Morning all,
Busy, busy, busy, hence the slightly late email this week. Lots to do on the nursery but nothing new there, it’s a rush of social engagements that has caught me out. The past week was pretty full with skittles twice and my first Christmas dinner, then this weekend has been bonkers. John Otway gig on Friday night, walloped 9-0 on the hockey pitch followed by a lovely dinner out on Saturday, exciting horse racing on Sunday where I lost everything (luckily Caroline backed a good one) finished off by a 35th wedding anniversary celebration entertained by a very loud young rock blues band (Raveneye) until the early hours. Bit deaf and slightly sore headed this morning trying to gather some brain cells together for a local Christmas quiz tonight. Then it’s off to the Christmas Ball at the Guildhall on Tuesday night with four dance floors and a chocolate fountain ready for impressing the bank manager on Wednesday! Luckily I’m hoping the better figures this year will do the talking for me as we continue to claw our way back from the disappointing previous few seasons. Still a way to go yet but feeling quite proud of ourselves just at the moment. Might be a bit different in a few weeks when the annual winter cash-flow crisis hits home! Roll on the spring, or is this it?
Good to see some political movement on the climate front this week, let’s hope we see some more positive changes happening from the top rather than pandering all the time to the cash gods. At some time we have to take some responsibility for what we are doing. While we wait for guidance from those above us, don’t forget it is also down to us too. Lots of little people doing little things can still make a big difference. It is still too easy to say it isn’t down to us, the media always seem keen to blame everyone else and I know the likes of China and India are chucking out lots of rubbish but we are still consuming as many resources and using as much power per person as anyone else, there are just less of us. If this issue becomes as big as it now looks like it will we could be world leaders in something again if we picked up the challenge.
Hoping to receive our next delivery of LED growing lights for the lab just before the Christmas break so I can get them fitted over the holidays. Luckily I can install these myself so the costs are kept in check, my rates are very reasonable. We recently replaced the workstation lights but these are a bit more specialist, designed specifically for growing plants under but using a lot less power (70% less) and producing less heat. The heat reduction saves power too as we don’t have to cool the growth room as much. Because the lights are on 14 hrs a day 7 days a week the pay-back period is only about 3 years and we need to gradually replace the old light units anyway as they wear out. This batch will reduce our annual electric use by another 4%, another positive nibble on our part. It would be nice to do the whole lot in one go and make an even bigger cut in consumption but we have to cut our cloth and all that.
2016 Catalogues are in production and hoping to get them out this week. I will get it uploaded on the website too so you can have a catch up on all the background detail of all things Hairy.
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 14 December 2015
Monday 7 December 2015
Windy and Hairy
Morning all,
It’s still so mild, many plants are still growing and not really settled down for the winter. Hopefully it won’t turn too cold too quickly and catch them out, we will have to keep an eye on rots setting in if that happens. We have started cutting back the top growth now of those lines that go more or less dormant over the cold months despite some still showing some fresh growth, the problem is if we don’t start soon we won’t have time to get it done in the new year when thoughts suddenly turn to ‘spring’ sales.
The warm temperatures and constant wind has been drying plants out more than normal for the time of year so the irrigation has been back in action again just to top up the beds and compost moisture levels. Luckily the semi automated system we have set up to blow out all the irrigation pipes to prevent bursts in the cold is really quick effective. I just start up the compressor, turn off the water, hook up the air supply to the irrigation circuit and set off the computer programme to clear the lines one at a time. Then I can sleep easy as the frosts return.
I hope none of you are suffering too badly after this weekend’s winds and floods. We seem to be getting a real run of strong storms over the last few weeks, perhaps a reminder of things to come if we don’t get our act together as a society on the climate front. Cumbria and the north got a real battering and soaking again just 6 years after a ‘once in 200 year event’. Over 300mm rain in a day is a bonkers amount to cope with, that would be about 3 months worth down here. Luckily for us although we have been thwarted in our attempts to re-clad 8 of our tunnels (only 3 done) because of the run of storms, it has meant that the wind turbines have been working overtime. We have shot past our best ever ‘rolling 30 day average’ output, we peaked at 421Kw/hr a day previously and got very close to this on a couple of other occasions but we are now on 443. Unfortunately with only 3 little turbines so we aren’t going to get rich but it all helps both financially and on the sustainability front and to top it off I get excited too.
Even more excitement, the electrician was in last week fitting some new LED strip lights in the lab work cabinets and general overhead lights, now we can see better and save energy. Unfortunately the cost of fitting was more than the cost of purchase so that will add a couple more years before the lights pay back in electric savings, how come I can’t charge £40/hr for my staff output? With a bit of luck the improved work rates under the new lights will help, we all live in hope! Speculate to accumulate. Again. Sometime soon we must be due for a hell of a lot of accumulating.
Christmas is rushing upon us again, nearly time to decorate my home-made tree again, I must have saved a fortune over the years, not having to buy a fresh one each year but still having an 8ft talking point to marvel at. Nothing wrong with a bit of 2x2 and a collection of unwanted wooden blind slats if you can get creative. This must be the Mark3 version I think, The original idea, 22 years ago, of screwing cut branches from the garden onto the 2x2 worked fine for a bit but things move on and one gradually gets more sophisticated (and tighter)!
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
It’s still so mild, many plants are still growing and not really settled down for the winter. Hopefully it won’t turn too cold too quickly and catch them out, we will have to keep an eye on rots setting in if that happens. We have started cutting back the top growth now of those lines that go more or less dormant over the cold months despite some still showing some fresh growth, the problem is if we don’t start soon we won’t have time to get it done in the new year when thoughts suddenly turn to ‘spring’ sales.
The warm temperatures and constant wind has been drying plants out more than normal for the time of year so the irrigation has been back in action again just to top up the beds and compost moisture levels. Luckily the semi automated system we have set up to blow out all the irrigation pipes to prevent bursts in the cold is really quick effective. I just start up the compressor, turn off the water, hook up the air supply to the irrigation circuit and set off the computer programme to clear the lines one at a time. Then I can sleep easy as the frosts return.
I hope none of you are suffering too badly after this weekend’s winds and floods. We seem to be getting a real run of strong storms over the last few weeks, perhaps a reminder of things to come if we don’t get our act together as a society on the climate front. Cumbria and the north got a real battering and soaking again just 6 years after a ‘once in 200 year event’. Over 300mm rain in a day is a bonkers amount to cope with, that would be about 3 months worth down here. Luckily for us although we have been thwarted in our attempts to re-clad 8 of our tunnels (only 3 done) because of the run of storms, it has meant that the wind turbines have been working overtime. We have shot past our best ever ‘rolling 30 day average’ output, we peaked at 421Kw/hr a day previously and got very close to this on a couple of other occasions but we are now on 443. Unfortunately with only 3 little turbines so we aren’t going to get rich but it all helps both financially and on the sustainability front and to top it off I get excited too.
Even more excitement, the electrician was in last week fitting some new LED strip lights in the lab work cabinets and general overhead lights, now we can see better and save energy. Unfortunately the cost of fitting was more than the cost of purchase so that will add a couple more years before the lights pay back in electric savings, how come I can’t charge £40/hr for my staff output? With a bit of luck the improved work rates under the new lights will help, we all live in hope! Speculate to accumulate. Again. Sometime soon we must be due for a hell of a lot of accumulating.
Christmas is rushing upon us again, nearly time to decorate my home-made tree again, I must have saved a fortune over the years, not having to buy a fresh one each year but still having an 8ft talking point to marvel at. Nothing wrong with a bit of 2x2 and a collection of unwanted wooden blind slats if you can get creative. This must be the Mark3 version I think, The original idea, 22 years ago, of screwing cut branches from the garden onto the 2x2 worked fine for a bit but things move on and one gradually gets more sophisticated (and tighter)!
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 30 November 2015
Hairy Good News
Morning all,
A good week past for getting things done. Feeling quite virtuous after taking on a few of those odd jobs that have been waiting for months to get done. We have only a few weeks before the next season kicks off again and it always catches me out as to how quickly that time arrives. By the time Christmas has interrupted the proceedings a lot of well meaning plans get pushed on another year as the plant preparation demands increase as the season rushes ever closer. Despite the windy feel to the week we actually found a couple of windows in the weather to get the three most heavily lacerated tunnel sheets off and replaced. The old covers are folded up on a pallet in the barn all ready to take to our recycling man just down the road in Romsey and the new covers on nice and securely. We might have to re-tension them a bit in the summer when it warms up to keep them taught, they last much longer if stretched well over the hoops.
We are well on the way to completing repairs to our collection of damaged wooden display boxes, which is great, we had accumulated several pallets of them over the last year or two, never quite finding the time to get them all done. I have now sourced the narrow replacement timber slats to repair the inner lattices too so not long before that big job is done and we are back to full box capacity ready for all those mega spring sales.
A rehash of the outdoor lighting has brightened up the end of the day activities, no more stumbling about in the dark trying to find our way back to base. The old PIR spotlights had past their sell-by date a while ago with most no longer doing their thing and to mount and plug in some far more efficient LED replacements was a joy. I did a bit of research on the lights and ended up at Screwfix who were supplying several makes but I plumped for a LAP range which seemed to have good reviews. With differing areas to light I went for a 10W, a couple of 20W and a 30W. They are all just right for what we were after, not really good enough for working under for long but perfect for seeing where you are going. The 10W is tiny but does a great job for lighting the area we were after, it keeps it safe and uses only a tiny bit of electric. Also got the electricians in to quote for fitting some LED replacement strip-lights I bought for the lab work cabinets and the office. They are nice and bright, great for the close up intricate work we do in the lab but without the irritating flicker of the old fluorescent tubes and reduce electric use by about 65%. The old lights desperately needed replacing anyway so not feeling too guilty about recycling those. I located an insulated tea urn too to replace our limping old one. Less heat loss and quicker heating should pay for itself within 18 months.
Need to find some hope in humanity after Paris, check out this touching moment featured in episode 5 of Russell Howard's TV show. Go to the last item which starts 26 mins and 10 seconds in. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06q9zv3/russell-howards-good-news-series-10-episode-5
In the words of the infamous John Otway song ‘Beware of the Flowers (because I’m sure they’re going to get you, Yeah)’
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A good week past for getting things done. Feeling quite virtuous after taking on a few of those odd jobs that have been waiting for months to get done. We have only a few weeks before the next season kicks off again and it always catches me out as to how quickly that time arrives. By the time Christmas has interrupted the proceedings a lot of well meaning plans get pushed on another year as the plant preparation demands increase as the season rushes ever closer. Despite the windy feel to the week we actually found a couple of windows in the weather to get the three most heavily lacerated tunnel sheets off and replaced. The old covers are folded up on a pallet in the barn all ready to take to our recycling man just down the road in Romsey and the new covers on nice and securely. We might have to re-tension them a bit in the summer when it warms up to keep them taught, they last much longer if stretched well over the hoops.
We are well on the way to completing repairs to our collection of damaged wooden display boxes, which is great, we had accumulated several pallets of them over the last year or two, never quite finding the time to get them all done. I have now sourced the narrow replacement timber slats to repair the inner lattices too so not long before that big job is done and we are back to full box capacity ready for all those mega spring sales.
A rehash of the outdoor lighting has brightened up the end of the day activities, no more stumbling about in the dark trying to find our way back to base. The old PIR spotlights had past their sell-by date a while ago with most no longer doing their thing and to mount and plug in some far more efficient LED replacements was a joy. I did a bit of research on the lights and ended up at Screwfix who were supplying several makes but I plumped for a LAP range which seemed to have good reviews. With differing areas to light I went for a 10W, a couple of 20W and a 30W. They are all just right for what we were after, not really good enough for working under for long but perfect for seeing where you are going. The 10W is tiny but does a great job for lighting the area we were after, it keeps it safe and uses only a tiny bit of electric. Also got the electricians in to quote for fitting some LED replacement strip-lights I bought for the lab work cabinets and the office. They are nice and bright, great for the close up intricate work we do in the lab but without the irritating flicker of the old fluorescent tubes and reduce electric use by about 65%. The old lights desperately needed replacing anyway so not feeling too guilty about recycling those. I located an insulated tea urn too to replace our limping old one. Less heat loss and quicker heating should pay for itself within 18 months.
Need to find some hope in humanity after Paris, check out this touching moment featured in episode 5 of Russell Howard's TV show. Go to the last item which starts 26 mins and 10 seconds in. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06q9zv3/russell-howards-good-news-series-10-episode-5
In the words of the infamous John Otway song ‘Beware of the Flowers (because I’m sure they’re going to get you, Yeah)’
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 23 November 2015
Home and Hairy
Morning all,
It’s been a while since my last splurge of news simply because Caroline and I have been on our annual break to sunny St Ives. The world seems to have been in turmoil in the past few weeks which casts a menacing shadow over a lot of stuff, but we press on, what else can we do?
The unseasonably warm weather has kept plants growing longer than usual, we have a few spring crops trying to flower already which is a bit of a worry but a good cold snap over the weekend should slow that up a bit and also knock back those pests that are still active. The recent winds have taken off a couple of tunnel covers which was to be expected at some point really. We still have 9 covers to replace so in reality we could have lost more but we are still waiting for a quiet spell to get them done. We have a few empty tunnels so we can shuffle any over exposed crops around to keep them happy, a good job to keep us warm and it gives us a chance to tidy them up ready for the spring. Every cloud and all that. St Ives in November lived up to expectations yet again, we’ve been going there a bonkers number of years and already looking forward to next year! Nothing sad about us! Found yet more great places to maintain nutrient levels and extended the lunch stops to very relaxed levels. There was a time when we walked well over ten miles a day with just a warm pasty and sip of water to keep us going but as the years slip by and we carefully select older walking partners the midday recovery break has stretched to 2-3 hours with a little more than a pasty snack to keep up the strength. That’s more like a holiday! Now I know the expectation from a holiday these days is somewhat higher than the old times but how about this for a big day; Short drive to Marazion for a beach and cliff top walk to Perranuthnoe and a fantastic very long lunch at The Victoria pub (reported in The Times a few weeks ago as possibly the best pub food in the UK), walking back we spot a Hudsonian Whimbrel (only the 12th seen in the UK since 1950), it had been in the area for a week or so but we spotted it on a remote bit of beach with no pointers other than the larger Curlew that was chasing it. It landed a little away from us then moved twice getting closer each time showing off all its identifying features, a great spot and six of us to witness it. Then Brian picks up a flint tool from a ploughed field next to the path and identifies it as a likely Paeliolithic (early) stone age by the way in which flint has been prepared and struck. It turns out when we got back that this could be only the 31st Paeliolithic tool found in Cornwall (book was a bit old) so it’s location was accurately recorded and it’s on its way to the Truro Museum. A fabulous murmuration of starlings over Marazion Marsh topped off the day, one to remember.
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter. As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous and classic display of cyclamen.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
It’s been a while since my last splurge of news simply because Caroline and I have been on our annual break to sunny St Ives. The world seems to have been in turmoil in the past few weeks which casts a menacing shadow over a lot of stuff, but we press on, what else can we do?
The unseasonably warm weather has kept plants growing longer than usual, we have a few spring crops trying to flower already which is a bit of a worry but a good cold snap over the weekend should slow that up a bit and also knock back those pests that are still active. The recent winds have taken off a couple of tunnel covers which was to be expected at some point really. We still have 9 covers to replace so in reality we could have lost more but we are still waiting for a quiet spell to get them done. We have a few empty tunnels so we can shuffle any over exposed crops around to keep them happy, a good job to keep us warm and it gives us a chance to tidy them up ready for the spring. Every cloud and all that. St Ives in November lived up to expectations yet again, we’ve been going there a bonkers number of years and already looking forward to next year! Nothing sad about us! Found yet more great places to maintain nutrient levels and extended the lunch stops to very relaxed levels. There was a time when we walked well over ten miles a day with just a warm pasty and sip of water to keep us going but as the years slip by and we carefully select older walking partners the midday recovery break has stretched to 2-3 hours with a little more than a pasty snack to keep up the strength. That’s more like a holiday! Now I know the expectation from a holiday these days is somewhat higher than the old times but how about this for a big day; Short drive to Marazion for a beach and cliff top walk to Perranuthnoe and a fantastic very long lunch at The Victoria pub (reported in The Times a few weeks ago as possibly the best pub food in the UK), walking back we spot a Hudsonian Whimbrel (only the 12th seen in the UK since 1950), it had been in the area for a week or so but we spotted it on a remote bit of beach with no pointers other than the larger Curlew that was chasing it. It landed a little away from us then moved twice getting closer each time showing off all its identifying features, a great spot and six of us to witness it. Then Brian picks up a flint tool from a ploughed field next to the path and identifies it as a likely Paeliolithic (early) stone age by the way in which flint has been prepared and struck. It turns out when we got back that this could be only the 31st Paeliolithic tool found in Cornwall (book was a bit old) so it’s location was accurately recorded and it’s on its way to the Truro Museum. A fabulous murmuration of starlings over Marazion Marsh topped off the day, one to remember.
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter. As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous and classic display of cyclamen.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 26 October 2015
Hairy Tuesday
Morning all,
Considering how quiet it usually is at this time of year I can’t believe how little time there seems to be. Had a frenetic day on Tuesday with Caroline off on a two day refresher first aid course I was left to warm the chair in the office and catch up on some of my office back log. We had few orders to sort out despatching by a combination parcel carrier, trolley carrier and our own van which added a bit of nice momentum to the day but it was all the little additions that made for the extra challenge. The laminar air flow cabinet servicing engineer was due, never quite sure of the timing but he was here fairly early which meant finding some nursery tasks for a few hours for all the lab staff, and it was a new engineer so had to get him sorted on where to go and what to do. At about the same time the engineers to carry out the annual service on the turbines pitched up, apologizing for the lack of notice of their arrival but had managed to squeeze in our scheduled work between a couple of other projects. Luckily it was the same crew as last time so they knew where everything was and got on with things without too much help from us. A nice big collection of plants for a landscape job had been put to one side and you can guess what day they decided to collect that at an hour’s notice. Managed that nicely, loaded onto trolleys after a few quantity readjustments for some order alterations and a quick tidy up. Have to be careful here not to admit missing Caroline’s steadying hand at the helm.
Just to add a bit of spice to the day I was also called up by the MET police about our attempted internet banking heist last week. I went through all the events as I remembered them and it seems they know the culprit or at least know of him/them. We had enough detail for them to recognize his specific ‘M.O.’ which was encouraging although I doubt we really had much in the way of tangible evidence that could be used in a conviction. Still at least it looks like they are on his trail. The bank have also been following up ours and other attacks, by sending round a general reminder of what to look out for in these types of call. The main messages were that there are some bits of bank info they would never ask you to change to specific words or letters given to you by a caller to your business and also that if a caller id appears on your phone display appearing to be from the bank don’t believe it (you can get an app to do that!). Take care.
Good luck to nephew Tom today, he is running his first marathon today (Bristol to Bath), should about half way round at the moment and hopefully his disrupted training will not slow him up too much, he does have plenty of youth on his side. My sporting efforts continue unrewarded, yet another hockey thrashing yesterday 6-3, might be nearly time to retire. Luckily it’s the taking part that counts, just ask Tom's sister Emily, playing Lacrosse in Newcastle her team have never won a game (that’s about two seasons now) but the tea’s are great apparently. Then with Mum still playing hockey too it might be a bit of a letdown to retire at such a young age at just 21 years older than the youngest in the veterans team, that’s me not Mum.
Main woodstore now nearly full after another foraging trip last weekend, well seasoned but slightly damp I’m hoping we got it under cover in time to burn well through the winter. It’s all cut, split and stacked, just the nursery store to fill now with the rather quicker burning scrap wood we accumulate here, but it all adds up.
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing buds and the odd open flower.Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is not much sign of flower bud just yet.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm
Considering how quiet it usually is at this time of year I can’t believe how little time there seems to be. Had a frenetic day on Tuesday with Caroline off on a two day refresher first aid course I was left to warm the chair in the office and catch up on some of my office back log. We had few orders to sort out despatching by a combination parcel carrier, trolley carrier and our own van which added a bit of nice momentum to the day but it was all the little additions that made for the extra challenge. The laminar air flow cabinet servicing engineer was due, never quite sure of the timing but he was here fairly early which meant finding some nursery tasks for a few hours for all the lab staff, and it was a new engineer so had to get him sorted on where to go and what to do. At about the same time the engineers to carry out the annual service on the turbines pitched up, apologizing for the lack of notice of their arrival but had managed to squeeze in our scheduled work between a couple of other projects. Luckily it was the same crew as last time so they knew where everything was and got on with things without too much help from us. A nice big collection of plants for a landscape job had been put to one side and you can guess what day they decided to collect that at an hour’s notice. Managed that nicely, loaded onto trolleys after a few quantity readjustments for some order alterations and a quick tidy up. Have to be careful here not to admit missing Caroline’s steadying hand at the helm.
Just to add a bit of spice to the day I was also called up by the MET police about our attempted internet banking heist last week. I went through all the events as I remembered them and it seems they know the culprit or at least know of him/them. We had enough detail for them to recognize his specific ‘M.O.’ which was encouraging although I doubt we really had much in the way of tangible evidence that could be used in a conviction. Still at least it looks like they are on his trail. The bank have also been following up ours and other attacks, by sending round a general reminder of what to look out for in these types of call. The main messages were that there are some bits of bank info they would never ask you to change to specific words or letters given to you by a caller to your business and also that if a caller id appears on your phone display appearing to be from the bank don’t believe it (you can get an app to do that!). Take care.
Good luck to nephew Tom today, he is running his first marathon today (Bristol to Bath), should about half way round at the moment and hopefully his disrupted training will not slow him up too much, he does have plenty of youth on his side. My sporting efforts continue unrewarded, yet another hockey thrashing yesterday 6-3, might be nearly time to retire. Luckily it’s the taking part that counts, just ask Tom's sister Emily, playing Lacrosse in Newcastle her team have never won a game (that’s about two seasons now) but the tea’s are great apparently. Then with Mum still playing hockey too it might be a bit of a letdown to retire at such a young age at just 21 years older than the youngest in the veterans team, that’s me not Mum.
Main woodstore now nearly full after another foraging trip last weekend, well seasoned but slightly damp I’m hoping we got it under cover in time to burn well through the winter. It’s all cut, split and stacked, just the nursery store to fill now with the rather quicker burning scrap wood we accumulate here, but it all adds up.
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing buds and the odd open flower.Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is not much sign of flower bud just yet.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm
Monday 19 October 2015
Stout and Hairy
Morning all,
A hectic couple of weeks punctuated by a weekend away which although tricky to organise was well worth the effort. We have all but finished the spring bulb potting, just the last few tulips to slip in a pot and we are done. Then we can start the big winter tidy up and get those over ventilated tunnels re-clad. Unfortunately the weather has been against us on the cladding front, we had been looking at the high pressure forecast on the TV weather and hoping for some quiet sunny days but that nagging easterly wind has kept blowing making the unrolling of a big plastic sheet unrealistic. It’s not even been enough wind to rack up huge numbers on the turbines which makes it doubly frustrating (steady but no records). Now the temperatures will be falling and winds likely to pick up so we will have to take our chances when we can and put up with slightly looser covers next summer.
No news update last weekend as we were living it up on Tresco for a couple of days. 4 pub gigs in three days, 2 exciting plane rides, boat trips, guided tour of the amazing gardens, prehistoric chambered tombs, lots of bird spotting including our first ever sighting of an Osprey (on its migration) and some delicious sustenance. This was our second visit and I think we are getting the hang of it. There is just such a lovely relaxed atmosphere, it’s quiet, little traffic and so well organised. It took less than an hour to get on the plane at Lands End, fly there, get a transfer to the harbour, get on a jet boat to Tresco, transfer to the pub and be sitting in the room with all our kit. It may not be the youngest or hippest holiday venue but they still know how to have a good time, every evening gig was a seething mass of very happy revellers with a few entertained onlookers. Easy to get carried away with the good times, an evening’s testing of the local Oyster Stout (Rebel Brewery) had me swearing I’ll never drink again, in the middle of the night, but luckily I was cured by breakfast.
Just a quick word of warning on the growing banking scams knocking about. We had an attempted attack on Friday afternoon, but not a general internet scam this was a targeted phone attack on us. They had researched us, knew where we were, who one of our customers was (an old one luckily which started the alarm bells ringing) and some account details. The line was that they were from the internet side of our bank and had noticed suspicious activity on the account, they listed the info they had, enough to make them quite believable and enough to introduce some urgency into what to do next, which gets you nicely flustered and more likely to make a mistake. They firstly talked through the internet address we used to log onto the account and spun a quite plausible story about the address being altered by some sort of malware attack, and they needed us to go into the account and change some settings. Luckily we are a pretty suspicious lot and a few bits weren’t quite right, no caller id on the phone call (although this can’t be trusted anyway as they can us an app to give their phone the id number of the support centre), the caller spoke very quickly and wasn’t as helpful or calm as previous contacts we have had with the help centre and the things we were asked to do were just not quite right. Anyway we got rid of him and once sure that the line had been cleared we called our local office who helped us check everything out, putting us through to report the incident to their fraud department. Trouble is there is so little evidence they can pick up to track down the culprits. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but a good test of trust might have been to ask the caller to hang on while you start up the record facility on the phone system, and see if that puts them off. Anyway, take care out there. Trust no-one, except me or course!
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose, is already producing buds and the odd open flower. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.
Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is little sign of bud just yet.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A hectic couple of weeks punctuated by a weekend away which although tricky to organise was well worth the effort. We have all but finished the spring bulb potting, just the last few tulips to slip in a pot and we are done. Then we can start the big winter tidy up and get those over ventilated tunnels re-clad. Unfortunately the weather has been against us on the cladding front, we had been looking at the high pressure forecast on the TV weather and hoping for some quiet sunny days but that nagging easterly wind has kept blowing making the unrolling of a big plastic sheet unrealistic. It’s not even been enough wind to rack up huge numbers on the turbines which makes it doubly frustrating (steady but no records). Now the temperatures will be falling and winds likely to pick up so we will have to take our chances when we can and put up with slightly looser covers next summer.
No news update last weekend as we were living it up on Tresco for a couple of days. 4 pub gigs in three days, 2 exciting plane rides, boat trips, guided tour of the amazing gardens, prehistoric chambered tombs, lots of bird spotting including our first ever sighting of an Osprey (on its migration) and some delicious sustenance. This was our second visit and I think we are getting the hang of it. There is just such a lovely relaxed atmosphere, it’s quiet, little traffic and so well organised. It took less than an hour to get on the plane at Lands End, fly there, get a transfer to the harbour, get on a jet boat to Tresco, transfer to the pub and be sitting in the room with all our kit. It may not be the youngest or hippest holiday venue but they still know how to have a good time, every evening gig was a seething mass of very happy revellers with a few entertained onlookers. Easy to get carried away with the good times, an evening’s testing of the local Oyster Stout (Rebel Brewery) had me swearing I’ll never drink again, in the middle of the night, but luckily I was cured by breakfast.
Just a quick word of warning on the growing banking scams knocking about. We had an attempted attack on Friday afternoon, but not a general internet scam this was a targeted phone attack on us. They had researched us, knew where we were, who one of our customers was (an old one luckily which started the alarm bells ringing) and some account details. The line was that they were from the internet side of our bank and had noticed suspicious activity on the account, they listed the info they had, enough to make them quite believable and enough to introduce some urgency into what to do next, which gets you nicely flustered and more likely to make a mistake. They firstly talked through the internet address we used to log onto the account and spun a quite plausible story about the address being altered by some sort of malware attack, and they needed us to go into the account and change some settings. Luckily we are a pretty suspicious lot and a few bits weren’t quite right, no caller id on the phone call (although this can’t be trusted anyway as they can us an app to give their phone the id number of the support centre), the caller spoke very quickly and wasn’t as helpful or calm as previous contacts we have had with the help centre and the things we were asked to do were just not quite right. Anyway we got rid of him and once sure that the line had been cleared we called our local office who helped us check everything out, putting us through to report the incident to their fraud department. Trouble is there is so little evidence they can pick up to track down the culprits. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but a good test of trust might have been to ask the caller to hang on while you start up the record facility on the phone system, and see if that puts them off. Anyway, take care out there. Trust no-one, except me or course!
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose, is already producing buds and the odd open flower. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.
Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is little sign of bud just yet.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 5 October 2015
Hairy nut drop
Morning all,
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Hairy nut drop
Morning all,
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 28 September 2015
Hairy Gas
Morning all,
Another bright weekend, joyously autumnal feel to it, pretty nippy early on but the sun makes up for that.
We had a great week ploughing through the last batch of potting compost and getting several tunnels cleared of the end of season debris. I am hoping for another good splurge on the potting this week keeping back just enough compost to pot the spring flowering bulbs and last Erysimum batches both due in over the next couple of weeks. Might be a bit tougher this week I reckon we are 7 people down on Monday compared to last week, a combination of holidays and the last of the uni students getting back to their ‘studies’.
Great game of rugby last night, very entertaining, certainly more competitive than our 9-2 defeat on the hockey pitch. Our first competitive game was doomed from the start. Away against one of the best teams in our league, only 10 men to start with, down to 9 within 2 minutes with an injury, he limped back on later, just before another one went off after being hit on the eyebrow defending a shot on goal. In the end we did pretty well keeping it to 9, I did my bit saving at least three off the line. Main bonus was getting off still upright, stiff today and resolved to get fitter for next time. Like that is going to happen! Had a very productive box collecting session over the last couple of weeks so thanks for putting those all together. We are well underway repairing and drying them all out ready for the winter. If anyone still has any boxes to collect please do drop us a line, we lose Phil our driver after this week for a while so it might take a little while to get to you but we can add you on the list.
Bought our first mince pies yesterday, just for a laugh. Shocking really how much retail commitment there is towards that one day. Still need to get the log cutting started. Used up a few of last year’s this week as it got a bit cool in the house, just took the edge off nicely and sent me to sleep. Hopefully all that house insulation and the wood-burner we put in will pay dividends again this winter and we can keep the central heating off again, bar a few of the coldest days.
Disappointing VW revelations this week, once again big business lets us all down and it turns out we diesel drivers are polluting more than we were told, all in the name of making a fast buck. It makes a mockery of anyone trying to do the right thing, why bother if no one else cares. Maybe because more and more do care. Let’s hope so. There wasn’t much sign of balanced discussion at Sparsholt college last week where they put on an open evening to show their plans for a green gas plant. Basically a modest bio-digester producing gas from fermenting grass to pump straight into the mains gas pipe. A relatively simple scheme, well hidden on the edge of the campus using grass and rye grown as part of a cereal crop rotation and supplied from local farms. The main impact would be the extra tractor journeys to bring the crop into the site of a maximum of 21 tractor return trips a day during the 5 month harvesting period. It would not only produce almost carbon neutral gas but be used as part of the development of renewable energy training and education courses for the engineers of the future. No extra traffic in the village and virtually no impact, but to stand in the middle of the room and listen you would think they had announced the building of a nuclear waste dump. All the queries of the local parish council were nicely answered on a sheet of A4 but any thought of reasoned discussion seemed to pass the majority of the visitors by. Come on boys and girls let’s put some thought into the legacy we are leaving the following generations and make a bit of a difference by promoting and changing to a better way. Our postcode is one of the highest carbon producing in the land and it shows little sign of wanting to change. Come on we can’t do it alone.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Another bright weekend, joyously autumnal feel to it, pretty nippy early on but the sun makes up for that.
We had a great week ploughing through the last batch of potting compost and getting several tunnels cleared of the end of season debris. I am hoping for another good splurge on the potting this week keeping back just enough compost to pot the spring flowering bulbs and last Erysimum batches both due in over the next couple of weeks. Might be a bit tougher this week I reckon we are 7 people down on Monday compared to last week, a combination of holidays and the last of the uni students getting back to their ‘studies’.
Great game of rugby last night, very entertaining, certainly more competitive than our 9-2 defeat on the hockey pitch. Our first competitive game was doomed from the start. Away against one of the best teams in our league, only 10 men to start with, down to 9 within 2 minutes with an injury, he limped back on later, just before another one went off after being hit on the eyebrow defending a shot on goal. In the end we did pretty well keeping it to 9, I did my bit saving at least three off the line. Main bonus was getting off still upright, stiff today and resolved to get fitter for next time. Like that is going to happen! Had a very productive box collecting session over the last couple of weeks so thanks for putting those all together. We are well underway repairing and drying them all out ready for the winter. If anyone still has any boxes to collect please do drop us a line, we lose Phil our driver after this week for a while so it might take a little while to get to you but we can add you on the list.
Bought our first mince pies yesterday, just for a laugh. Shocking really how much retail commitment there is towards that one day. Still need to get the log cutting started. Used up a few of last year’s this week as it got a bit cool in the house, just took the edge off nicely and sent me to sleep. Hopefully all that house insulation and the wood-burner we put in will pay dividends again this winter and we can keep the central heating off again, bar a few of the coldest days.
Disappointing VW revelations this week, once again big business lets us all down and it turns out we diesel drivers are polluting more than we were told, all in the name of making a fast buck. It makes a mockery of anyone trying to do the right thing, why bother if no one else cares. Maybe because more and more do care. Let’s hope so. There wasn’t much sign of balanced discussion at Sparsholt college last week where they put on an open evening to show their plans for a green gas plant. Basically a modest bio-digester producing gas from fermenting grass to pump straight into the mains gas pipe. A relatively simple scheme, well hidden on the edge of the campus using grass and rye grown as part of a cereal crop rotation and supplied from local farms. The main impact would be the extra tractor journeys to bring the crop into the site of a maximum of 21 tractor return trips a day during the 5 month harvesting period. It would not only produce almost carbon neutral gas but be used as part of the development of renewable energy training and education courses for the engineers of the future. No extra traffic in the village and virtually no impact, but to stand in the middle of the room and listen you would think they had announced the building of a nuclear waste dump. All the queries of the local parish council were nicely answered on a sheet of A4 but any thought of reasoned discussion seemed to pass the majority of the visitors by. Come on boys and girls let’s put some thought into the legacy we are leaving the following generations and make a bit of a difference by promoting and changing to a better way. Our postcode is one of the highest carbon producing in the land and it shows little sign of wanting to change. Come on we can’t do it alone.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 21 September 2015
Hairy Drips
Morning all,
Lovely day today, bright sunshine and a light breeze, great day to be out in the garden. We certainly got a good drenching during the week but with the forecast looking on the damp side we had taken the precaution of clearing out a few blocked drains in advance which paid dividends in the following deluge. Some planning works. Better than the rather disappointing summer for which I blame myself, sorry. The hot weather came to an instant stop the moment I cut big holes in the roof of despatch to keep temperatures down. The cooling result was more effective than I could have imagined.
Potting is flying now as the orders slow up and we find a bit more time, last load of compost comes in on Monday so just 60,000 pots or so to go. Might take a weekend off then in celebration of getting to the end of another season, perhaps a visit to the pub, we’ll see. I think this is the last week for most of our summer casuals, university beckons, I’m sure they won’t miss us as much as we will miss them!
Dressing up tonight for a 1940’s ball at the Guildhall, no food just dancing and liquid refreshment. Not really quite fit enough for this after a week carrying a bit of a sniff (worst cold anyone ever had) but I can’t let my dance partners down so will keep taking the pills and soldier on. Live big band apparently, so could be good.
We are well underway picking up our empty wooden box stock from everyone, we are planning a trip up north next week so let me know if you need us to call in. I have a few destinations listed already so should be able to fill the van nicely. That’s it for today, my brain is a bit fuzzy for clear thinking or getting anywhere near entertaining, so I’m quitting in favour of a lie down for an hour or two before the night time heroics.
Only one swallow left in the shed now, all the others have gone, house martins as usual are the last to go but their trip south must be imminent. Another summer slips by. Must get on with the log cutting, that was another job I was going to get done before the summer ended.
Availability highlights
The traditional autumn flowering Asters now coming back on stream, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Lovely day today, bright sunshine and a light breeze, great day to be out in the garden. We certainly got a good drenching during the week but with the forecast looking on the damp side we had taken the precaution of clearing out a few blocked drains in advance which paid dividends in the following deluge. Some planning works. Better than the rather disappointing summer for which I blame myself, sorry. The hot weather came to an instant stop the moment I cut big holes in the roof of despatch to keep temperatures down. The cooling result was more effective than I could have imagined.
Potting is flying now as the orders slow up and we find a bit more time, last load of compost comes in on Monday so just 60,000 pots or so to go. Might take a weekend off then in celebration of getting to the end of another season, perhaps a visit to the pub, we’ll see. I think this is the last week for most of our summer casuals, university beckons, I’m sure they won’t miss us as much as we will miss them!
Dressing up tonight for a 1940’s ball at the Guildhall, no food just dancing and liquid refreshment. Not really quite fit enough for this after a week carrying a bit of a sniff (worst cold anyone ever had) but I can’t let my dance partners down so will keep taking the pills and soldier on. Live big band apparently, so could be good.
We are well underway picking up our empty wooden box stock from everyone, we are planning a trip up north next week so let me know if you need us to call in. I have a few destinations listed already so should be able to fill the van nicely. That’s it for today, my brain is a bit fuzzy for clear thinking or getting anywhere near entertaining, so I’m quitting in favour of a lie down for an hour or two before the night time heroics.
Only one swallow left in the shed now, all the others have gone, house martins as usual are the last to go but their trip south must be imminent. Another summer slips by. Must get on with the log cutting, that was another job I was going to get done before the summer ended.
Availability highlights
The traditional autumn flowering Asters now coming back on stream, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 15 September 2015
Hairy Head
Morning all,
Still busy trying to get through the late summer/autumn clean up and potting, there are never enough hours in the day. It doesn’t seem possible that in a very few weeks we will be all done and ready to batten down the hatches for the winter, awaiting the arrival of a hopefully early spring! Plant growth is still strong and it is always a relief to see the plants get away so fast after potting, producing such a strong framework for those stonking spring plants again. We have a huge crop of Pulmonaria varieties this year looking like they are going to make a fantastic spring show of colour. Marginal panic setting in that I might have got carried away on the numbers but they did so well last spring and with a few extra varieties adding to the appeal I hope with a nice run of favourable weather during the sales period they should fly out. Before the Pulmonaria make their mark we should have a great crop of hardy cyclamen to give us a bit of colour right through the autumn, winter and early spring. Again we have extended the range to add C. hederifolium colours to the lovely C. coum varieties we tried out last year.
Monster amount of work going on this last week on analysing the production output of the microprop lab to try and identify how we can keep the operation viable with the impending ‘living wage’ rises due to take effect over the next five years. We had considered stepping away from it when we considered the increasing global competition in this market where wages are at a fraction of our own, transport of such compact stock is so easy and price pressures continue to reign supreme. However the potential loss of one of the last plant labs in the UK seems to have galvanised more support than we had hoped for and there does look like there could still be a future in it even if not quite using the same model as we currently have. Quality product and local supply does have its supporters so although we may have to lose quite a few plant varieties in the lab, where the market won’t pay the extra few pence needed to make it viable here, we should be able to carve out some future in there. Frustration doesn’t really cover the position on some plants. We grow a great range of Hostas including many new varieties picked out for us by a specialist in the field. He acknowledges that we have the best, strongest, healthiest young plants he gets, foreign labs and open ground nurseries suffering from mixed and virus ridden stock but we recently lost a big customer attracted by the cheap prices from abroad and unfortunately our fab stock will not be there when someone decides price isn’t the be all and end all in producing quality plants. Still that’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes, we just need to bit the bullet and make some tough choices.
Struggling to find mirth this morning, suffering the after effects of a big wedding yesterday, head, legs and feet sore after over indulgent dad dancing. Good band, nice beer and energetic happy company, well worth the pain of the next day. Glad not to have too much to do today, just a little bit of gentle production bed preparation for Mondays potting while The Strypes thrash away through the headphones. Caroline drew the short straw on the driving front yesterday, so I need to at least look busy while she prepares her 4,000 microprop modules for delivery first thing on Monday. Oh the joys of the idyllic rural life.
Availability highlights
The traditional autumn flowering Asters now coming back on stream, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Still busy trying to get through the late summer/autumn clean up and potting, there are never enough hours in the day. It doesn’t seem possible that in a very few weeks we will be all done and ready to batten down the hatches for the winter, awaiting the arrival of a hopefully early spring! Plant growth is still strong and it is always a relief to see the plants get away so fast after potting, producing such a strong framework for those stonking spring plants again. We have a huge crop of Pulmonaria varieties this year looking like they are going to make a fantastic spring show of colour. Marginal panic setting in that I might have got carried away on the numbers but they did so well last spring and with a few extra varieties adding to the appeal I hope with a nice run of favourable weather during the sales period they should fly out. Before the Pulmonaria make their mark we should have a great crop of hardy cyclamen to give us a bit of colour right through the autumn, winter and early spring. Again we have extended the range to add C. hederifolium colours to the lovely C. coum varieties we tried out last year.
Monster amount of work going on this last week on analysing the production output of the microprop lab to try and identify how we can keep the operation viable with the impending ‘living wage’ rises due to take effect over the next five years. We had considered stepping away from it when we considered the increasing global competition in this market where wages are at a fraction of our own, transport of such compact stock is so easy and price pressures continue to reign supreme. However the potential loss of one of the last plant labs in the UK seems to have galvanised more support than we had hoped for and there does look like there could still be a future in it even if not quite using the same model as we currently have. Quality product and local supply does have its supporters so although we may have to lose quite a few plant varieties in the lab, where the market won’t pay the extra few pence needed to make it viable here, we should be able to carve out some future in there. Frustration doesn’t really cover the position on some plants. We grow a great range of Hostas including many new varieties picked out for us by a specialist in the field. He acknowledges that we have the best, strongest, healthiest young plants he gets, foreign labs and open ground nurseries suffering from mixed and virus ridden stock but we recently lost a big customer attracted by the cheap prices from abroad and unfortunately our fab stock will not be there when someone decides price isn’t the be all and end all in producing quality plants. Still that’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes, we just need to bit the bullet and make some tough choices.
Struggling to find mirth this morning, suffering the after effects of a big wedding yesterday, head, legs and feet sore after over indulgent dad dancing. Good band, nice beer and energetic happy company, well worth the pain of the next day. Glad not to have too much to do today, just a little bit of gentle production bed preparation for Mondays potting while The Strypes thrash away through the headphones. Caroline drew the short straw on the driving front yesterday, so I need to at least look busy while she prepares her 4,000 microprop modules for delivery first thing on Monday. Oh the joys of the idyllic rural life.
Availability highlights
The traditional autumn flowering Asters now coming back on stream, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 7 September 2015
Uplifting and Hairy
Morning all
Great result on Sunday for Saints got us off to a good start, followed by a relaxing Bank Holiday Monday. Started well with the cat letting go a lively young rat in the bedroom at 6.00am! Managed to catch it by 10.30 and eject it well away from the house so it hopefully won’t come back. It was all a bit much but it did get us to move all the furniture and have a bit of a clean up afterwards so not all bad. Popped down to Ikea with the rest of the population of Southampton for a few picture frames and I did a rehanging in the ‘dining room/dump’. Our collection of gig posters previously littered around the floor now make a patchwork on the biggest wall and it all looks pretty good even if I say so myself. The inherited cocktail cabinet looks majestic if underused on the other side, now just need to sort out the rest of the room to make it presentable, maybe a party room, I think that will have to wait for another year. One thing at a time.
Nursery staffing dwindled this week with some of the young seasonal staff disappearing back to school/college but still got lots to do. It will be flat out getting the tunnels cleared, autumn potting completed and ripped tunnel covers replaced before it gets too cold. We’ll get there, despite an annual panic we always get to the other side, then the quieter winter period allows us a breather to gather our thoughts.
The microprop lab’s future is looking slightly more promising after a big meeting with one of our biggest customers last week. It appears we are loved and needed by someone on the propagation front and there may be a way forward through the impeding big pay hikes of the next 5 years, it might mean a redirection of production to higher value lines and eliminate the waste and low value stuff where the foreign competition is too strong or the market won’t pay any extra. A shame for some of those markets where quality and virus free stock don’t stack up against saving a few pennies for each plant. Mind you the donning of my rose tinted specs after the meeting might have been down to all the right buttons being well pressed, we all want to be loved!
After a run of recent funerals including a special one last week, we are looking forward to a couple of nice celebrations next week, not only has Queeny reached her longest reign but Elaine on the nursery has reached 30 years service, she obviously started as child labour all those years ago and we can’t believe it has been so long since she pitched up in white jeans and heels! Also got a young person’s wedding to go to next weekend so looking forward to embarrassing all with some serious dad dancing. Hopefully my back will have recovered from yesterdays first hockey game, might be time to retire.
Availability highlights
Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant and slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking good. More traditional Asters now coming back on stream too, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful but only a few left now. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Lovely fresh growth on the Lamium Beacon Silver, more really attractive and effective ground cover.The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Great result on Sunday for Saints got us off to a good start, followed by a relaxing Bank Holiday Monday. Started well with the cat letting go a lively young rat in the bedroom at 6.00am! Managed to catch it by 10.30 and eject it well away from the house so it hopefully won’t come back. It was all a bit much but it did get us to move all the furniture and have a bit of a clean up afterwards so not all bad. Popped down to Ikea with the rest of the population of Southampton for a few picture frames and I did a rehanging in the ‘dining room/dump’. Our collection of gig posters previously littered around the floor now make a patchwork on the biggest wall and it all looks pretty good even if I say so myself. The inherited cocktail cabinet looks majestic if underused on the other side, now just need to sort out the rest of the room to make it presentable, maybe a party room, I think that will have to wait for another year. One thing at a time.
Nursery staffing dwindled this week with some of the young seasonal staff disappearing back to school/college but still got lots to do. It will be flat out getting the tunnels cleared, autumn potting completed and ripped tunnel covers replaced before it gets too cold. We’ll get there, despite an annual panic we always get to the other side, then the quieter winter period allows us a breather to gather our thoughts.
The microprop lab’s future is looking slightly more promising after a big meeting with one of our biggest customers last week. It appears we are loved and needed by someone on the propagation front and there may be a way forward through the impeding big pay hikes of the next 5 years, it might mean a redirection of production to higher value lines and eliminate the waste and low value stuff where the foreign competition is too strong or the market won’t pay any extra. A shame for some of those markets where quality and virus free stock don’t stack up against saving a few pennies for each plant. Mind you the donning of my rose tinted specs after the meeting might have been down to all the right buttons being well pressed, we all want to be loved!
After a run of recent funerals including a special one last week, we are looking forward to a couple of nice celebrations next week, not only has Queeny reached her longest reign but Elaine on the nursery has reached 30 years service, she obviously started as child labour all those years ago and we can’t believe it has been so long since she pitched up in white jeans and heels! Also got a young person’s wedding to go to next weekend so looking forward to embarrassing all with some serious dad dancing. Hopefully my back will have recovered from yesterdays first hockey game, might be time to retire.
Availability highlights
Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant and slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking good. More traditional Asters now coming back on stream too, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful but only a few left now. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Lovely fresh growth on the Lamium Beacon Silver, more really attractive and effective ground cover.The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 1 September 2015
Hairy Strypes
Morning all
Not the best of summer weather, bit damp and a distinct lack of the yellow stuff. We have a slight lull between flowering crops at the moment after record summer sales and some slow growth in the following crops. Still at least we are not as affected by the dull August as the local arable farmers. After a good start to the harvest it has all come to a grinding halt in the damp and crops are now being lost or at best downgraded as the grain begins to germinate in the ears. On top of a big drop in the prices as the world grain markets falter it looks like becoming a tricky year. Sods law always seems to make an appearance at times like this and sure enough late on Friday, just before the bank holiday weekend, a crucial part breaks and with Saturday being the first day for cutting for ages and no carriers available to get the part to the farm before Wednesday, the call goes out for an emergency driver. So that was my Saturday sorted, a 10hr round trip to the East Coast, perfect timing as I had planned most of the day off anyway.
That rounded off a week stuffed with exciting stuff. Last Sunday we had a great day at Avebury, a bit longer in the tea rooms and pub than planned but who’s complaining about that? Got soaked within 2 minutes at The Sanctuary our first stop and things looked dodgy but after a restorative tea and cake the rain slowed and we got round everything in reasonable comfort suitably educated, entertained and watered. Back in the same direction to Marlborough on Tuesday evening to a tiny independent record store who had The Strypes performing a short set to promote their new CD (Little Victories) in the coffee shop next door. Just brilliant, refreshing, vibrant, noisy and youthful. Got a copy signed and excitedly told them that we both thought they were as exciting live as the Police we had seen back in 79 before they became superstars. Only then realising their parents might not have even been born then! New cd on here all the time, getting better and better with each listen.
Big step this week with successful application for a new fuel card. Doesn’t sound much but it is quite difficult to get a new account in an industry that has struggled financially over the last few years. Our existing supplier had been taking advantage of this situation by adding more and more extra charges to our account so it was nice to land ourselves a much better deal. Should help contain costs a bit next season as the living wage kicks in. Having said that we had to replace the card reader this week as the model we had became ‘noncompliant’. A suspicion of clever in-built obsolescence in these expensive bits of kit? Very handy I know but we don’t really use it enough to not notice the monthly bill!
Must go, holiday treat today with a ticket to see Southampton play Norwich this afternoon. Well it seems like a treat at the moment, fingers crossed.
Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant and slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking good. There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful but only a few left now The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Lovely fresh growth on the Lamium Beacon Silver, more really attractive and effective ground cover. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Not the best of summer weather, bit damp and a distinct lack of the yellow stuff. We have a slight lull between flowering crops at the moment after record summer sales and some slow growth in the following crops. Still at least we are not as affected by the dull August as the local arable farmers. After a good start to the harvest it has all come to a grinding halt in the damp and crops are now being lost or at best downgraded as the grain begins to germinate in the ears. On top of a big drop in the prices as the world grain markets falter it looks like becoming a tricky year. Sods law always seems to make an appearance at times like this and sure enough late on Friday, just before the bank holiday weekend, a crucial part breaks and with Saturday being the first day for cutting for ages and no carriers available to get the part to the farm before Wednesday, the call goes out for an emergency driver. So that was my Saturday sorted, a 10hr round trip to the East Coast, perfect timing as I had planned most of the day off anyway.
That rounded off a week stuffed with exciting stuff. Last Sunday we had a great day at Avebury, a bit longer in the tea rooms and pub than planned but who’s complaining about that? Got soaked within 2 minutes at The Sanctuary our first stop and things looked dodgy but after a restorative tea and cake the rain slowed and we got round everything in reasonable comfort suitably educated, entertained and watered. Back in the same direction to Marlborough on Tuesday evening to a tiny independent record store who had The Strypes performing a short set to promote their new CD (Little Victories) in the coffee shop next door. Just brilliant, refreshing, vibrant, noisy and youthful. Got a copy signed and excitedly told them that we both thought they were as exciting live as the Police we had seen back in 79 before they became superstars. Only then realising their parents might not have even been born then! New cd on here all the time, getting better and better with each listen.
Big step this week with successful application for a new fuel card. Doesn’t sound much but it is quite difficult to get a new account in an industry that has struggled financially over the last few years. Our existing supplier had been taking advantage of this situation by adding more and more extra charges to our account so it was nice to land ourselves a much better deal. Should help contain costs a bit next season as the living wage kicks in. Having said that we had to replace the card reader this week as the model we had became ‘noncompliant’. A suspicion of clever in-built obsolescence in these expensive bits of kit? Very handy I know but we don’t really use it enough to not notice the monthly bill!
Must go, holiday treat today with a ticket to see Southampton play Norwich this afternoon. Well it seems like a treat at the moment, fingers crossed.
Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant and slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking good. There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful but only a few left now The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Lovely fresh growth on the Lamium Beacon Silver, more really attractive and effective ground cover. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 25 August 2015
Hairy and Ancient
Morning all,
Potting for next spring now well underway with a good run at it last week. We have cleared another couple of tunnels ready for next week and assuming the next load of compost doesn’t get held up at the port this time we should get another good batch done next week. Time seems to be flying by, another delivery of predators released and another 1,000 million nematodes in the fridge ready to apply through the irrigation when the weather is right. The nematode multi application strategy appears to be doing a good job on knocking back any vine weevil population, we usually see a few adults as we are clearing or moving stock about in the summer skulking about under the pots but this year we haven’t seen any even under the favourites like strawberry and astilbe. We use a mix of 3 nematode species which is supposed to give us some control of a few other compost dwelling pests like sclarid fly, leather jackets and others so we hope to gain there too. It’s not a complete cure-all as we definitely still have leather jackets and crane fly adults about although that may be partly down to us only applying the nematodes 3 times in the spring and 3 times in the late summer/autumn when they are most effective against the vine weevil. Nice to feel we are getting back on top of this pest after the disappointing results from previously incorporating a bio-control fungus into the compost. Live and learn.
Spirits lightened this week after seeing on TV the brilliant pier conversion in Weston-Super-Mare into ‘Dismaland’ by Banksy. I had felt slightly alone in my dismay at the theme park holiday industry over the years but at least it now looks like I’m not alone! I love the fact that tickets are really difficult to get hold of, just adding to the overall experience.
As it happens I’m off tomorrow for our summer holiday, a day trip to Avebury on a guided walk from The Sanctuary along West Kennet Avenue to Avebury henge/village. It’s a monster of a site, dwarfing Stonehenge, just not quite as ‘constructed’ at its centre. Our tame archaeologist Brian is leading and I’m sure will entertain us with his usual enthusiasm and in-depth analysis. Surprisingly we could only muster a handful of participants for a potentially wet six mile wander through time despite the lure of a pub for lunch. Particularly looking forward to handling again the flints he found created using discoidal technology. After submitting his findings, the British Museum have summoned him and the flints for a closer look into what could be an important new Neanderthal site. He has been advised to write it all up for ‘Lithics Monthly’ magazine, as read by thousands of flint fanatics, to make it official. Fame at last. Must get a signed copy.
‘Horizon’ on the BBC iplayer to check out this week, all about the earliest Britons including stuff on the meseiolithic Blick Mead Spring site I rabbited on about last year. I thought no-one was going to get to grips with this one as, for a while, my blog about it appeared on page one of Google there was so little coverage. Let’s see what they have to say.
The Stypes new cd is out this coming week, got my copy already, it’s great if you like energetic noisy music, might get to see them in Marlborough this week as they perform a short session at a record store signing. They might like to visit Avebury, just down the road, I’ll drop them an email. Lithic’s are just so hip. Why am I so lonely?!
Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
We have a last small strong batch of Lobelia Fan Blue just starting to produce its flower shoots for a late summer display. The mildew resistant Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. There is also Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant again, slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking great.
Verbena Lollipop is still producing its compact flowers and looking good but only a few left. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Potting for next spring now well underway with a good run at it last week. We have cleared another couple of tunnels ready for next week and assuming the next load of compost doesn’t get held up at the port this time we should get another good batch done next week. Time seems to be flying by, another delivery of predators released and another 1,000 million nematodes in the fridge ready to apply through the irrigation when the weather is right. The nematode multi application strategy appears to be doing a good job on knocking back any vine weevil population, we usually see a few adults as we are clearing or moving stock about in the summer skulking about under the pots but this year we haven’t seen any even under the favourites like strawberry and astilbe. We use a mix of 3 nematode species which is supposed to give us some control of a few other compost dwelling pests like sclarid fly, leather jackets and others so we hope to gain there too. It’s not a complete cure-all as we definitely still have leather jackets and crane fly adults about although that may be partly down to us only applying the nematodes 3 times in the spring and 3 times in the late summer/autumn when they are most effective against the vine weevil. Nice to feel we are getting back on top of this pest after the disappointing results from previously incorporating a bio-control fungus into the compost. Live and learn.
Spirits lightened this week after seeing on TV the brilliant pier conversion in Weston-Super-Mare into ‘Dismaland’ by Banksy. I had felt slightly alone in my dismay at the theme park holiday industry over the years but at least it now looks like I’m not alone! I love the fact that tickets are really difficult to get hold of, just adding to the overall experience.
As it happens I’m off tomorrow for our summer holiday, a day trip to Avebury on a guided walk from The Sanctuary along West Kennet Avenue to Avebury henge/village. It’s a monster of a site, dwarfing Stonehenge, just not quite as ‘constructed’ at its centre. Our tame archaeologist Brian is leading and I’m sure will entertain us with his usual enthusiasm and in-depth analysis. Surprisingly we could only muster a handful of participants for a potentially wet six mile wander through time despite the lure of a pub for lunch. Particularly looking forward to handling again the flints he found created using discoidal technology. After submitting his findings, the British Museum have summoned him and the flints for a closer look into what could be an important new Neanderthal site. He has been advised to write it all up for ‘Lithics Monthly’ magazine, as read by thousands of flint fanatics, to make it official. Fame at last. Must get a signed copy.
‘Horizon’ on the BBC iplayer to check out this week, all about the earliest Britons including stuff on the meseiolithic Blick Mead Spring site I rabbited on about last year. I thought no-one was going to get to grips with this one as, for a while, my blog about it appeared on page one of Google there was so little coverage. Let’s see what they have to say.
The Stypes new cd is out this coming week, got my copy already, it’s great if you like energetic noisy music, might get to see them in Marlborough this week as they perform a short session at a record store signing. They might like to visit Avebury, just down the road, I’ll drop them an email. Lithic’s are just so hip. Why am I so lonely?!
Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
We have a last small strong batch of Lobelia Fan Blue just starting to produce its flower shoots for a late summer display. The mildew resistant Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. There is also Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant again, slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking great.
Verbena Lollipop is still producing its compact flowers and looking good but only a few left. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 17 August 2015
Hairy Stars
Morning all,
I hope you didn’t get too wet last week. We got a good drenching although luckily most of it was overnight so didn’t interfere too much on daytime fun on the nursery. Usual stuff, orders out, plants into pots or big modules, tunnels being cleared, it’s all go. When we get asked how things are going on the nursery the question is usually loaded towards ‘are you selling lots of stuff?’ and as sales start to slow it is assumed we can then take a well earned holiday in all that newly found spare time. Unfortunately there is almost more pressure at this time as we try and make the most of every day's warmth and day-length to get next year’s crops even more mega than the last years. At the same time we juggle sales, other holidays, summer casuals, and adjust everything to the weather of the day, what fun. Must admit we are both feeling a bit tired but not long now until November hols. A great motivator is when things go to plan and this week’s highlight was the successful release of our first batch of 1,000 million nematodes for the late summer/autumn bio pest control. Perfect weather, damp and cool over two evenings and the night’s drawing in meant they went on more or less in the dark, just what they like. My homemade nematode bubble-drum worked perfectly, aerating and stirring with compressed air the nematodes in the stock solution, before being sucked into the irrigation system and spread evenly over the nursery. A follow-up gentle rinse washes them off the foliage and onto the compost before they dry out.
Another late night on Wednesday when we got a surprise break in the weather and popped out into the field to watch the meteor shower. I must have seen over 15 over about an hour but with my head permanently looking up and some of them being very fleeting I may well have had a degree of blood supply curtailment adding to the overall visual effects. There were one or two monster ones which was all very exciting.
I must admit to a degree of simple naivety in my business acumen, I just want to do as good a job as we can manage and try and charge a fair price to keep the whole thing moving forwards. It still comes as a bit of a shock when I hear about businesses operating more ‘cunningly’. The milk price would be an obvious target but this time it’s nothing to do with growing stuff, its car parts. There is, I’m told, a company supplying many standard car parts to lots of manufacturers, franchisers and garages. They all apparently use the same parts for lots of vehicles and the supplier will have a single design of that part and a series of different boxes to pop the part into depending on which make of car it is required for. So those ‘genuine parts’ might not be as unique as you would think. It’s definitely an efficient system which I applaud but will those parts going to the more prestigious brands will be the same price is those going to the others? I wonder. How easily we can be deceived.
Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
We have a last small strong batch of Lobelia Fan Blue just starting to produce i'ts flower shoots for a late summer display. Only one variety (delightful mini yellow spidery flowers) left this week of our new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing, naturally branching with no need for pinching. As well as the new Chrysanthemums we have also introduced some new mildew resistant Asters. The Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. There is also Flora’s Delight, another frikartii variety, slightly more purple than the ever popular Monch.
Verbena Lollipop is still producing its compact flowers and looking good. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants to plant out.
Achillea Moonshine is back in bud and flower and we have nice chunky Red Velvet showing bud again too.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for a great winter display
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. There is a fresh flush of Delphinium growth with buds appearing on many. There is a new flush of Oxalis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
I hope you didn’t get too wet last week. We got a good drenching although luckily most of it was overnight so didn’t interfere too much on daytime fun on the nursery. Usual stuff, orders out, plants into pots or big modules, tunnels being cleared, it’s all go. When we get asked how things are going on the nursery the question is usually loaded towards ‘are you selling lots of stuff?’ and as sales start to slow it is assumed we can then take a well earned holiday in all that newly found spare time. Unfortunately there is almost more pressure at this time as we try and make the most of every day's warmth and day-length to get next year’s crops even more mega than the last years. At the same time we juggle sales, other holidays, summer casuals, and adjust everything to the weather of the day, what fun. Must admit we are both feeling a bit tired but not long now until November hols. A great motivator is when things go to plan and this week’s highlight was the successful release of our first batch of 1,000 million nematodes for the late summer/autumn bio pest control. Perfect weather, damp and cool over two evenings and the night’s drawing in meant they went on more or less in the dark, just what they like. My homemade nematode bubble-drum worked perfectly, aerating and stirring with compressed air the nematodes in the stock solution, before being sucked into the irrigation system and spread evenly over the nursery. A follow-up gentle rinse washes them off the foliage and onto the compost before they dry out.
Another late night on Wednesday when we got a surprise break in the weather and popped out into the field to watch the meteor shower. I must have seen over 15 over about an hour but with my head permanently looking up and some of them being very fleeting I may well have had a degree of blood supply curtailment adding to the overall visual effects. There were one or two monster ones which was all very exciting.
I must admit to a degree of simple naivety in my business acumen, I just want to do as good a job as we can manage and try and charge a fair price to keep the whole thing moving forwards. It still comes as a bit of a shock when I hear about businesses operating more ‘cunningly’. The milk price would be an obvious target but this time it’s nothing to do with growing stuff, its car parts. There is, I’m told, a company supplying many standard car parts to lots of manufacturers, franchisers and garages. They all apparently use the same parts for lots of vehicles and the supplier will have a single design of that part and a series of different boxes to pop the part into depending on which make of car it is required for. So those ‘genuine parts’ might not be as unique as you would think. It’s definitely an efficient system which I applaud but will those parts going to the more prestigious brands will be the same price is those going to the others? I wonder. How easily we can be deceived.
Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
We have a last small strong batch of Lobelia Fan Blue just starting to produce i'ts flower shoots for a late summer display. Only one variety (delightful mini yellow spidery flowers) left this week of our new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing, naturally branching with no need for pinching. As well as the new Chrysanthemums we have also introduced some new mildew resistant Asters. The Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. There is also Flora’s Delight, another frikartii variety, slightly more purple than the ever popular Monch.
Verbena Lollipop is still producing its compact flowers and looking good. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants to plant out.
Achillea Moonshine is back in bud and flower and we have nice chunky Red Velvet showing bud again too.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for a great winter display
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. There is a fresh flush of Delphinium growth with buds appearing on many. There is a new flush of Oxalis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 10 August 2015
Hairy Speculation
Morning all,
Really packed it in this week, still lots of sales which is great although a little distracting from the potting and propagation we are trying to get flying for next year’s crops. Luckily the potting compost and new module long-life trays got through the channel crossing holdups. Hardly any illegal’s tipped out of the compost lorry so no worries there. We had a nice crop of our summer casuals this week so managed to get quite a bit done. It’s all a bit on and off with this summers crew as they work out fitting in their lifts, days off and financial needs and when combined with the regular summer holidays I’m never quite sure what the turn out will be each week. Luckily when they are here lots does get done. I know next week we are a few short for some days so that will add to the exciting variety of challenges of managing a nursery in the summer.
We had our NBIS meeting this week, our quarterly nurseryman therapy session. Nice pub lunch, nursery tour, and a meeting sat in a field in the sunshine. We all unburdened our woes and triumphs feeling a lot better afterwards. We have been doing this for so long we can be very open with each other sharing our experiences good and bad with certain knowledge that we will get a sympathetic ear, plenty of opinions and a healthy dose of ridicule and laughter. Despite a year when the weather has been reasonably favourable in many areas for most of the season and many nurseries have sold through well, there is a real air of caution. Probably a sensible approach considering how much most of us lost over the previous few seasons, don’t get too over excited and overdo it. I wonder if you can guess what I did. OK I might have got a bit carried away on the young plant purchasing front but I did learn a lot! Speculate to accumulate and all that. The speculating bit I’m good at, the latter perhaps not so. Just you wait to see what appears over the next year, we’ll be flying. Managed a trip out last Sunday, needed a restock of summer socks. Went really well, Caroline got to use up her 20% off offer on quite a collection of essentials but in the excitement still forgot to cash in my birthday gift voucher. We’ve been out twice now since March and failed to cash in my goodies. One more chance before we go away on our hols in November. Why is it only when I’m out does the light catch the strays weaving from the ear top into the main crop, despite thorough checking before leaving the house. It’s not fair.
Availability highlights
Only a couple of varieties left this week of our new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing. They are naturally branching with no need for pinching in a lovely colour range. The odd flower is now just flashing a bit of colour.
As well as the new chrysanthemums we have also introduced some new mildew resistant Asters. The Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. Achillea Moonshine is back in bud and flower and we have nice chunky Red Velvet showing bud again too. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for a great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, plenty of colour on the Sunfire and the larger flowered Corey Yellow, plenty of bud and flowers now open on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb. Now in bud and flower are our Leucanthemum Banana Creme, it has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Not many left now.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Really packed it in this week, still lots of sales which is great although a little distracting from the potting and propagation we are trying to get flying for next year’s crops. Luckily the potting compost and new module long-life trays got through the channel crossing holdups. Hardly any illegal’s tipped out of the compost lorry so no worries there. We had a nice crop of our summer casuals this week so managed to get quite a bit done. It’s all a bit on and off with this summers crew as they work out fitting in their lifts, days off and financial needs and when combined with the regular summer holidays I’m never quite sure what the turn out will be each week. Luckily when they are here lots does get done. I know next week we are a few short for some days so that will add to the exciting variety of challenges of managing a nursery in the summer.
We had our NBIS meeting this week, our quarterly nurseryman therapy session. Nice pub lunch, nursery tour, and a meeting sat in a field in the sunshine. We all unburdened our woes and triumphs feeling a lot better afterwards. We have been doing this for so long we can be very open with each other sharing our experiences good and bad with certain knowledge that we will get a sympathetic ear, plenty of opinions and a healthy dose of ridicule and laughter. Despite a year when the weather has been reasonably favourable in many areas for most of the season and many nurseries have sold through well, there is a real air of caution. Probably a sensible approach considering how much most of us lost over the previous few seasons, don’t get too over excited and overdo it. I wonder if you can guess what I did. OK I might have got a bit carried away on the young plant purchasing front but I did learn a lot! Speculate to accumulate and all that. The speculating bit I’m good at, the latter perhaps not so. Just you wait to see what appears over the next year, we’ll be flying. Managed a trip out last Sunday, needed a restock of summer socks. Went really well, Caroline got to use up her 20% off offer on quite a collection of essentials but in the excitement still forgot to cash in my birthday gift voucher. We’ve been out twice now since March and failed to cash in my goodies. One more chance before we go away on our hols in November. Why is it only when I’m out does the light catch the strays weaving from the ear top into the main crop, despite thorough checking before leaving the house. It’s not fair.
Availability highlights
Only a couple of varieties left this week of our new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing. They are naturally branching with no need for pinching in a lovely colour range. The odd flower is now just flashing a bit of colour.
As well as the new chrysanthemums we have also introduced some new mildew resistant Asters. The Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. Achillea Moonshine is back in bud and flower and we have nice chunky Red Velvet showing bud again too. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for a great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, plenty of colour on the Sunfire and the larger flowered Corey Yellow, plenty of bud and flowers now open on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb. Now in bud and flower are our Leucanthemum Banana Creme, it has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Not many left now.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 3 August 2015
Shorts and Hairy
Morning all,
Lots done again this week, plenty of orders, loads of pricking out completed and lots of clearing up done. The summer is whizzing by and we are looking to get the stock potted for the autumn, winter and early spring but the chaos at the ports has put a bit of a hold on that. Our compost delivery vehicle is caught up in it all so no delivery yet but hoping for better luck next week. It’s no great problem really but it does make you think about all the other stock and deliveries that are parked up on each side of channel.
Harvest on the farm is now well underway, the tractors and trailers are thundering down the track today as they get stuck into harvesting the grass seed crop behind the nursery, it’s all very exciting for us onlookers although pretty intense for those taking part. Caroline always gets a bit nostalgic about it as she recalls her harvest work a few years ago driving 10 tonne lorries from field to barns. Pictures of the time show that big hair and short shorts where ‘in’ which might indicate more than a few years but none the less the memories are good, mine too. I seem to recall my favoured quiff at the time was peroxide and spiky whereas nowadays I’m unlikely to remember my own name and the hair has paled naturally or abandoned me. Those were the days.
Great band this week, Rob Heron and the Tea Pan Orchestra www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-KC_Dr6dGc well worth seeing live if you get the chance. What a lot of talent there is out there, just playing in a local pub, £6 to get in, a real treat on the ears and the soul.
Must go see if Caroline still has those shorts. Have a good week.
Availability highlights
Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.I have just started listing a new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing. They are naturally branching with no need for pinching in a lovely colour range. The odd flower is now just flashing a bit of colour.As well as the new Chrysanthemums we have also introduced some new mildew resistant Asters. The Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. Platycodon Astra Blue is in bud with some colour appearing. Intense blue colouring.
The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging. Orange upright flowers of Mistral looking good and the golden varieties of George Davidson and Columbus now also showing splashes of colour.
The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) have plenty of bud with colour showing on many. Most varieties we grow are scented. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.
We have one last batch of Rudbeckia Goldsturm looking monstrously strong and the first flower buds are appearing. A great garden favourite.There is a fresh batch of the Oxalis coming into bud again, short and chunky and loads of bud.. Our hardy Fuchsias are producing their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower.Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, plenty of colour on the Sunfire and the larger flowered Corey Yellow, plenty of bud and the odd flower open on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb.Now in bud and flower are our Leucanthemum Banana Creme, it has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Lots done again this week, plenty of orders, loads of pricking out completed and lots of clearing up done. The summer is whizzing by and we are looking to get the stock potted for the autumn, winter and early spring but the chaos at the ports has put a bit of a hold on that. Our compost delivery vehicle is caught up in it all so no delivery yet but hoping for better luck next week. It’s no great problem really but it does make you think about all the other stock and deliveries that are parked up on each side of channel.
Harvest on the farm is now well underway, the tractors and trailers are thundering down the track today as they get stuck into harvesting the grass seed crop behind the nursery, it’s all very exciting for us onlookers although pretty intense for those taking part. Caroline always gets a bit nostalgic about it as she recalls her harvest work a few years ago driving 10 tonne lorries from field to barns. Pictures of the time show that big hair and short shorts where ‘in’ which might indicate more than a few years but none the less the memories are good, mine too. I seem to recall my favoured quiff at the time was peroxide and spiky whereas nowadays I’m unlikely to remember my own name and the hair has paled naturally or abandoned me. Those were the days.
Great band this week, Rob Heron and the Tea Pan Orchestra www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-KC_Dr6dGc well worth seeing live if you get the chance. What a lot of talent there is out there, just playing in a local pub, £6 to get in, a real treat on the ears and the soul.
Must go see if Caroline still has those shorts. Have a good week.
Availability highlights
Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.I have just started listing a new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing. They are naturally branching with no need for pinching in a lovely colour range. The odd flower is now just flashing a bit of colour.As well as the new Chrysanthemums we have also introduced some new mildew resistant Asters. The Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. Platycodon Astra Blue is in bud with some colour appearing. Intense blue colouring.
The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging. Orange upright flowers of Mistral looking good and the golden varieties of George Davidson and Columbus now also showing splashes of colour.
The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) have plenty of bud with colour showing on many. Most varieties we grow are scented. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.
We have one last batch of Rudbeckia Goldsturm looking monstrously strong and the first flower buds are appearing. A great garden favourite.There is a fresh batch of the Oxalis coming into bud again, short and chunky and loads of bud.. Our hardy Fuchsias are producing their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower.Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, plenty of colour on the Sunfire and the larger flowered Corey Yellow, plenty of bud and the odd flower open on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb.Now in bud and flower are our Leucanthemum Banana Creme, it has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 20 July 2015
Hairy Breakout
Morning all,
Massively busy again last week and still plenty of stock looking yummy. A bit of a splurge on microprop sales over the next few weeks seems to mark a bit of a resurgence of grower confidence as stock gets potted on for next year. It’s not setting the world alight but it all helps making ends meet. Still more young plant stock has been arriving, ready to grow on for next season, just need to find the time to make space for it all and get stuck in. The stock we have already moved on is growing away really well but that in itself adds to the pressure to get other things moved on asap, just not enough hours in the day at this time of year.
Big day tomorrow with whole months meat ration to be eaten in one marathon big family session. It’s BBQ time down on the farm celebrating Caroline’s mums birthday. Weather forecast not brilliant but animal protein levels look promising. Sadly no beach body for me this summer, several weeks of excessive home grown fruit consumption and appropriate accompaniments are taking their toll, but delicious none the less. I’m always so full of determination when I step off the scales at the end of the day but it all evaporates as the fridge door opens. On top of it all last week’s slip into comfort eating of numerous bars of dark chocolate to accompany the raspberry glut took me back to teenage levels of dermatological trauma. Lesson learnt, well for a week or two anyway.
Swallows are sitting on the nest again, their first batch lost out to the early cold, second batch of 5 fledged and moved out and now a third lot are hopefully on their way. While we only ever get a single swallow nest we have 15 occupied house martin nests on the house although they only have the one hatching each year. Their mass feeding and chattering in the evening is a joyful part the summer and when all the youngsters get airborne later it’s a sky full of chaos, love it.
Availability highlights
Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.I have just started listing a new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing. They are naturally branching with no need for pinching in a lovely colour range. Probably a week or two before much colour appears but cracking plants, Grommit.
Fresh batches of Echinacea now coming on stream, plenty of bud coming on the Pow Wow varieties, Cheyenne Spirit and Prairie Splendour. Flavour of the month it seems. Platycodon Astra Blue is in bud with some colour appearing. Intense blue colouring.The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging, pushed on by the higher temperatures. Lucifer has the best scarlet colour making it the most popular although it does get very tall in the pot, Emberglow is tidier yet still impressive. Orange upright flowers of Mistral looking good and the golden varieties of George Davidson and Sunglow now also showing bud.
The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with colour showing on many. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic cottage garden flowers. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour.Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour. We have one last batch of Rudbeckia Goldsturm looking monstrously strong and the first signs are there of the flower shoots appearing. A great favourite.
The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana)
Our hardy Fuchsias are producing their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb.Now in bud and flower are our great range of Leucanthemums. All are now showing colour, all stonkingly bushy plants.Banana Creme has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Lacrosse is a lovely short white with attractive petal feathering and Snow Lady is a classic compact white.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Massively busy again last week and still plenty of stock looking yummy. A bit of a splurge on microprop sales over the next few weeks seems to mark a bit of a resurgence of grower confidence as stock gets potted on for next year. It’s not setting the world alight but it all helps making ends meet. Still more young plant stock has been arriving, ready to grow on for next season, just need to find the time to make space for it all and get stuck in. The stock we have already moved on is growing away really well but that in itself adds to the pressure to get other things moved on asap, just not enough hours in the day at this time of year.
Big day tomorrow with whole months meat ration to be eaten in one marathon big family session. It’s BBQ time down on the farm celebrating Caroline’s mums birthday. Weather forecast not brilliant but animal protein levels look promising. Sadly no beach body for me this summer, several weeks of excessive home grown fruit consumption and appropriate accompaniments are taking their toll, but delicious none the less. I’m always so full of determination when I step off the scales at the end of the day but it all evaporates as the fridge door opens. On top of it all last week’s slip into comfort eating of numerous bars of dark chocolate to accompany the raspberry glut took me back to teenage levels of dermatological trauma. Lesson learnt, well for a week or two anyway.
Swallows are sitting on the nest again, their first batch lost out to the early cold, second batch of 5 fledged and moved out and now a third lot are hopefully on their way. While we only ever get a single swallow nest we have 15 occupied house martin nests on the house although they only have the one hatching each year. Their mass feeding and chattering in the evening is a joyful part the summer and when all the youngsters get airborne later it’s a sky full of chaos, love it.
Availability highlights
Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.I have just started listing a new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing. They are naturally branching with no need for pinching in a lovely colour range. Probably a week or two before much colour appears but cracking plants, Grommit.
Fresh batches of Echinacea now coming on stream, plenty of bud coming on the Pow Wow varieties, Cheyenne Spirit and Prairie Splendour. Flavour of the month it seems. Platycodon Astra Blue is in bud with some colour appearing. Intense blue colouring.The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging, pushed on by the higher temperatures. Lucifer has the best scarlet colour making it the most popular although it does get very tall in the pot, Emberglow is tidier yet still impressive. Orange upright flowers of Mistral looking good and the golden varieties of George Davidson and Sunglow now also showing bud.
The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with colour showing on many. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic cottage garden flowers. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour.Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour. We have one last batch of Rudbeckia Goldsturm looking monstrously strong and the first signs are there of the flower shoots appearing. A great favourite.
The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana)
Our hardy Fuchsias are producing their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb.Now in bud and flower are our great range of Leucanthemums. All are now showing colour, all stonkingly bushy plants.Banana Creme has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Lacrosse is a lovely short white with attractive petal feathering and Snow Lady is a classic compact white.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 13 July 2015
Hairy Raspberry
Morning all,
Not sure about my thoughts for this week. Still plenty of good looking stuff to sell and sales are still bowling along nicely. The weather has calmed down a bit which makes life easier on the nursery and we have buckets of fresh raspberries. One of my highlights of the year is a lunchtime treat of fresh raspberries eaten with Green and Blacks dark chocolate chunks, mmmm. Unfortunately I’m feeling a bit anxious about the implications of the Budget disclosures earlier in the week. As one of those exploitative nasty employers paying low wages we look like being hit pretty hard by the new national living wage over the next few years, on top of the new pension charges set to hit us in the next 18 months. I’m not sure at the moment quite what the full effect will be but with such a labour intensive set up as ours some things are going to have to change over that time. The new rates will see many of the lowest wages rise by 10% each year over the next 4 years. This will surely hit hard areas like care industries, veg and fruit picking, retailing and hospitality workers and although I love to see people being paid sensible wages I wonder where the money is going to come from to cover it. Some must be funded by higher prices and others by higher costs to organisations like the NHS and local authorities who are hardly flush at the moment. Rather quietly the zero carbon emission target for new house builds had been dropped by the new government saving an estimated £2,500 per property. A small initial saving with long term effects and a big opportunity missed at a time when large scale house building is set to be encouraged. With luck I’ll be gone before the shit really hits the fan, so why am I so cross? I struggled to the summon the enthusiasm to buy my food rations for the week this morning, as their didn’t seem much point, but I was brought back to earth with a bump as Caroline rolled her eyes in my direction from the other side of the trolley. I thoughtfully rolled them back and made my selection, 7 bars of Green and Blacks.
Well done to Neil Grant (young trendy garden centre star) for winning the Observers Small Business Leader 2015 and our Elaine for sticking it out here for nearly 30 years despite the poor pay and regular beatings.
Availability highlights
Purple spikes of Liatris are now showing colour, bushy and strong but not very many left.Fresh batches of Echinacea now coming on stream, plenty of bud coming on the Pow Wow varieties, Cheyenne Spirit and Prairie Splendour. Flavour of the month it seems. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour. Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging, pushed on by the higher temperatures. Lucifer has the best scarlet colour making it the most popular although it does get very tall in the pot, Emberglow is tidier yet still impressive. Golden forms of George Davidson and Sunglow now also showing bud. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour. The pastel yellows and oranges of Kniphofia Flamenco are showing nicely but not many left.Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, lots of bud coming and some blue flowers open. The popular dwarf Eryngium Blue Hobbit is in bud now (isn’t there a film out again?) The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with colour showing on many. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic cottage garden flowers. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud and flower.
Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana) The hardy Fuchsias are producing their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. Just a few Sunray left but with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls.
Just coming into bud and flower are our great range of Leucanthemums. All are now showing colour, all stonkingly bushy plants. Banana Creme has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Not sure about my thoughts for this week. Still plenty of good looking stuff to sell and sales are still bowling along nicely. The weather has calmed down a bit which makes life easier on the nursery and we have buckets of fresh raspberries. One of my highlights of the year is a lunchtime treat of fresh raspberries eaten with Green and Blacks dark chocolate chunks, mmmm. Unfortunately I’m feeling a bit anxious about the implications of the Budget disclosures earlier in the week. As one of those exploitative nasty employers paying low wages we look like being hit pretty hard by the new national living wage over the next few years, on top of the new pension charges set to hit us in the next 18 months. I’m not sure at the moment quite what the full effect will be but with such a labour intensive set up as ours some things are going to have to change over that time. The new rates will see many of the lowest wages rise by 10% each year over the next 4 years. This will surely hit hard areas like care industries, veg and fruit picking, retailing and hospitality workers and although I love to see people being paid sensible wages I wonder where the money is going to come from to cover it. Some must be funded by higher prices and others by higher costs to organisations like the NHS and local authorities who are hardly flush at the moment. Rather quietly the zero carbon emission target for new house builds had been dropped by the new government saving an estimated £2,500 per property. A small initial saving with long term effects and a big opportunity missed at a time when large scale house building is set to be encouraged. With luck I’ll be gone before the shit really hits the fan, so why am I so cross? I struggled to the summon the enthusiasm to buy my food rations for the week this morning, as their didn’t seem much point, but I was brought back to earth with a bump as Caroline rolled her eyes in my direction from the other side of the trolley. I thoughtfully rolled them back and made my selection, 7 bars of Green and Blacks.
Well done to Neil Grant (young trendy garden centre star) for winning the Observers Small Business Leader 2015 and our Elaine for sticking it out here for nearly 30 years despite the poor pay and regular beatings.
Availability highlights
Purple spikes of Liatris are now showing colour, bushy and strong but not very many left.Fresh batches of Echinacea now coming on stream, plenty of bud coming on the Pow Wow varieties, Cheyenne Spirit and Prairie Splendour. Flavour of the month it seems. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour. Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging, pushed on by the higher temperatures. Lucifer has the best scarlet colour making it the most popular although it does get very tall in the pot, Emberglow is tidier yet still impressive. Golden forms of George Davidson and Sunglow now also showing bud. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour. The pastel yellows and oranges of Kniphofia Flamenco are showing nicely but not many left.Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, lots of bud coming and some blue flowers open. The popular dwarf Eryngium Blue Hobbit is in bud now (isn’t there a film out again?) The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with colour showing on many. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic cottage garden flowers. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud and flower.
Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana) The hardy Fuchsias are producing their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. Just a few Sunray left but with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls.
Just coming into bud and flower are our great range of Leucanthemums. All are now showing colour, all stonkingly bushy plants. Banana Creme has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 6 July 2015
Hot and Hairy
Morning all,
Phew, that was a hot one.
Had to apply some basic physics principles to the despatch tunnel this week to keep everyone on their feet. Despite doors, open net sides and shade all over the place we still had a significant heat build up but this week I finally bit the bullet and created two new ‘windows’ above the door height, as high as I could get them. Releasing the heat collecting under the roof just made such a huge difference, now I’m cross with myself that I hadn’t done it before.
Still lots of plants finding new homes which is great, fresh stock still coming on line to keep up the summer and autumn interest. We have a few new lines coming along very soon, some small hardy garden chrysanthemums which will be in bud and flower, new asters and more autumn/winter flowering cyclamen. Months of interest and sales to come!
We have started to clear out a few tunnels now, ready for fitting in next year’s stock. It’s great to see a cleaned up tunnel but it’s always quite difficult throwing away and composting the last few plants in a batch although if they look colourful and half decent they usually find their way to a local fete or good cause. Some plants will trim back and come again, bushier than ever but many are just better started afresh. Sods Law always dictates that as soon as I have made the decision to compost a batch a landscape order comes in wanting just that item, but if we are not careful we can end up with bits and pieces hanging about all over the place and when we are growing over 450 varieties it doesn’t take much of each to fill quite a few tunnels.
Cooler next week which is a big relief to me, I’m hopeless in the heat. Ok I know, not much good in the cold either.
Afternoon off now, so I can pop up to the ‘new’ wood at the top of our hill and collect seed heads from the wild primroses we planted there 15 years ago. Then a nice bit of evening sowing to get this crop going for next spring. I got fed up with the rather artificial looking ‘wild’ primroses we were getting delivered by various seedling suppliers.
Availability highlights
Fresh batches of Echinacea now coming on stream, plenty of bud coming on the Pow Wow varieties, Cheyenne Spirit and Prairie Splendour. Flavour of the month it seems.
Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour. Our taller variety V. bonariensis is short and chunky at the moment, just too tall for us to flower in the pot but a stunner in the garden.
Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging, pushed on by the high temperatures. Lucifer has the best scarlet colour making it the most popular although it does get very tall in the pot, Emberglow is tidier yet still impressive. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour.The pastel yellows and oranges of Kniphofia Flamenco are showing nicely but not many left.
Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, masses of bud coming and some blue flowers opening. The popular dwarf Eryngium Blue Hobbit is in bud now (isn’t there a film out again?)
The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with colour showing on many. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic cottage garden flowers. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud and flower.
Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana)
The hardy Fuchsias are just beginning to produce their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower.
Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. Just a few Sunray left but with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls.
Just coming into bud and flower are our great range of Leucanthemums. Snow Lady and Lacrosse have flowers now open. All stonkingly bushy plants, Banana Creme has masses of bud, very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Last few plants of the pale yellow Real Dream left to whoever is quickest. Our Daylily range is throwing up its flower shoots now. The dwarf dark red, Pardon Me looks fab.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Phew, that was a hot one.
Had to apply some basic physics principles to the despatch tunnel this week to keep everyone on their feet. Despite doors, open net sides and shade all over the place we still had a significant heat build up but this week I finally bit the bullet and created two new ‘windows’ above the door height, as high as I could get them. Releasing the heat collecting under the roof just made such a huge difference, now I’m cross with myself that I hadn’t done it before.
Still lots of plants finding new homes which is great, fresh stock still coming on line to keep up the summer and autumn interest. We have a few new lines coming along very soon, some small hardy garden chrysanthemums which will be in bud and flower, new asters and more autumn/winter flowering cyclamen. Months of interest and sales to come!
We have started to clear out a few tunnels now, ready for fitting in next year’s stock. It’s great to see a cleaned up tunnel but it’s always quite difficult throwing away and composting the last few plants in a batch although if they look colourful and half decent they usually find their way to a local fete or good cause. Some plants will trim back and come again, bushier than ever but many are just better started afresh. Sods Law always dictates that as soon as I have made the decision to compost a batch a landscape order comes in wanting just that item, but if we are not careful we can end up with bits and pieces hanging about all over the place and when we are growing over 450 varieties it doesn’t take much of each to fill quite a few tunnels.
Cooler next week which is a big relief to me, I’m hopeless in the heat. Ok I know, not much good in the cold either.
Afternoon off now, so I can pop up to the ‘new’ wood at the top of our hill and collect seed heads from the wild primroses we planted there 15 years ago. Then a nice bit of evening sowing to get this crop going for next spring. I got fed up with the rather artificial looking ‘wild’ primroses we were getting delivered by various seedling suppliers.
Availability highlights
Fresh batches of Echinacea now coming on stream, plenty of bud coming on the Pow Wow varieties, Cheyenne Spirit and Prairie Splendour. Flavour of the month it seems.
Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour. Our taller variety V. bonariensis is short and chunky at the moment, just too tall for us to flower in the pot but a stunner in the garden.
Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging, pushed on by the high temperatures. Lucifer has the best scarlet colour making it the most popular although it does get very tall in the pot, Emberglow is tidier yet still impressive. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour.The pastel yellows and oranges of Kniphofia Flamenco are showing nicely but not many left.
Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, masses of bud coming and some blue flowers opening. The popular dwarf Eryngium Blue Hobbit is in bud now (isn’t there a film out again?)
The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with colour showing on many. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic cottage garden flowers. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud and flower.
Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana)
The hardy Fuchsias are just beginning to produce their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower.
Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. Just a few Sunray left but with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls.
Just coming into bud and flower are our great range of Leucanthemums. Snow Lady and Lacrosse have flowers now open. All stonkingly bushy plants, Banana Creme has masses of bud, very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Last few plants of the pale yellow Real Dream left to whoever is quickest. Our Daylily range is throwing up its flower shoots now. The dwarf dark red, Pardon Me looks fab.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 29 June 2015
Hairy and Ancient
Morning all,
Still plenty of colour and fab looking stock so definitely don’t hold back!
That was a heck of a week. Mega party weekend preceded the National Plant Show set up on Monday and then two nights away and two days of chat and enthusiasm. Not sure which was most exhausting, probably the over excited sustained enthusiasm. Loads of orders on the nursery on top of everything else, even before any new customers and piles of young plants coming in for next year’s output. By the time I got to Thursday evening I wasn’t really sure if I was coming or going, but now the weekend is here I can pause gather my thoughts and breathe again.Naturally the highlight was meeting all our lovely customers at the show and pressing the flesh with prospective new ones who might be reading this pap for the first time, so hello to you all, and on with the important stuff.
The combined emotional impact of such an intensive week is scary, you can see how some less lucky souls might throw a bit of a wobbly. Luckily the combination of friends and family scattered through it all kept my feet reasonably close to the ground. The weekend saw 90th birthday lunch, 25th wedding anniversary and 21st birthday feast and dancing and Sunday drinks with the villagers. Excesses all over the place and very achy legs for the next day or two after serious dad dancing by many aging souls. I must have caught the sun too because something gave me a pretty sore head along the way. For the few days of the plant show we were lucky enough to stay with friends nearby, very relaxed with fantastic home cooking and challenging entertainment thrown in. I am now initiated in the basics of discoidal technology and very excited about it too! Our host and tame archaeologist has located a very rare site nearby with what he believes to be a collection of very old scattered flint cores, flakes and tools, but not ‘modern’ new (5,000 years ago) and middle stone age stuff (7,000+ years ago), which he has already recorded, this is pre-human Neanderthal kit (40,000+ years). The flint is knapped using different techniques (discoidal) and has a deep patina quite different from the ‘new’ stuff. Handling these artefacts is just mind blowing, what a lucky chap I bet you’re thinking. Let’s hope our technology keeps us going as long as flint did.
Back up to date with our current availability highlights
Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, masses of bud coming and a some blue flowers opening. The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with the odd open flower. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic garden flowers.
Our dwarf strong pink Verbascum Pink Kisses are looking great, showing colour and loads of bud coming too. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud. Veronica have colour showing now. Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. Digitalis Dalmatian varieties all now in bud and showing colour, strong compact plants with spotted foxglove flowers.
The short Campanula's are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue and posharskyana) Our hardy Fuchsias are just beginning to produce their seemingly endless supply of buds. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on Zagreb and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. A few Sunray left with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls. Just coming into bud are our great range of Leucanthemums Snow Lady and Lacrosse have flowers now opening. All stonkingly bushy plants, Banana Creme has masses of bud, very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Our Daylily range is throwing up its flower shoots now, summer must be just round the corner. Loads of Hemerocallis Black Prince this year, but likely to still disappear fast so don’t dither, get it quick!
Our lovely short Tiarella (Foam Flower) are showing plenty of bud and flower now, a very pretty cream show. Great ground cover plants in a good range, the Ajugas are topping their lovely foliage display with their late spring flowers. Delightful little flowers of Erodium’s are showing well with months of flower colour to come. Herbs coming along nicely as the range begins to grow. The Basils are starting now as the temperature begins to rise. Lavenders are coming into bud, and some of the pretty and tasty thymes too. Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Still plenty of colour and fab looking stock so definitely don’t hold back!
That was a heck of a week. Mega party weekend preceded the National Plant Show set up on Monday and then two nights away and two days of chat and enthusiasm. Not sure which was most exhausting, probably the over excited sustained enthusiasm. Loads of orders on the nursery on top of everything else, even before any new customers and piles of young plants coming in for next year’s output. By the time I got to Thursday evening I wasn’t really sure if I was coming or going, but now the weekend is here I can pause gather my thoughts and breathe again.Naturally the highlight was meeting all our lovely customers at the show and pressing the flesh with prospective new ones who might be reading this pap for the first time, so hello to you all, and on with the important stuff.
The combined emotional impact of such an intensive week is scary, you can see how some less lucky souls might throw a bit of a wobbly. Luckily the combination of friends and family scattered through it all kept my feet reasonably close to the ground. The weekend saw 90th birthday lunch, 25th wedding anniversary and 21st birthday feast and dancing and Sunday drinks with the villagers. Excesses all over the place and very achy legs for the next day or two after serious dad dancing by many aging souls. I must have caught the sun too because something gave me a pretty sore head along the way. For the few days of the plant show we were lucky enough to stay with friends nearby, very relaxed with fantastic home cooking and challenging entertainment thrown in. I am now initiated in the basics of discoidal technology and very excited about it too! Our host and tame archaeologist has located a very rare site nearby with what he believes to be a collection of very old scattered flint cores, flakes and tools, but not ‘modern’ new (5,000 years ago) and middle stone age stuff (7,000+ years ago), which he has already recorded, this is pre-human Neanderthal kit (40,000+ years). The flint is knapped using different techniques (discoidal) and has a deep patina quite different from the ‘new’ stuff. Handling these artefacts is just mind blowing, what a lucky chap I bet you’re thinking. Let’s hope our technology keeps us going as long as flint did.
Back up to date with our current availability highlights
Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, masses of bud coming and a some blue flowers opening. The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with the odd open flower. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic garden flowers.
Our dwarf strong pink Verbascum Pink Kisses are looking great, showing colour and loads of bud coming too. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud. Veronica have colour showing now. Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. Digitalis Dalmatian varieties all now in bud and showing colour, strong compact plants with spotted foxglove flowers.
The short Campanula's are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue and posharskyana) Our hardy Fuchsias are just beginning to produce their seemingly endless supply of buds. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on Zagreb and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. A few Sunray left with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls. Just coming into bud are our great range of Leucanthemums Snow Lady and Lacrosse have flowers now opening. All stonkingly bushy plants, Banana Creme has masses of bud, very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Our Daylily range is throwing up its flower shoots now, summer must be just round the corner. Loads of Hemerocallis Black Prince this year, but likely to still disappear fast so don’t dither, get it quick!
Our lovely short Tiarella (Foam Flower) are showing plenty of bud and flower now, a very pretty cream show. Great ground cover plants in a good range, the Ajugas are topping their lovely foliage display with their late spring flowers. Delightful little flowers of Erodium’s are showing well with months of flower colour to come. Herbs coming along nicely as the range begins to grow. The Basils are starting now as the temperature begins to rise. Lavenders are coming into bud, and some of the pretty and tasty thymes too. Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 22 June 2015
Hairy Show
Morning all,
Still plenty of colour and fab looking stock so definitely don’t hold back!
Even more hectic this week. Not only lots of lovely orders but several fetes to sort out, more young plants arriving, Caroline’s dads 90th lunch to prepare (120 close friends around), Richard & Pollyann’s 25th Anniversary bash to dad dance at and the National Plant Show to prepare for. Nothing like a bit of pressure to get you going! We knocked up a border style display of flowering stuff at the party marquee entrance last night so everyone will get a dose of hairy pots on entry just before the far less welcome glass of lemonade. There’s been quite a build up to this weekend and I’m sure everyone else is far better prepared than me, I have just an hour or two before getting tarted up and I’m not even sure I can still get in my suit. It is so old I’m told the style has come back in fashion, and any way the retro look is always trendy isn’t it?
So we are setting up our stand on Monday for The National Plant Show which runs over Tuesday and Wednesday, not much to do there either. Plants are ready but couldn’t start our printing catalogues until the updated logo came through for our 2015 Carbon Smart Gold Award on Thursday so still got a few of those to feed through the printer and hand tie across the thighs of Hampshire maidens. The old ways are the best. Casually slipped in there that we got our third Carbon Smart Gold Award did you notice that, very pleased, nice to get noticed sometimes.
That’s it, must get the printer going then get cleaned up and prepare to be jolly, it’s a tough life. Maybe see some of you at the show next week.
Availability highlights
Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, masses of bud coming and a some blue flowers opening. The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with the odd open flower. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic garden flowers. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud.
Phlox Flame varieties are showing fantastic growth, lots of bud and a first taste of colour. Don’t miss these beauties. Purple, Purple Eye and White Eye are the first three showing actual colour in the bud and the others are close behind. Veronica buds on lovely compact plants and colour beginning to show.
Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. Digitalis Dalmatian varieties all now in bud, strong compact plants with spotted foxglove flowers in a great colour range. We lots of Achillea varieties this year, with flower shoots and buds most. The lovely Desert Eve range are very compact and showing plenty of colour, the others are less compact but all are really strong plants. The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue and posharskyana) Our hardy Fuchsias are just beginning to produce their seemingly endless supply of buds.Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant especially the Sunfire. The odd open flower and loads of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls.
Just coming into bud are our great range of Leucanthemums. Several varieties this year running alongside the ever popular dwarf classic Snow Lady. All stonkingly bushy plants, Lacrosse has pretty white petals with a little spoon shape on the end of each. Sante is a stunningly frilly double and Real Dream and Banana Creme both carry very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow.
Our Daylily range is throwing up its flower shoots now, summer must be just round the corner. Loads of Hemerocallis Black Prince this year, but likely to still disappear fast so don’t dither, get it quick!
Our lovely short Tiarella (Foam Flower) are showing plenty of bud and flower now, a very pretty cream show.Astilbes all have masses of bud showing with some just beginning to open. Dark red (Fanal) and dark pink (Rhienland). Great ground cover plants in a good range, the Ajugas are topping their lovely foliage display with their late spring flowers. A new Eupatorium (Baby Jo) for us this year, strong compact growth and now showing bud. Not many left. Delightful little flowers of Erodium’s are showing well with months of flower colour to come.
Herbs coming along nicely as the range begins to grow. The Basils are starting now as the temperature begins to rise. Lavenders are coming into bud, and some of the pretty and tasty thymes too.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Still plenty of colour and fab looking stock so definitely don’t hold back!
Even more hectic this week. Not only lots of lovely orders but several fetes to sort out, more young plants arriving, Caroline’s dads 90th lunch to prepare (120 close friends around), Richard & Pollyann’s 25th Anniversary bash to dad dance at and the National Plant Show to prepare for. Nothing like a bit of pressure to get you going! We knocked up a border style display of flowering stuff at the party marquee entrance last night so everyone will get a dose of hairy pots on entry just before the far less welcome glass of lemonade. There’s been quite a build up to this weekend and I’m sure everyone else is far better prepared than me, I have just an hour or two before getting tarted up and I’m not even sure I can still get in my suit. It is so old I’m told the style has come back in fashion, and any way the retro look is always trendy isn’t it?
So we are setting up our stand on Monday for The National Plant Show which runs over Tuesday and Wednesday, not much to do there either. Plants are ready but couldn’t start our printing catalogues until the updated logo came through for our 2015 Carbon Smart Gold Award on Thursday so still got a few of those to feed through the printer and hand tie across the thighs of Hampshire maidens. The old ways are the best. Casually slipped in there that we got our third Carbon Smart Gold Award did you notice that, very pleased, nice to get noticed sometimes.
That’s it, must get the printer going then get cleaned up and prepare to be jolly, it’s a tough life. Maybe see some of you at the show next week.
Availability highlights
Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, masses of bud coming and a some blue flowers opening. The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with the odd open flower. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic garden flowers. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud.
Phlox Flame varieties are showing fantastic growth, lots of bud and a first taste of colour. Don’t miss these beauties. Purple, Purple Eye and White Eye are the first three showing actual colour in the bud and the others are close behind. Veronica buds on lovely compact plants and colour beginning to show.
Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. Digitalis Dalmatian varieties all now in bud, strong compact plants with spotted foxglove flowers in a great colour range. We lots of Achillea varieties this year, with flower shoots and buds most. The lovely Desert Eve range are very compact and showing plenty of colour, the others are less compact but all are really strong plants. The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue and posharskyana) Our hardy Fuchsias are just beginning to produce their seemingly endless supply of buds.Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant especially the Sunfire. The odd open flower and loads of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls.
Just coming into bud are our great range of Leucanthemums. Several varieties this year running alongside the ever popular dwarf classic Snow Lady. All stonkingly bushy plants, Lacrosse has pretty white petals with a little spoon shape on the end of each. Sante is a stunningly frilly double and Real Dream and Banana Creme both carry very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow.
Our Daylily range is throwing up its flower shoots now, summer must be just round the corner. Loads of Hemerocallis Black Prince this year, but likely to still disappear fast so don’t dither, get it quick!
Our lovely short Tiarella (Foam Flower) are showing plenty of bud and flower now, a very pretty cream show.Astilbes all have masses of bud showing with some just beginning to open. Dark red (Fanal) and dark pink (Rhienland). Great ground cover plants in a good range, the Ajugas are topping their lovely foliage display with their late spring flowers. A new Eupatorium (Baby Jo) for us this year, strong compact growth and now showing bud. Not many left. Delightful little flowers of Erodium’s are showing well with months of flower colour to come.
Herbs coming along nicely as the range begins to grow. The Basils are starting now as the temperature begins to rise. Lavenders are coming into bud, and some of the pretty and tasty thymes too.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
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