive to the vine weevil is strawberry’s and I am told there are fruit growers who are now applying lower levels of mixed nematodes throughout the summer to cover the whole weevil egg laying period so perhaps this might be another strategy worth taking a look at. Things never stand still.Nice to see the BBC catching up with the latest Stonehenge stuff this week (another programme on next week). Bit disappointed with the lack of specific information, too much wishy washy CGI stone-age hunting and riding over fields on buggies with electric kit on for my liking, but it did give a nice glimpse of the larger Stonehenge landscape. ‘My’ Blick Mead Spring site just outside Amesbury got a nice spot with the archaeologist showing the meseolithic layers in the soil and the magenta coloured flint (rare algae taint from one of the springs). But lots of really important info was either not given or edited out for the sake of entertainment, I felt it missed out on an opportunity to get some more in-depth info out there so we can try and understand things better ourselves rather than just be jollied along through the evening. Perhaps indicative of a general assumption that we need short little nuggets of excitement to keep us interested but best not to let us know too much. After a bit it all gets a bit shallow and boring doesn’t it? A bit like instant gardening perhaps, only buying things in bud and flower rather limits the experience. Quick get me an expensive caffeine drink and a slab of cake before I get bored.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Showing colour particularly well are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Helenium’s seem to be the in plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 8 September 2014
To all you lovely Hairy people
Good morning all.
A nice bit of steady weather to get a few more plants sold and get a strong spurt of growth on the new potting getting them well prepared for the early spring sales bonanza. There are a few more new varieties again for the new season which always fills me with hope for exciting sales uptakes and by then we will have our new labels too which should give a real boost to the presentation of the plants.
It still surprises me that after 30 years we find new things each season to take things on to another level, and these labels with their incorporated bamboo skewers should be another leap forward in presentation and practicality for everyone. We have even managed to get sheets of matching blanks labels made so we can print our own near identical extras where needed. Although the costs look very competitive to the bog standard label offering, I am getting slightly nervous about the little extras I have added like individual variety barcodes and the QR codes that will be on the label backs. We are going to have to create a lot of specific on-line info this winter to back it all up as well as changing all the nursery software and paperwork to ensure things run nice and smoothly for everyone. Luckily I don’t get out much so I can devote all those long dark evenings to cussing at computers and their programs which means all that extra development is free. It’s always good to remember your own value.
Quiet weekend after the excitement of Crawleyfest last Saturday. It did turn out to be a fairly exclusive event with a sell out 500 pre-booked £5 ticket, so a good showing and hopefully they made a nice lot of money for the cricket team. Unfortunately due perhaps to not moving in the right circles we got left off the invitation list hence not knowing anything about it until the organiser popped in to collect his plant donation the day before. We did pop in during the afternoon to make further donations to the bar and ace cake van but missed out on the bands. The master stroke of the event was the beer tent, I can definitely recommend a pint or two of a local brew to make a fete pass very pleasantly.
Only one more day of driver CPC training to go. Had a rubbish session this week, learnt nothing and got pretty disillusioned with the outside world after two ‘over enthusiastic’ truckers dominated the day. A display of all the worst aspects of a ‘male’ trucker you could imagine, and some I couldn’t, all put on show. It was a case of heads down to get through the day and qualify as being trained, without saying anything that might mean getting hit or ridiculed. Difficult to believe there was a trainer present. There was no physical threat on the day but the content indicated it was part of their life along with a lot of other nasty stuff. It does make you appreciate what you have at home and at work when you get out, which is a sort of positive outcome!
Well done all you lovely people out there, we will win out in the end, keep it up.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Helenium’s seem to be the 'in' plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.
We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We
have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
We have a great range of good looking very chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A nice bit of steady weather to get a few more plants sold and get a strong spurt of growth on the new potting getting them well prepared for the early spring sales bonanza. There are a few more new varieties again for the new season which always fills me with hope for exciting sales uptakes and by then we will have our new labels too which should give a real boost to the presentation of the plants.
It still surprises me that after 30 years we find new things each season to take things on to another level, and these labels with their incorporated bamboo skewers should be another leap forward in presentation and practicality for everyone. We have even managed to get sheets of matching blanks labels made so we can print our own near identical extras where needed. Although the costs look very competitive to the bog standard label offering, I am getting slightly nervous about the little extras I have added like individual variety barcodes and the QR codes that will be on the label backs. We are going to have to create a lot of specific on-line info this winter to back it all up as well as changing all the nursery software and paperwork to ensure things run nice and smoothly for everyone. Luckily I don’t get out much so I can devote all those long dark evenings to cussing at computers and their programs which means all that extra development is free. It’s always good to remember your own value.
Quiet weekend after the excitement of Crawleyfest last Saturday. It did turn out to be a fairly exclusive event with a sell out 500 pre-booked £5 ticket, so a good showing and hopefully they made a nice lot of money for the cricket team. Unfortunately due perhaps to not moving in the right circles we got left off the invitation list hence not knowing anything about it until the organiser popped in to collect his plant donation the day before. We did pop in during the afternoon to make further donations to the bar and ace cake van but missed out on the bands. The master stroke of the event was the beer tent, I can definitely recommend a pint or two of a local brew to make a fete pass very pleasantly.
Only one more day of driver CPC training to go. Had a rubbish session this week, learnt nothing and got pretty disillusioned with the outside world after two ‘over enthusiastic’ truckers dominated the day. A display of all the worst aspects of a ‘male’ trucker you could imagine, and some I couldn’t, all put on show. It was a case of heads down to get through the day and qualify as being trained, without saying anything that might mean getting hit or ridiculed. Difficult to believe there was a trainer present. There was no physical threat on the day but the content indicated it was part of their life along with a lot of other nasty stuff. It does make you appreciate what you have at home and at work when you get out, which is a sort of positive outcome!
Well done all you lovely people out there, we will win out in the end, keep it up.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Helenium’s seem to be the 'in' plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.
We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We
have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
We have a great range of good looking very chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 1 September 2014
Hairy Pizza lithics
Good morning all.
4 days in a week is just not enough. Caroline and I lost another day on top of the bank holiday with another driving training day and the rest of the week seemed to fill up with all sorts of extras. Somehow we managed to arrange the van service, forklift truck service, 3 wind turbine services and an acid dosing fitting all in a few days. Life is just so exciting!
The bank holiday weekend went by in a rush, all the hopeful plans to cut up a load of wood for the winter wood store in all that extra available time went completely out the window, following all the catching up of jobs on the nursery and the washout that was Monday. Still at least I got the first of the 3 autumn doses of nematodes applied over the whole nursery. The next lot are already here waiting in the fridge for application next week, autumn must be coming up fast.
Our Sunday excursion the previous weekend to Stonehenge was brilliant. Expertly led by Brian our tame archaeologist who provided flint samples, a folder of images of the recent excavations around the sites and a constant narrative helping illustrate the 6 hour walk. We had our alfresco picnic sitting at the top of The Avenue right by the stones but outside the rather nasty builders fence, while hundreds of tourists trooped round the stones themselves on the other side. I had the privilege of being able to cut up my cold slice of pizza with a broken flint blade we had rescued from a molehill deposit on the way up The Avenue processional route. That was probably the first pizza that blade had cut up for over 5,000 years. Since our last big walk there 2½years ago English Heritage have done a brilliant job illustrating what was going on all those years ago by providing themed information boards all around the wider area of the Stonehenge landscape so you no longer really need an experts guidance to get a great feel for the area. Well worth a day out. Check out the National Trust Stonehenge info for several walks.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehenge-landscape/things-to-see-and-do/
We popped into the new visitors centre just to check it out. Very nice, although as we weren’t going to the stones we didn’t need to pay so didn’t get to see the inside exhibition. Understandably all a bit new but seemed to cater nicely for the quick stop tourists, big car park, cafe, gift shop with a good range from specialist book selections to the Stonehenge snow-globes and nice eco friendly loos. A vast improvement on the previous centre. Nice demo of reconstructed Neolithic huts to see, based on the designs unearthed at Durrington Walls a few years ago (starting point of our walk).
Local village inaugural ‘festival’ today (‘Crawleyfest’), donated some stock to the plant stall so ought to pop along to show support. Not quite sure what to expect, stalls etc during the day and some music in the evening, food and drink on tap and the weather looks ok. Hope it’s more organised than the website and advertising. It could be they are after a more exclusive audience. Despite that, I am still going.
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is g rowing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking fresh and yummy.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
4 days in a week is just not enough. Caroline and I lost another day on top of the bank holiday with another driving training day and the rest of the week seemed to fill up with all sorts of extras. Somehow we managed to arrange the van service, forklift truck service, 3 wind turbine services and an acid dosing fitting all in a few days. Life is just so exciting!
The bank holiday weekend went by in a rush, all the hopeful plans to cut up a load of wood for the winter wood store in all that extra available time went completely out the window, following all the catching up of jobs on the nursery and the washout that was Monday. Still at least I got the first of the 3 autumn doses of nematodes applied over the whole nursery. The next lot are already here waiting in the fridge for application next week, autumn must be coming up fast.
Our Sunday excursion the previous weekend to Stonehenge was brilliant. Expertly led by Brian our tame archaeologist who provided flint samples, a folder of images of the recent excavations around the sites and a constant narrative helping illustrate the 6 hour walk. We had our alfresco picnic sitting at the top of The Avenue right by the stones but outside the rather nasty builders fence, while hundreds of tourists trooped round the stones themselves on the other side. I had the privilege of being able to cut up my cold slice of pizza with a broken flint blade we had rescued from a molehill deposit on the way up The Avenue processional route. That was probably the first pizza that blade had cut up for over 5,000 years. Since our last big walk there 2½years ago English Heritage have done a brilliant job illustrating what was going on all those years ago by providing themed information boards all around the wider area of the Stonehenge landscape so you no longer really need an experts guidance to get a great feel for the area. Well worth a day out. Check out the National Trust Stonehenge info for several walks.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehenge-landscape/things-to-see-and-do/
We popped into the new visitors centre just to check it out. Very nice, although as we weren’t going to the stones we didn’t need to pay so didn’t get to see the inside exhibition. Understandably all a bit new but seemed to cater nicely for the quick stop tourists, big car park, cafe, gift shop with a good range from specialist book selections to the Stonehenge snow-globes and nice eco friendly loos. A vast improvement on the previous centre. Nice demo of reconstructed Neolithic huts to see, based on the designs unearthed at Durrington Walls a few years ago (starting point of our walk).
Local village inaugural ‘festival’ today (‘Crawleyfest’), donated some stock to the plant stall so ought to pop along to show support. Not quite sure what to expect, stalls etc during the day and some music in the evening, food and drink on tap and the weather looks ok. Hope it’s more organised than the website and advertising. It could be they are after a more exclusive audience. Despite that, I am still going.
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is g rowing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking fresh and yummy.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 26 August 2014
Hairy Holidays
Good morning all.
Bank Holiday time, hurrah.
Never very good at these events, can’t make up my mind whether to rejoice in the extra day in the weekend or lament the days production lost when we have so much stock just perfect for potting! Let’s rejoice, although I seem to have already managed to spend most of the first two days fiddling about on the nursery trying to get those odds and ends of jobs done which I didn’t get done during the week. Tomorrow looks a bit damper so might go out then!
Three of us here are getting closer to completing our 5 days of compulsory drivers CPS training to allow us to still drive the big van. It’s not too bad so far although the day can drag after a few hours and I can think of so many other things I could be doing. Looking forward to the days training on driver wellbeing, customer relations, and ‘you are what you eat’. You should see the stampede for the sandwich/burger van at 9.00am when it pulls into the training company yard and it’s not for a bag of mixed organic seed!
Another big batch of pest predators released this week which seems to be keeping on top of most of the main pests and the nursery has a helpfully huge population of young frogs this summer. The first of our late summer and autumn applications of nematodes against vine weevil goes on this weekend. The spring applications where applied slightly later than they should have been, but the build up of weevil many growers have seen over the last few years seems to have taken a severe dent in the wake of those applications. Quite a relief after the disappointing results many have seen after a few seasons using the bacterial spores incorporated in the compost mixes. We hope that the new regime of 3 x half rate applications of 3 different species of nematode in the autumn, repeated in the spring will have a much greater effect. In the past the application costs where high and just a single full dose applied, which made it a bit hit and miss in its effectiveness with us. But now with timed application through the irrigation system and my home designed aerated and self agitating nematode stock barrel we can not only apply them cheaply and accurately but also time it for the late evening which is better for the light sensitive nematodes. The three applications provide a longer period of nematode action and reduce the risk of nematode misses or losses. Sounds good, let’s hope it is as effective as the spring applications.
Brilliant walk round Stonehenge last weekend. Inspiring stuff and only got slightly damp. If only all summer holidays were as good as this.
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is growing well and the range should pick up again very soon for an autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower, summer is going by so quickly.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Bank Holiday time, hurrah.
Never very good at these events, can’t make up my mind whether to rejoice in the extra day in the weekend or lament the days production lost when we have so much stock just perfect for potting! Let’s rejoice, although I seem to have already managed to spend most of the first two days fiddling about on the nursery trying to get those odds and ends of jobs done which I didn’t get done during the week. Tomorrow looks a bit damper so might go out then!
Three of us here are getting closer to completing our 5 days of compulsory drivers CPS training to allow us to still drive the big van. It’s not too bad so far although the day can drag after a few hours and I can think of so many other things I could be doing. Looking forward to the days training on driver wellbeing, customer relations, and ‘you are what you eat’. You should see the stampede for the sandwich/burger van at 9.00am when it pulls into the training company yard and it’s not for a bag of mixed organic seed!
Another big batch of pest predators released this week which seems to be keeping on top of most of the main pests and the nursery has a helpfully huge population of young frogs this summer. The first of our late summer and autumn applications of nematodes against vine weevil goes on this weekend. The spring applications where applied slightly later than they should have been, but the build up of weevil many growers have seen over the last few years seems to have taken a severe dent in the wake of those applications. Quite a relief after the disappointing results many have seen after a few seasons using the bacterial spores incorporated in the compost mixes. We hope that the new regime of 3 x half rate applications of 3 different species of nematode in the autumn, repeated in the spring will have a much greater effect. In the past the application costs where high and just a single full dose applied, which made it a bit hit and miss in its effectiveness with us. But now with timed application through the irrigation system and my home designed aerated and self agitating nematode stock barrel we can not only apply them cheaply and accurately but also time it for the late evening which is better for the light sensitive nematodes. The three applications provide a longer period of nematode action and reduce the risk of nematode misses or losses. Sounds good, let’s hope it is as effective as the spring applications.
Brilliant walk round Stonehenge last weekend. Inspiring stuff and only got slightly damp. If only all summer holidays were as good as this.
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is growing well and the range should pick up again very soon for an autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower, summer is going by so quickly.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 19 August 2014
Ancient and Hairy
Good morning all
Sorry, no time this morning other than to update the availability list. Having a couple of days entertaining friends here and my presence is demanded elsewhere. Actually the entertaining is coming from the visitors really as we are being taken on an updated, expert led landscape walk of the Stonehenge area to see all the stuff we missed last time we went. I have had a glimpse of the folder of info which is part of the ‘presentation’ so should be lots of food for thought. A few others are joining us too so should be fun. Today we are hill fort walking and going to Amesbury to try and see some of the Mesolithic stuff they have dug up at Blick Mead Springs which we hope is on show. The finds there make Amesbury the longest settled place in the country with butchered cattle bone dating to 8820 BC, nearly 11,000 years. I think this counts as the summer holiday so must make the most of it!
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is growing well and the range should pick up again very soon for an autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower, summer is going by so quickly.
Ajuga Black Scallop with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sorry, no time this morning other than to update the availability list. Having a couple of days entertaining friends here and my presence is demanded elsewhere. Actually the entertaining is coming from the visitors really as we are being taken on an updated, expert led landscape walk of the Stonehenge area to see all the stuff we missed last time we went. I have had a glimpse of the folder of info which is part of the ‘presentation’ so should be lots of food for thought. A few others are joining us too so should be fun. Today we are hill fort walking and going to Amesbury to try and see some of the Mesolithic stuff they have dug up at Blick Mead Springs which we hope is on show. The finds there make Amesbury the longest settled place in the country with butchered cattle bone dating to 8820 BC, nearly 11,000 years. I think this counts as the summer holiday so must make the most of it!
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is growing well and the range should pick up again very soon for an autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower, summer is going by so quickly.
Ajuga Black Scallop with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 11 August 2014
Hairy visits
Good morning all.
Suddenly summer has stopped and everyone seems to be talking about autumnal weather. The swifts have all left Stockbridge as they do in early August, although the swallows and house martins should be performing for a few weeks more. We could still have weeks of fine weather but mild panic starts to set in here as we try to get everything potted on schedule around all the orders, holidays and tunnel clearing. Looking good so far but I would always like to be a couple of weeks further ahead, but I know deep down after years of vain hope that isn’t going to happen. At least with almost all the incoming little modules growing on in bigger plugs things are still growing strongly.
After 30 years playing at this game you would think there was little else to learn and improve on, but this season seems to be filling up with plenty of leaps and tweeks in production development. There was the introduction of lots of new varieties to produce more impulse sales and the change from the disappointing bio-insecticide MET52 (vine weevil control) to the new application system and program of nematode introductions (now six applications over a season). The innovative new perennial labels are on the way with their long bamboo skewer insertion, increased info and a more coordinated appearance. A new tray insert is being explored and a new acid injection system coming shortly which will revitalise foliage quality and help us reduce fertiliser levels. There are more new plants coming out of the micro-prop lab which look interesting particularly a late summer flowering range of Saxifrages that could add interest to those late impulse sales. There are also some new seed raised hardy cyclamens and Helleborus which are showing great promise. I suspect this year won’t see them produce much of a show as we fine tune timings etc, but watch this space for a few lines appearing on our lists.
The NBIS visit here went really well, the nursery looked great for the time of year and I had plenty of new improvements to show off. Hardly anyone fell asleep and lively discussion produced the usual stimulating results and a lot of laughter. Results for the season overall were disappointing on the plant sales side for virtually all the growers, especially when we looked back at the terrible weather of the previous couple of seasons. Luckily we had all been very conservative on the production side so results were not disastrous but the situation did provoke some further soul searching as to the future of plant production. Sharing all this stuff now comes fairly naturally to the group and although it doesn’t make the financial realities any easier it does act as a very effective therapy session.
Turbine breakdown last week, with an electrical short in the control box. Luckily not much output was lost due to the light winds and it was easily fixed once the right bit and electrician arrived. The college next door have put in a planning application for a single turbine of 75m to be erected. Our 25m turbines are mentioned in comparison as part of the support package so hopefully that will help in some way. I have (not) put in my complaint about the noise, flicker, renewable inefficiencies and how it will reduce the value of the game shooting and house values on our estate. Meanwhile my planning application for a flood lit heated swimming pool waits in the wings. I wish I had the cash to put in a planning application for a nuclear reactor and see how that goes down with the locals. I hope the turbine application sails through, I believe our tiny wind installation is still the biggest in Hampshire and that is a shocking record for such a high consumption area.
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is growing well and the range should pick up again very soon for an autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower, summer is going by so quickly. Ajuga Black Scallop with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Suddenly summer has stopped and everyone seems to be talking about autumnal weather. The swifts have all left Stockbridge as they do in early August, although the swallows and house martins should be performing for a few weeks more. We could still have weeks of fine weather but mild panic starts to set in here as we try to get everything potted on schedule around all the orders, holidays and tunnel clearing. Looking good so far but I would always like to be a couple of weeks further ahead, but I know deep down after years of vain hope that isn’t going to happen. At least with almost all the incoming little modules growing on in bigger plugs things are still growing strongly.
After 30 years playing at this game you would think there was little else to learn and improve on, but this season seems to be filling up with plenty of leaps and tweeks in production development. There was the introduction of lots of new varieties to produce more impulse sales and the change from the disappointing bio-insecticide MET52 (vine weevil control) to the new application system and program of nematode introductions (now six applications over a season). The innovative new perennial labels are on the way with their long bamboo skewer insertion, increased info and a more coordinated appearance. A new tray insert is being explored and a new acid injection system coming shortly which will revitalise foliage quality and help us reduce fertiliser levels. There are more new plants coming out of the micro-prop lab which look interesting particularly a late summer flowering range of Saxifrages that could add interest to those late impulse sales. There are also some new seed raised hardy cyclamens and Helleborus which are showing great promise. I suspect this year won’t see them produce much of a show as we fine tune timings etc, but watch this space for a few lines appearing on our lists.
The NBIS visit here went really well, the nursery looked great for the time of year and I had plenty of new improvements to show off. Hardly anyone fell asleep and lively discussion produced the usual stimulating results and a lot of laughter. Results for the season overall were disappointing on the plant sales side for virtually all the growers, especially when we looked back at the terrible weather of the previous couple of seasons. Luckily we had all been very conservative on the production side so results were not disastrous but the situation did provoke some further soul searching as to the future of plant production. Sharing all this stuff now comes fairly naturally to the group and although it doesn’t make the financial realities any easier it does act as a very effective therapy session.
Turbine breakdown last week, with an electrical short in the control box. Luckily not much output was lost due to the light winds and it was easily fixed once the right bit and electrician arrived. The college next door have put in a planning application for a single turbine of 75m to be erected. Our 25m turbines are mentioned in comparison as part of the support package so hopefully that will help in some way. I have (not) put in my complaint about the noise, flicker, renewable inefficiencies and how it will reduce the value of the game shooting and house values on our estate. Meanwhile my planning application for a flood lit heated swimming pool waits in the wings. I wish I had the cash to put in a planning application for a nuclear reactor and see how that goes down with the locals. I hope the turbine application sails through, I believe our tiny wind installation is still the biggest in Hampshire and that is a shocking record for such a high consumption area.
Availability
We have a slight lull in flowering stock at the moment after strong summer sales. Fresh stock is growing well and the range should pick up again very soon for an autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower, summer is going by so quickly. Ajuga Black Scallop with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 4 August 2014
Hairy visits
Good morning all.
Just had a smidge of rain, just enough to make the odd small puddle, but the sun is come out again and it’s mostly dried out already. At least the temperature has been a bit more bearable this past week. Tunnel clearing and potting are bowling along now in preparation for next season. It’s all go.
Still fitting in the extras too with another big release of predators to spread about the nursery. 6 different hunters in chunky numbers to boost the local population and keep the worst pests under control. There are still a few pests that we can’t control effectively this way, American Lupin Aphid and leaf sucker probably being the two worst at the moment. The nemetodes we trialled to control the slugs did make a reasonable dent in the population, especially the nasty little black ones, but not effective enough across the different species to justify the thousands of pounds it would have cost to treat the whole nursery.
We have returned to the new slug pellet Feramol Max which is so much safer than the nasty old metaldehyde based pellets, it is accepted as organic by many organisations. Its effects are impressive but quite short lived and repeat applications are necessary to keep on top of the control but we have seen great results from it this season, which has been a really good one for these pests. With our little applicator we can treat the whole nursery in about an hour and the rate used is so low that it doesn’t litter the crop or cost too much.
I popped out on Wednesday with local nurseryman Roger in his great little Golf GTI (1990 I think) to visit the Ball -Colgraves open day near Banbury. A very refreshing trip, blowing a few cobwebs away, seeing some great plants and a collection of rather smart cars in the car park. There was some discussion of where we had gone wrong but it didn’t last long. Took lots of pictures of the varieties we grow or are about to, to add to my library, and saw some very promising trial plants. All in all an inspirational day.
We are looking to invest again this summer in further improvements to our production facilities to keep costs in check and improve plant quality even further. We irrigate with very hard water here and so far we have put up with the problems this can create (extra fertiliser use, looked up nutrients, marked foliage, damaged spray-line kit etc), but we are about to put in a little acid injector to improve the situation. The promise of super green leaves, clean nozzles and better use of the fertiliser we put in the compost seems like a distant dream, but hopefully one day those dreams will come true. We are just putting up the
little acid store at the moment and hopefully over the next few weeks the whole thing will go in and be up and running. I am told not to expect instant perfection as we will have to find the right balance for our site and usage patterns so will have to gradually turn up the wick until we see the results we are after. Nothing ever stands still.
We got exciting confirmation this week that we will be able to match our nursery OKI printed colour labels with the ones we are having made by Floramedia. This will be great for creating a more uniform display. Both labels will be of very similar size and shape and thread onto our new bamboo skewers which are currently now in production. We won’t be quite as good as the professionals on the colour front but it will be another step-up on the current display.
Big week coming up with further nursery development, production and hosting our NBIS group on site on Thursday. It’s been a couple of years since their last visit and we’ve changed quite a few things since then after our Lean Management training sessions in late 2012. There are a few new members too who haven’t been before so there will have to be a little tidy up, if we can find the time, to make a good impression. It’s a shame it won’t be a few weeks later, as we are a bit in between crops at the moment but I’m sure I can smooth it all over with a bit of flannel, just as usual. As long as the pub lunch is good we will be fine.
Availability
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower, summer is going by so quickly.
Blue Salvias are showing a fresh flush of bud and flower, looking quite smart.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms and lots of bud on nice strong stocky plants.
Ajuga Black Scallop with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. The variegated Burgundy Glow is looking great too. We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 28 July 2014
Hairy Holidays
Good morning all.
A scorcher of a week. Thankfully it looks like a cooler few days ahead, it’s certainly slightly fresher today and more cloud cover. Luckily the irrigation system (touch wood) has kept up with the extra demand despite the drying breeze as well as the heat. Sales are still rolling along but the range is slipping a bit as we run out of some lines. The summer potting is now we ll underway so fresh stock for some of those late summer and autumn sales will be with us before you know it.
My work load plans for the week never seem to quite all come right at this time of year, as holiday breaks start to suddenly materialise. The realisation hits home that all the cut backs of the past couple of seasons means we don’t always have the back up of a few years ago and the thought of a day or two off ourselves will have to wait until the autumn. Good job the idyllic life of a nurseryman is so much like a holiday, all that fresh air, sunshine and trug carrying. On the bright side we do have a couple of extra youngsters coming in to help for a few weeks this summer which will be great.
Most of the stock for the 2015 spring sales is now on the nursery with another couple more plug deliveries this week, despite the fact that a lot of stock won’t actually get potted for several weeks. We like to create really chunky stock to give that extra level of value to the gardener and we find that we can get this by planting the little plugs we buy in now, into a much bigger plug before finally potting them. This keeps the plants actively growing and building up a strong framework before an extra level of trimming/grading and potting. Although this adds an extra layer into the production cycle it helps us produce monste r plants with less waste in the more expensive final stages, so hopefully we all win out.
Are you doing enough on the recycling front? Just a quick reminder to check out your local facilities to keep up to date with what you can sensibly recycle. We have had a pretty good system here where one waste company, at a relatively low cost, would take away most of our card, plastic, cans etc in one mixed recycling bin. This was great as previously we had to separate a lot of it out for separate disposal, which usually meant a bit of extra labour, confusion and separate waste containers. The contract has just been taken over by Biffa and I was a bit anxious that we would have to return to separation but in fact it was the opposite. They were happy to take all plastics mixed in with everything else in the one bin. That is a great service and allows few excuses not to make the most of it and recycle all over the place. Things move on, promote your sustainable image, provide great and inspirational customer service, get recycling. The Eden Project make a fantastic, very positive feature of their waste management but this idea isn’t patented, use it to your advantage. Also don’t forget that ‘To make recycling work you have to buy (and sell) recycled’.
Great effort by the Commonwealth Games and UNICEF with their ‘Put the children first’ appeal on the opening night. It is shocking how many thousands of children are still dying each day around the world and what deprived lives many millions more lead. It is not a comfortable thing to think about it too much but we can surely all do a bit more to help. Even if it is only to question how the supermarkets are able to put out a ‘full school uniform’ for £4. I saw in a Primark window yesterday an offer, for 8-13 year olds, to buy 3 T-shirts, a pair of jeans and a pair of trainers for a total of £10!
Looking forward to visiting the Ball-Colgraves show garden this coming week to see if there are any plants we are missing out on and to take a few snaps to add to the portfolio. Hoping it isn’t too bright, as my old fart mastery of digital camera settings is limited and bright sun I always find a bit of a handful when taking flower pictures.
If you are off on your summer break soon, have a splash for me.
Availability
Last few Crocosmia’s left, both golden yellows and with buds just beginning to open (Sunglow and George Davidson).
It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and the occasional open flower, a great range of colours. Bud and strong fresh growth on the Anemones, looking good.
The short Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are very strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy but taller V. bonariensis are also in bud.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms and lots of bud on nice strong stocky plants.
Ajuga Black Scallop with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. The variegated Burgundy Glow is looking great too.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer. Short bushy Thalictrum are showing a second flower flush of the summer but only a few left.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A scorcher of a week. Thankfully it looks like a cooler few days ahead, it’s certainly slightly fresher today and more cloud cover. Luckily the irrigation system (touch wood) has kept up with the extra demand despite the drying breeze as well as the heat. Sales are still rolling along but the range is slipping a bit as we run out of some lines. The summer potting is now we ll underway so fresh stock for some of those late summer and autumn sales will be with us before you know it.
My work load plans for the week never seem to quite all come right at this time of year, as holiday breaks start to suddenly materialise. The realisation hits home that all the cut backs of the past couple of seasons means we don’t always have the back up of a few years ago and the thought of a day or two off ourselves will have to wait until the autumn. Good job the idyllic life of a nurseryman is so much like a holiday, all that fresh air, sunshine and trug carrying. On the bright side we do have a couple of extra youngsters coming in to help for a few weeks this summer which will be great.
Most of the stock for the 2015 spring sales is now on the nursery with another couple more plug deliveries this week, despite the fact that a lot of stock won’t actually get potted for several weeks. We like to create really chunky stock to give that extra level of value to the gardener and we find that we can get this by planting the little plugs we buy in now, into a much bigger plug before finally potting them. This keeps the plants actively growing and building up a strong framework before an extra level of trimming/grading and potting. Although this adds an extra layer into the production cycle it helps us produce monste r plants with less waste in the more expensive final stages, so hopefully we all win out.
Are you doing enough on the recycling front? Just a quick reminder to check out your local facilities to keep up to date with what you can sensibly recycle. We have had a pretty good system here where one waste company, at a relatively low cost, would take away most of our card, plastic, cans etc in one mixed recycling bin. This was great as previously we had to separate a lot of it out for separate disposal, which usually meant a bit of extra labour, confusion and separate waste containers. The contract has just been taken over by Biffa and I was a bit anxious that we would have to return to separation but in fact it was the opposite. They were happy to take all plastics mixed in with everything else in the one bin. That is a great service and allows few excuses not to make the most of it and recycle all over the place. Things move on, promote your sustainable image, provide great and inspirational customer service, get recycling. The Eden Project make a fantastic, very positive feature of their waste management but this idea isn’t patented, use it to your advantage. Also don’t forget that ‘To make recycling work you have to buy (and sell) recycled’.
Great effort by the Commonwealth Games and UNICEF with their ‘Put the children first’ appeal on the opening night. It is shocking how many thousands of children are still dying each day around the world and what deprived lives many millions more lead. It is not a comfortable thing to think about it too much but we can surely all do a bit more to help. Even if it is only to question how the supermarkets are able to put out a ‘full school uniform’ for £4. I saw in a Primark window yesterday an offer, for 8-13 year olds, to buy 3 T-shirts, a pair of jeans and a pair of trainers for a total of £10!
Looking forward to visiting the Ball-Colgraves show garden this coming week to see if there are any plants we are missing out on and to take a few snaps to add to the portfolio. Hoping it isn’t too bright, as my old fart mastery of digital camera settings is limited and bright sun I always find a bit of a handful when taking flower pictures.
If you are off on your summer break soon, have a splash for me.
Availability
Last few Crocosmia’s left, both golden yellows and with buds just beginning to open (Sunglow and George Davidson).
It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and the occasional open flower, a great range of colours. Bud and strong fresh growth on the Anemones, looking good.
The short Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are very strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy but taller V. bonariensis are also in bud.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms and lots of bud on nice strong stocky plants.
Ajuga Black Scallop with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. The variegated Burgundy Glow is looking great too.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer. Short bushy Thalictrum are showing a second flower flush of the summer but only a few left.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 22 July 2014
Hairy on the Beach
Good morning all.
Still hot and muggy down here, we seem to have missed most of the thunderstorm so the ground is still disappointingly dry. Plant sales have slowed fractionally which has allowed us to get stuck into the potting again which is a relief. Last week’s potting squeak cure has held up and makes for a far less tense working environment, although there doesn’t seem to have been a corresponding reduction in volume of the youngsters music. Gosh isn’t it loud and it all sounds the same!
It’s a tad on the steamy side in the tunnels on the sunny days but our youthful team keep up their fluid levels and plough on . The show must go on. The office porta-cabin shows off one of its main weaknesses in this sort of weather with temperatures reaching over 42C on one afternoon, nearly enough to send me outside and do some work. It would be nice one day to build a proper building to house such important people but I fear that day is a long way off. I managed to attend the local Sustainable Business Network meeting last week, catching up on all the latest legal and practical developments in the exciting world of sustainability. A nice walk to the venue through Marwell Zoo who were telling us about all their work on site to improve their buildings' performances, investing to save huge amounts on energy use and looking to generate heat and power from their regular waste materials. Lots of energy was saved by altering the gift shop internal temperature control, running it to correspond with how the customers were dressed when coming in from outside rather than how warm or cool the staff would like to run it at. A nice bit of sensible thinking.
In a week of multiple outings Caroline and I where kindly invited by Hillier Nurseries to attend a delicious marquee lunch with a few select others at the Harold Hillier Gardens to celebrate 150 years of the business. Lots of friends old and new and a bit of a blast from the past for Caroline who started her horticultural career there as a pre-entry year student 35 years ago, she was only 5!
Our luck was definitely in this week when we inherited the thing that all destitute nursery folk desperately need. Caroline had been offered a couple of small 1930’s armchairs from her Auntie who sadly passed away earlier this year and was given a tour of the other kit they were trying to find a good home for. So we are now proud owners of a 1950 cocktail cabinet complete with an opening top to create your own 5ft+ bar! I can’t remember the last time I even thought of having a cocktail. Anyway I have set it up along a spare wall and filled it with my beer collection, let’s see how it goes. If things start to get a bit erratic from this end you will know my life has taken on a new direction. Actually it has already seen action, we served Caroline’s Mum a Creme de Menthe (found in the cabinet) on crushed ice for her birthday tea yesterday. She can remember when her father originally bought it (the cabinet) after a particularly good 1950 harvest. Are cocktail parties still in vogue? I must see about making a friend or two to invite over.
Availability
Last few Crocosmia’s left, both golden yellows and with buds just beginning to open (Sunglow and George Davidson).
It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and the occasional open flower, a great range of colours. The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour.
Bud and strong fresh growth on the Anemones, looking good. Just a few Achillea varieties still left with bud coming.
The short Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are very strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy but taller V. bonariensis are also in bud.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow bloo ms and lots of bud on nice strong stocky plants.
Ajuga Black Scallop is new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. The variegated Burgundy Glow is looking great too.
Rudbeckia Goldsturm are showing lots of bud and the occasional open flower. They are quite tall but strong stemmed.
A few new addition for this summer is a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and flowering nicely now.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer. Short bushy Thalictrum are showing a second flower flush of the summer.
Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant with numerous buds appearing.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Still hot and muggy down here, we seem to have missed most of the thunderstorm so the ground is still disappointingly dry. Plant sales have slowed fractionally which has allowed us to get stuck into the potting again which is a relief. Last week’s potting squeak cure has held up and makes for a far less tense working environment, although there doesn’t seem to have been a corresponding reduction in volume of the youngsters music. Gosh isn’t it loud and it all sounds the same!
It’s a tad on the steamy side in the tunnels on the sunny days but our youthful team keep up their fluid levels and plough on . The show must go on. The office porta-cabin shows off one of its main weaknesses in this sort of weather with temperatures reaching over 42C on one afternoon, nearly enough to send me outside and do some work. It would be nice one day to build a proper building to house such important people but I fear that day is a long way off. I managed to attend the local Sustainable Business Network meeting last week, catching up on all the latest legal and practical developments in the exciting world of sustainability. A nice walk to the venue through Marwell Zoo who were telling us about all their work on site to improve their buildings' performances, investing to save huge amounts on energy use and looking to generate heat and power from their regular waste materials. Lots of energy was saved by altering the gift shop internal temperature control, running it to correspond with how the customers were dressed when coming in from outside rather than how warm or cool the staff would like to run it at. A nice bit of sensible thinking.
In a week of multiple outings Caroline and I where kindly invited by Hillier Nurseries to attend a delicious marquee lunch with a few select others at the Harold Hillier Gardens to celebrate 150 years of the business. Lots of friends old and new and a bit of a blast from the past for Caroline who started her horticultural career there as a pre-entry year student 35 years ago, she was only 5!
Our luck was definitely in this week when we inherited the thing that all destitute nursery folk desperately need. Caroline had been offered a couple of small 1930’s armchairs from her Auntie who sadly passed away earlier this year and was given a tour of the other kit they were trying to find a good home for. So we are now proud owners of a 1950 cocktail cabinet complete with an opening top to create your own 5ft+ bar! I can’t remember the last time I even thought of having a cocktail. Anyway I have set it up along a spare wall and filled it with my beer collection, let’s see how it goes. If things start to get a bit erratic from this end you will know my life has taken on a new direction. Actually it has already seen action, we served Caroline’s Mum a Creme de Menthe (found in the cabinet) on crushed ice for her birthday tea yesterday. She can remember when her father originally bought it (the cabinet) after a particularly good 1950 harvest. Are cocktail parties still in vogue? I must see about making a friend or two to invite over.
Availability
Last few Crocosmia’s left, both golden yellows and with buds just beginning to open (Sunglow and George Davidson).
It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and the occasional open flower, a great range of colours. The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour.
Bud and strong fresh growth on the Anemones, looking good. Just a few Achillea varieties still left with bud coming.
The short Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are very strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy but taller V. bonariensis are also in bud.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow bloo ms and lots of bud on nice strong stocky plants.
Ajuga Black Scallop is new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. The variegated Burgundy Glow is looking great too.
Rudbeckia Goldsturm are showing lots of bud and the occasional open flower. They are quite tall but strong stemmed.
A few new addition for this summer is a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and flowering nicely now.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer. Short bushy Thalictrum are showing a second flower flush of the summer.
Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant with numerous buds appearing.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sunday 13 July 2014
Hairy Excitement abounds
Morning All
It’s hot and muggy down here, really difficult to keep going, quite fancy a nap. Plant sales are bowling along which is great although it has delayed the start of the potting slightly. Spent yesterday afternoon and evening dismantling the potting machine take-off conveyor to try and find the source of a very loud squeak which has been driving the potters bonkers for months. Liberal quantities of grease and oil would seem to subdue the racket for a minute or two but then it returned. After several failed ‘solutions’ and feeling very ineffective I ended up releasing the entire belt to get the end rollers out and dismantled where I found the problem. A worn, dry and dirty central shaft. I replaced this worst one with one from an old conveyor all clean and greased up, and tidied up the other one at the other end, just in case. So an exciting surprise for everyone next week, a quiet potting machine, what a relief that will be. Nursery life doesn’t get much more exciting that that!
Having said that, we have received fab samples of the new skewer we have had made to thread into our new labels for next season as well as new samples of the labels themselves. (I am happy for you to share this excitement, see below)
That’s much more excitement than I can really cope with in one go, I’m off for a lie down.
Availability
Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on all the Crocosmia’s. It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and to occasional open flower, a great range of colours.
The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour. Bud and strong fresh growth on the Anemones, looking good. The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy V. bonariensis are also showing bud. Leucanthemum Broadway Lights are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms and lots of bud on nice strong stocky plants.
Ajuga Black Scallop is also new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. The variegated Burgundy Glow is looking great too.
The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too , but not many left now. Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher but only a few left. A few new addition for this summer is a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and flowering nicely now.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer. Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant with numerous buds appearing.
Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are colouring up as summer approaches. Dianthus Gran’s Favourite and Hayter White are also strongly in bud.
Achillea Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again but just a few left. Also a nice short bushy batch of The Pearl with its little white button flowers is reaching perfection.
Wildlife
Not had any room in recent weeks to report on latest news. Tiny frogs and newts have started leaving the ponds and spreading out over the nursery. Looks like a good batch this summer with still loads left in the main pond and plenty being seen in the tunnels. I have moved a few in by hand where they miss the doors and get stuck between the tunnels, but I can’t think it will really make much difference. Perhaps we should be thinking about frog-flaps down the tunnel sides! Maybe a few holes might be easier.
Counted 20 house martins feeding above the house yesterday evening, so assuming I might have missed a few we should have another good summer, I must take a moment to survey all the nests on the house to see how many look occupied. I suspect babies are on the way but I haven’t heard any shouting yet. At the end of last summer we witnessed a mass swarming of families in the yard as they prepared to fly off for the winter, there were 80+ birds, perching and diving about it was a riot, very lucky to see them as in a hour or two they were off. There are advantages to being here for so many hours a week!
Chickens have been on a go slow for 6 months now, 1 or 2 eggs a day is not a viable output for 8 birds. Tried hanging up a pack of Paxo but it hasn’t helped.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
It’s hot and muggy down here, really difficult to keep going, quite fancy a nap. Plant sales are bowling along which is great although it has delayed the start of the potting slightly. Spent yesterday afternoon and evening dismantling the potting machine take-off conveyor to try and find the source of a very loud squeak which has been driving the potters bonkers for months. Liberal quantities of grease and oil would seem to subdue the racket for a minute or two but then it returned. After several failed ‘solutions’ and feeling very ineffective I ended up releasing the entire belt to get the end rollers out and dismantled where I found the problem. A worn, dry and dirty central shaft. I replaced this worst one with one from an old conveyor all clean and greased up, and tidied up the other one at the other end, just in case. So an exciting surprise for everyone next week, a quiet potting machine, what a relief that will be. Nursery life doesn’t get much more exciting that that!
Having said that, we have received fab samples of the new skewer we have had made to thread into our new labels for next season as well as new samples of the labels themselves. (I am happy for you to share this excitement, see below)
That’s much more excitement than I can really cope with in one go, I’m off for a lie down.
Availability
Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on all the Crocosmia’s. It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and to occasional open flower, a great range of colours.
The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour. Bud and strong fresh growth on the Anemones, looking good. The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy V. bonariensis are also showing bud. Leucanthemum Broadway Lights are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms and lots of bud on nice strong stocky plants.
Ajuga Black Scallop is also new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. The variegated Burgundy Glow is looking great too.
The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too , but not many left now. Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher but only a few left. A few new addition for this summer is a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and flowering nicely now.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer. Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant with numerous buds appearing.
Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are colouring up as summer approaches. Dianthus Gran’s Favourite and Hayter White are also strongly in bud.
Achillea Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again but just a few left. Also a nice short bushy batch of The Pearl with its little white button flowers is reaching perfection.
Wildlife
Not had any room in recent weeks to report on latest news. Tiny frogs and newts have started leaving the ponds and spreading out over the nursery. Looks like a good batch this summer with still loads left in the main pond and plenty being seen in the tunnels. I have moved a few in by hand where they miss the doors and get stuck between the tunnels, but I can’t think it will really make much difference. Perhaps we should be thinking about frog-flaps down the tunnel sides! Maybe a few holes might be easier.
Counted 20 house martins feeding above the house yesterday evening, so assuming I might have missed a few we should have another good summer, I must take a moment to survey all the nests on the house to see how many look occupied. I suspect babies are on the way but I haven’t heard any shouting yet. At the end of last summer we witnessed a mass swarming of families in the yard as they prepared to fly off for the winter, there were 80+ birds, perching and diving about it was a riot, very lucky to see them as in a hour or two they were off. There are advantages to being here for so many hours a week!
Chickens have been on a go slow for 6 months now, 1 or 2 eggs a day is not a viable output for 8 birds. Tried hanging up a pack of Paxo but it hasn’t helped.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sunday 6 July 2014
Hairy pots
Good morning all.
Yet another hectic week, sending out lots of orders. Most of the planned other work has gone on hold for a bit until we can find a moment. The deliveries of next year’s young plants are already here in large numbers and rather than keeping them waiting for too long before finding their way into a pot we are repeating the trick of the past couple of years and dropping them in a big module of our peat free potting compost. Although it adds in an extra production stage it does keep the plants growing strongly and provides monster stock to pot a bit later in the summer. There are a number of benefits to this, an extra chance to grade out any rubbish, an extra large plant framework provides greater pest and disease resilience as well as stonkingly sized plants, quicker and denser compost coverage reduces weed, moss and liverwort growth, better overwintering success and a bit of extra production flexibility. That is all brilliant and if we achieve the ultimate elusive aim and sell them all too, we will be able to do it all again next year!
Had an interesting email enquiry this week questioning if anything we used on our plants (MET52 specifically mentioned) would have killed off some tiger moth caterpillars which had been feeding on a couple of our plants in the garden. The easy answer is no, but that is not altogether helpful or informative. Such a specific question was a tricky one to reply to as the amount of info you need, to try and provide that illusive useful answer is immense. How long ago were the plants bought, how did the caterpillars get on the plant (naturally or helped), were there signs of them eating stuff, weather, caterpillar death symptoms and I’m sure more questions to materialise later. I suspect a full investigation and visit would still not come up with a definitive diagnosis of the deaths but I managed to spend an hour replying, explaining how MET52 spores (an anti vine
weevil bio-insectide) had been incorporated in the compost and not on or inside the plant so not going to be the problem. This led on to the fact that having spent many thousands of pounds over the last two seasons on this remedy we found it fairly ineffective on the weevil and had now changed to applying parasitic nematodes at key times of year. Then of course a description of why this is not going to be the cause followed (live in dark damp compost and are very , very short lived in daylight etc). An explanation of bio-controls simply boosting local natural populations to achieve a degree of pest control was needed and further general assurances followed that most chemicals available nowadays to all growers are so short -lived that by the time the plants were despatched, bought, planted and rained on there would be little residue left to cause mega death to the general insect population of the nature friendly gardener. That brings us to the fundamental issue that everyone wants to buy lovely looking pest free healthy plants but just as long as we aren’t cruel to any wildlife along the way! Even using natural bio controls and predators seems to raise alarm. Can we ever win or are we all failing to get our best intentioned messages across?
Plants are good for you, your garden and nature. Plant more. Plants are good. Good, mmm, yummy plants.
Availability
The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too!
Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher but only a few left. A few new addition for this summer is a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and flowering nicely now.
Ajuga Black Scallop is also new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour.
Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant with numerous buds appearing. Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are colouring up as summer approaches.
The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy V. bonariensis are also available again with first buds showing.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights and Banana Creme are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms. Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on some Crocosmia.
It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and to occasional open flower, a lovely range of colours.
The Helenium Waldraut and Moerheim Beauty are in stunning colour and strong stemmed although quite tall.
The traditional Dianthus are in bud, the new ‘Scent First’ (SF) series are compact and scented with some lovely colour combinations. The slightly larger classic varieties Gran’s Favourite and Hayter White are also strongly in bud. Summer campanula’s are in bud (carpatica white and posharskyana).
Achillea Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again. Also a nice short bushy batch of The Pearl with its little white button flowers is reaching perfection.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Yet another hectic week, sending out lots of orders. Most of the planned other work has gone on hold for a bit until we can find a moment. The deliveries of next year’s young plants are already here in large numbers and rather than keeping them waiting for too long before finding their way into a pot we are repeating the trick of the past couple of years and dropping them in a big module of our peat free potting compost. Although it adds in an extra production stage it does keep the plants growing strongly and provides monster stock to pot a bit later in the summer. There are a number of benefits to this, an extra chance to grade out any rubbish, an extra large plant framework provides greater pest and disease resilience as well as stonkingly sized plants, quicker and denser compost coverage reduces weed, moss and liverwort growth, better overwintering success and a bit of extra production flexibility. That is all brilliant and if we achieve the ultimate elusive aim and sell them all too, we will be able to do it all again next year!
Had an interesting email enquiry this week questioning if anything we used on our plants (MET52 specifically mentioned) would have killed off some tiger moth caterpillars which had been feeding on a couple of our plants in the garden. The easy answer is no, but that is not altogether helpful or informative. Such a specific question was a tricky one to reply to as the amount of info you need, to try and provide that illusive useful answer is immense. How long ago were the plants bought, how did the caterpillars get on the plant (naturally or helped), were there signs of them eating stuff, weather, caterpillar death symptoms and I’m sure more questions to materialise later. I suspect a full investigation and visit would still not come up with a definitive diagnosis of the deaths but I managed to spend an hour replying, explaining how MET52 spores (an anti vine
weevil bio-insectide) had been incorporated in the compost and not on or inside the plant so not going to be the problem. This led on to the fact that having spent many thousands of pounds over the last two seasons on this remedy we found it fairly ineffective on the weevil and had now changed to applying parasitic nematodes at key times of year. Then of course a description of why this is not going to be the cause followed (live in dark damp compost and are very , very short lived in daylight etc). An explanation of bio-controls simply boosting local natural populations to achieve a degree of pest control was needed and further general assurances followed that most chemicals available nowadays to all growers are so short -lived that by the time the plants were despatched, bought, planted and rained on there would be little residue left to cause mega death to the general insect population of the nature friendly gardener. That brings us to the fundamental issue that everyone wants to buy lovely looking pest free healthy plants but just as long as we aren’t cruel to any wildlife along the way! Even using natural bio controls and predators seems to raise alarm. Can we ever win or are we all failing to get our best intentioned messages across?
Plants are good for you, your garden and nature. Plant more. Plants are good. Good, mmm, yummy plants.
Availability
The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too!
Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher but only a few left. A few new addition for this summer is a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and flowering nicely now.
Ajuga Black Scallop is also new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour.
Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant with numerous buds appearing. Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are colouring up as summer approaches.
The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy V. bonariensis are also available again with first buds showing.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights and Banana Creme are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms. Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on some Crocosmia.
It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and to occasional open flower, a lovely range of colours.
The Helenium Waldraut and Moerheim Beauty are in stunning colour and strong stemmed although quite tall.
The traditional Dianthus are in bud, the new ‘Scent First’ (SF) series are compact and scented with some lovely colour combinations. The slightly larger classic varieties Gran’s Favourite and Hayter White are also strongly in bud. Summer campanula’s are in bud (carpatica white and posharskyana).
Achillea Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again. Also a nice short bushy batch of The Pearl with its little white button flowers is reaching perfection.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 30 June 2014
Hairy Show
Good morning all.
What a hectic week. The fabulous drugs provided by casualty last weekend worked a treat on my back, I got to the National Plant Show and survived in a fully vertical position the whole time. Thanks have to go to heroic niece Emily who did all the van driving (the drugs meant I was off that role) and a lot of the stand building as well as attending with me selling the hairy pot ideas over both days. We both had a great time seeing lots of old, new and potential customers in a positive, relaxed, buoyant and plant promoting atmosphere. Voice was a bit hoarse by the end of two days but very well worth the trip. Really pleased with the stand appearance, just perfect for what we wanted to achieve and we did get a recommendation from the stand judges at the awards which was nice. Although what we do isn’t everyone’s cup of tea it is always great to see when someone really connects and they get as excited as us about looking at plant production and sales in a different way. The samples of the new 2015 perennial labels we had on show with their bamboo skewer, extra practicality and depth of information with bar and QR coding were a nice illustration of how we continually look at improving our product as we forge a new way forward. Big thanks also to Susan and Brian for reviving us each evening with delicious sustenance, great comfort and company, it was like a mini holiday in the country, in fact I suspect that was the summer holiday. Luckily the drugs kept me off the home brewed cider on offer, otherwise the days might have been much harder!
I will attach a bit of the first info available about the new labels for 2015, just in case you didn’t see us at the show. Still sending out plenty of plants which is great, the weather is being kind so far and the bit of rain we had will keep things moist in the gardens and hopefully keep things moving.
Keep it up there are plenty of plants to go!
Availability
The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too!
Verbascum Primrose Path, a stunning short pale yellow variety, has just started to show flower colour, a great plant. Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher.
A few new additions for this summer are a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and budding up nic ely now and there are also new dahlia’s who’s dark foliage and bushy habit look great, flowering just around the corner.
Talking of dark foliage, Ajuga Black Scallop is new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. Another new one this summer is Veronica Spode Blue, a dinky short variety with an endless show of pale blue flowers. We have a small range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time.
Coreopsis Sunray and Corey Yellow have plenty of bud nestling in fresh green foliage. The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour. Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant.
Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are just beginning to bud up as summer approaches.
The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud. Bushy V. bonariensis are also available again. New Leucanthemum varieties to us (Lacrosse and Banana Creme) are showing their first signs of flowering, as are the pretty pale yellow Broadway Lights.
Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on some Crocosmia.
The Helenium Waldraut and Moerheim Beauty are in stunning colour and strong stemmed although quite tall.
The traditional Dianthus, the garden pinks, are also in bud, the new ‘Scent First’ (SF) series are compact and as the name suggests fantastically scented with some lovely colour combinations. Some of the slightly larger classic varieties Doris and Hayter White are also strongly in bud.
Catananche are coming into strong bud now, their delightful papery blue flowers just a moment away, although selling throughfast. We have a batch of the pretty white form as well this year which are also in bud. Just a few left now. Oxalis Iron Cross are carrying their red buds and flowers above its pretty two tone foliage.
Summer campanula’s are in bud (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana).
Achillea Summer Pastels and Paprika with plenty of bud and some colour. A new batch of the lovely compact Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again.
Edibles
We are having a play with a couple of new strawberry lines to us, Toscana (very dark pink flowers) and Roman (pretty pale pink and now a few very tasty fruit), both have long flowering and fruiting seasons. Quality control in despatch means any ripe fruit is taken care of to prevent red juice contamination of the van!
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
What a hectic week. The fabulous drugs provided by casualty last weekend worked a treat on my back, I got to the National Plant Show and survived in a fully vertical position the whole time. Thanks have to go to heroic niece Emily who did all the van driving (the drugs meant I was off that role) and a lot of the stand building as well as attending with me selling the hairy pot ideas over both days. We both had a great time seeing lots of old, new and potential customers in a positive, relaxed, buoyant and plant promoting atmosphere. Voice was a bit hoarse by the end of two days but very well worth the trip. Really pleased with the stand appearance, just perfect for what we wanted to achieve and we did get a recommendation from the stand judges at the awards which was nice. Although what we do isn’t everyone’s cup of tea it is always great to see when someone really connects and they get as excited as us about looking at plant production and sales in a different way. The samples of the new 2015 perennial labels we had on show with their bamboo skewer, extra practicality and depth of information with bar and QR coding were a nice illustration of how we continually look at improving our product as we forge a new way forward. Big thanks also to Susan and Brian for reviving us each evening with delicious sustenance, great comfort and company, it was like a mini holiday in the country, in fact I suspect that was the summer holiday. Luckily the drugs kept me off the home brewed cider on offer, otherwise the days might have been much harder!
I will attach a bit of the first info available about the new labels for 2015, just in case you didn’t see us at the show. Still sending out plenty of plants which is great, the weather is being kind so far and the bit of rain we had will keep things moist in the gardens and hopefully keep things moving.
Keep it up there are plenty of plants to go!
Availability
The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too!
Verbascum Primrose Path, a stunning short pale yellow variety, has just started to show flower colour, a great plant. Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher.
A few new additions for this summer are a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and budding up nic ely now and there are also new dahlia’s who’s dark foliage and bushy habit look great, flowering just around the corner.
Talking of dark foliage, Ajuga Black Scallop is new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. Another new one this summer is Veronica Spode Blue, a dinky short variety with an endless show of pale blue flowers. We have a small range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time.
Coreopsis Sunray and Corey Yellow have plenty of bud nestling in fresh green foliage. The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour. Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant.
Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are just beginning to bud up as summer approaches.
The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud. Bushy V. bonariensis are also available again. New Leucanthemum varieties to us (Lacrosse and Banana Creme) are showing their first signs of flowering, as are the pretty pale yellow Broadway Lights.
Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on some Crocosmia.
The Helenium Waldraut and Moerheim Beauty are in stunning colour and strong stemmed although quite tall.
The traditional Dianthus, the garden pinks, are also in bud, the new ‘Scent First’ (SF) series are compact and as the name suggests fantastically scented with some lovely colour combinations. Some of the slightly larger classic varieties Doris and Hayter White are also strongly in bud.
Catananche are coming into strong bud now, their delightful papery blue flowers just a moment away, although selling throughfast. We have a batch of the pretty white form as well this year which are also in bud. Just a few left now. Oxalis Iron Cross are carrying their red buds and flowers above its pretty two tone foliage.
Summer campanula’s are in bud (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana).
Achillea Summer Pastels and Paprika with plenty of bud and some colour. A new batch of the lovely compact Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again.
Edibles
We are having a play with a couple of new strawberry lines to us, Toscana (very dark pink flowers) and Roman (pretty pale pink and now a few very tasty fruit), both have long flowering and fruiting seasons. Quality control in despatch means any ripe fruit is taken care of to prevent red juice contamination of the van!
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)