Hairy Sandwiches

Morning all,

Spring is approaching fast and the plants are coming out of their winter slumber and looking pretty perky.I have started collecting a few not so nice invoices for those vital supplies to get the season going, we can’t sell anything without labels, pots, compost and employing the crew to get the orders processed and delivered, so needs must. Just that tricky spell to negotiate as the overdraft peaks before the early sales payments clear, all a bit tense, but we’ll get there, it’s the same most years.
Seeing the sun out certainly helps our spring bounce even if it is a bit nippy, and after a couple of days this week of miserable cold wind and rain it’s a joy to see a bit more bright settled weather this weekend.
Managed to slip away from the nursery on Thursday to visit RHS Wisley for this winters meeting of the exciting AHDB Perennials Technical Discussion Group. The gardens were looking good, very tidy with lovely Hellebores doing their thing and the crocuses putting on a show. It was also heaving with mums and their kids making the most of their half term break, which was great to see. We were catered for brilliantly by the gardens, they have obviously got their sustainable catering very nicely sorted, delicious sandwiches and extras, all using reusable crockery, cutlery and mugs, ethically sourced and sustainable ingredients, coffees and teas, and nicely grey recycled paper napkins. Also nothing individually wrapped in plastic as far as I could see. Someone has put some serious thought and effort into that and it certainly worked for me. We are really proud to say we supply the plant centre there with a range of our hairy pot herbs through the season, which seem to do well, I do wonder if the perennial range would fit well too? I could ask them but that I feel that would be rather pushy of me.
The content of the sandwiches may have been the highlight, but the meeting was useful too, I got a nice refresher on Lean production methods and picked up on some fine tuning I can do on our in-house paperwork to make it more user friendly, efficient and practical for everyone. Sessions on apprentices, Brexit, robotics in horticulture, pesticide updates and fertiliser release rate profiles, added a few valuable little nuggets to my limited capacity for knowledge, and a good dollop to finding a cure for my insomnia. Overall a pretty good day out, apart possibly from the trap I fell into when I offered to be the nursery visit option for the summer meeting. Nothing like showing round a load of people who know what they are talking about, the worry being that I might get found out! It’s a predicament I face every day, but I’ve got away with it so far.

Winter delivery minimum orders
Until mid February (last week for this offer) we are able to drop the minimum order quantity generally to 15 trays and possibly, at a push, to 12 trays if you are very local to Winchester.

Availability highlights
Despite the winter weather the Erysimum are looking great. All the green leaved varieties are in tight bud already, leaving the two variegated forms slightly behind on the budding front but looking flashy in their fancy foliage. Really attractive finely cut bronzed foliage of Polemonium Heaven Scent looking fab. The odd bud in sight already, many more will appear very shortly.
More of the Pulmonaria are showing bud now, with little splash of colour in the Blue Ensign, a stunning dark blue, the others aren’t far behind with their nice tight variegated/silvered foliage showing nicely.
Euphorbias are looking good, retaining attractive foliage through the winter months before bursting into flower in early spring. Another evergreen early spring flowerer currently looking smart are the Bergenias in two white varieties. There are two Lamium varieties flushing into a bright early show with their fresh silvery foliage.
Some of the spring bulbs are making a break for it, the Alliums are well up (3/pot). Others putting on a spurt are Scilla, Camassia, Tulip, Muscari, Fritillaria and Ipheion. I haven’t marked the Fritillaria as being in bud yet but there are a few about. Spring is bursting despite the cool temperatures and our Lupins have all made delicious vigorous shoot growth from around the plant base. They seem to do so well as an overwintered crop, producing plenty of new chunky basal shoots with the potential for so much flower later in the season. We do need to sell these fairly early in the spring so that they don’t get too big for our pots, although the early cool weather should help to stop them running away on us.

Wooden box returns
We have collected the majority of our wooden boxes up now from last season, but please do drop us a line if you would like us to pop in and collect any more up. We aren’t up and about too much at the moment, but you will be in our thoughts and on the list. Thanks.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.