Hairy tech hopes

Hi.

Nice to see the back of the cold snap, although I know some of you suffered from wind and a few flooding issues over the last week. Still ploughing through those root vegetables! We were lucky this time and missed the worst of all of it, although the amount of surface water washing about on Thursday was pretty significant.

Things here are beginning to wake up with a small flurry of orders this week, waking us up from our winter slumber. It's about now I start to panic that we aren't actually quite ready for spring just yet. All those overwinter sales preparation jobs I thought we had plenty of time for are now in demand. To be fair I think we are ok for a few weeks, we have a little of everything ready now (POS boards, price labels, boxes, capillary mats, plant labels etc), but we will need to push on now to get all those things ship-shape and totally pre-prepared for when all hell breaks loose and orders start flying in.

Monday should see our annual label delivery arrive, which will need decanting from the pallets and filing away in their appropriate boxes. It's a big one this year with over 500,000 labels to find a home for, it might take a day or two.

Tension is already building for a major change which is also happening in the office on Monday. We are having some new computer kit installed and the whole data storage system changed to hiding it all in the clouds, or something like that. In theory it should make everything more flexible, accessible and much more secure. which would be a major improvement on the current system. The other big thing that will change is that we will lose our old MS Office suite in favour of the subscription based MS 365, which should bring us more up to date on file production and readability etc and of course cost more! The big issue for us oldies, is how much things have changed since we last updated and whether we will be able to find our way around the programs. Please bear with us if things go a bit pear-shaped for a few days!

Our old system works very nicely as it is, with a myriad of other bits of kit and old programs chugging away in the background, so this is another area of concern with the changeover. The many printers and multiple printer settings we have installed, on each current computer, for all the different printing tasks and materials we use, is finely tuned at the moment, what position it will be in by Monday afternoon we will have to wait and see.

This is all being overseen by a very confident young company with very youthful experts, one of which will be on site all day. Let's hope their confidence is justified, although history here is not on their side, but you never know, fingers crossed it will be a seamless and successful changeover. What is that flying by over there?

Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three changes this season in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We know some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. The plants thrive over long periods when kept here on the nursery, the irrigation is pretty accurate and applied in a timely manner in the correct volumes, and the nutrition levels are set to give long lasting healthy growth. But once we set them free, the real world isn't always so kind to them. Peat-free compost mixes struggle to hold onto as much water as peat and also don't grip the nutrients as tightly either. When added to the extra breathability of our Hairy Pots, quicker drying out can be an issue, especially if the ideal of 'little and often' applications of water is not a practical option. When the plants dry out they then tend to get over watered which flushes out the available nutrients resulting in premature deterioration in condition. To help reduce these stresses and provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are doing the following;

1/ Adding a reusable, recycled wool capillary mat in the bottom of each tray which will hold onto extra water for the plants to take up. These are expensive and will need to be returned for reuse with the boxes.

2/ Adding extra wetting agent at despatch to allow the compost to hold onto more water and rewet more easily if dry.

3/ Adding a dose of organic slow release feed as a top dressing to compensate for any leaching of nutrients. Do your 2026 retail prices need changing?

We have increased our cost prices for 2026 by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%, to partially cover our ever increasing costs. If you have your stock pre-priced by ourselves, perhaps now would be a good time to let us know any changes you would like to make for the coming season. We can then adjust our records accordingly and get started on printing the correct price labels in advance of the fast approaching madness of those spring sales.

Availability list.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Some Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour but this has been brought on by the mild winter so far. They are all pretty tough and are standing well against the frosts so far.

The first spring bulbs are here and a few are already showing their first buds. Not much in the way of colour but it won't be long. Two of the hoop-petticoat Narcissus have bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers. 

Seasonal best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy turbines

Hi.

A big weather week around the UK with snow, rain and wind aplenty. We were very lucky to be in an area avoiding all the main weather warnings. We had one night of light snow and one of -8C, which is the coldest here for a couple of years at least. We haven't yet noticed much cold damage, despite the plants looking very sad for a few hours until they thawed out. Next week looks much warmer if a little damp, not quite sure which I prefer, warmth seems quite attractive when your fingers hurt so much in the cold, but the lack of sun when it's very grey doesn't exactly fill you with vim and vigour.

I forgot to mention last week Caroline's exciting Christmas trip out. If you can remember as far back as Christmas Day it was pretty stormy and at 03.00 we had a short power cut during strong winds, and as a result, one of the turbines threw a wing tip. With the wind forecast to blow for several days that was a potential loss of significant income, so I was fairly keen to get the tip reset. It was way too windy on Christmas day itself, when you are perched on a ladder 15m up in the air you (as in Caroline you understand, not me!) feel pretty exposed even with a full multi-anchored safety harness on. 

The weather forecast was spot on when it predicted an early Boxing Day lull in wind speed and up she went, under expert guidance from the ground crew (this is where I step in). It was close to freezing, so a good job there was only one tip to reset, as the wind chill was quick to do its thing.20 minutes later and all was completed, A quick warming hug. a hot chocolate and it was back to more traditional Christmas holiday fun.

The production of our 12,000 new little capillary mats for the marketing trays, came to a grinding halt this week with the demise of our rotary cutter. It probably wasn't the best purchasing decision I have ever made, although I have made a lot worse. It worked a treat to start with and proved it was the right type of tool for the job, but it was a bit of a dodgy looking make and design, and after just a few weeks it coughed and spluttered before giving up completely. I have now sourced two battery operated ones of a more respected make, which arrived this afternoon. They work a treat, even better than the previous one, and slice through the mat like butter. There is no cable to get in the way and the blade is much better protected from any stray fingers etc. Touch wood they last a bit longer this time, the cutter that is, not the fingers. Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three major changes next year in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We are aware that some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. The plants thrive over long periods when kept here on the nursery, the irrigation is pretty accurate and applied in a timely manner in the correct volumes, and the nutrition levels are set to give long lasting healthy growth. But once we set them free, the real world isn't always so kind to them. As I have mentioned previously peat-free compost mixes struggle to hold onto as much water as peat and also don't grip the nutrients as tightly either. When added to the extra breathability of our Hairy Pots, quicker drying out can be an issue, especially if the ideal of 'little and often' applications of water is not a practical option. When the plants dry out they then tend to get over watered which flushes out the available nutrients resulting in premature deterioration in condition. To help reduce these stresses and provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are doing the following;

1/ Adding a reusable, recycled wool capillary mat in the bottom of each tray which will hold onto extra water for the plants to take up. These are expensive and will need to be returned for reuse with the boxes.

2/ Adding extra wetting agent at despatch to allow the compost to hold onto more water and rewet more easily if dry.

3/ Adding a dose of organic slow release feed as a top dressing to compensate for any leaching of nutrients.

It will be interesting to see what a difference these measures will take over the coming season, hopefully it will lead to longer lasting displays and lead to more sales for all.

Do your 2026 retail prices need changing?

We have increased our cost prices for 2026 by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%, to partially cover our ever increasing costs. If you have your stock pre-priced by ourselves, perhaps now would be a good time to let us know any changes you would like to make for the coming season. We can then adjust our records accordingly and get started on printing the correct price labels in advance of the fast approaching madness of those spring sales.

Availability list.

The winter flowering Helleborus Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking really good with bud and some red/purple colour showing too.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Some Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour but this has been brought on by the mild winter so far. They are all pretty tough and are standing well against the frosts so far.

The first spring bulbs are here and a few are already showing their first buds. Not much in the way of colour but it won't be long. Two of the hoop-petticoat Narcissus have bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers. 

Seasonal best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy New Year

Hi.

I hope you all had a great Christmas break. It was nice to have a few days off even if it all seemed to pass by so quickly. A rotation of visiting and hosting various groups of family and friends whirled by, with lots of fun and laughs and a tear or two for those not with us this time round. We set ourselves a challenge before Christmas to clear the 'dining room' and upstairs office in order to accommodate all the beds needed. Both had become dumping grounds for various stuff which couldn't find another home and it us took three weekends to find both floors again. The loft had to be thinned out for all the excess from the office to be relocated, and then the dining room excess was thinned before relocating the remaining treasures into the new spare space in the office. Finding lots of old photos, wage slips and other memorabilia did delay the process somewhat and also make us both feel a bit ancient! Still, on the bright side, I was able to put together my 4 lane Scalextric track in the dining room and reconstruct the four cars necessary to run some great races for the 50+ year old children who visited over the break.

Winter seems to have arrived at last. No snow here just yet but it looks like we might get a flurry or two early next week. We are putting the final touches together to be ready for the upcoming plant sales season. This year's label delivery should be delivered late next week or early the following, and I hope to have the new capillary mats cut very soon, together with this year's batches of wooden POS boards and latex notices all printed and treated. Most of this winters marketing box production and repairs are complete, just waiting on another small wood delivery to finish those off. Weather permitting, in a couple of weeks time I will be looking to start the first seed sowing sessions to germinate under the heat and LED lights in the propagation tunnel, getting us off to a quick start in the spring, and trying to cover the gap that can appear between the overwintered herb stock and the spring potted batches.

Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three major changes next year in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We are aware that some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. The plants thrive over long periods when kept here on the nursery, the irrigation is pretty accurate and applied in a timely manner in the correct volumes, and the nutrition levels are set to give long lasting healthy growth. But once we set them free, the real world isn't always so kind to them. As I have mentioned previously peat-free compost mixes struggle to hold onto as much water as peat and also don't grip the nutrients as tightly either. When added to the extra breathability of our Hairy Pots, quicker drying out can be an issue, especially if the ideal of 'little and often' applications of water is not a practical option. When the plants dry out they then tend to get over watered which flushes out the available nutrients resulting in premature deterioration in condition. To help reduce these stresses and provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are doing the following;

1/ Adding a reusable, recycled wool capillary mat in the bottom of each tray which will hold onto extra water for the plants to take up. These are expensive and will need to be returned for reuse with the boxes.

2/ Adding extra wetting agent at despatch to allow the compost to hold onto more water and rewet more easily if dry.

3/ Adding a dose of organic slow release feed as a top dressing to compensate for any leaching of nutrients.

It will be interesting to see what a difference these measures will take over the coming season, hopefully it will lead to more sales all round.

Prices for 2026.

As all years seem to be, it's been a challenging one, with one big increase in particular adding to our costs, on top of all the usual inflation+ pressures on virtually all materials and young plant costs. I know it's the same for everyone, but the 10% addition to labour costs, made up of the minimum wage increases and higher NI payments, has hit us hard. Labour is far and away our biggest cost and although we try to be more efficient year on year, it is impossible to keep pace with such big changes. We have increased prices by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%.

Availability list.

The winter flowering Helleborus Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking really good with bud and some red/purple colour showing too.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form, the first few flowers are already showing with heaps more to come over the coming months. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on endlessly flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Some Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour but this has been brought on by the mild winter so far. They may take a slight backward step if it gets properly cold, but they are all pretty tough and are standing well against the frosts so far.

The first spring bulbs are here and a few are already showing their first buds. Not much in the way of colour but it won't be long. Two of the hoop-petticoat Narcissus have bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers. 

Seasonal best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Christmas!

Hi

Santa has come early, leaving us with a large pallet of organic DCM top dressing fertiliser, 10 pallets of capillary matting, enough for 12,000 boxes, and several containers of wetting agent, all in preparation for our 2026 gift to all our retailers, a longer lasting shelf life for your Hairy Pots. Unfortunately he has left a hefty invoice or two and was too busy to cut up the matting into the small mats we need. We are however now ready to roll in the New Year, with one pallet of 1,200 mats already cut up with hopefully another one on the cards for next week.

The mat cutting itself isn't too bad, the rotary cutter I bought slices through beautifully, although I am going to have to invest in some knee pads. The first 3 cuts are along the full length of the 25m rolls, cutting the big roll into tray width mini rolls and this is all done on the concrete floor. I was hoping the matting was cushioned enough to make it comfortable crawling and cutting, and although I managed it for most of the day, my knees were distinctly purple when the trousers descended at bedtime. Once cut into mini rolls they mount on a giant toilet roll holder we knocked up on a bench top, and unroll them at a comfortable height for the final cuts. Only 9 more pallets to go!

I hope all your Christmas budgets and plans have all worked out ok, it has certainly been another up and down period with wild weather patterns and mixed economic news, but hopefully things are looking a bit brighter for the coming year. Time will tell. We are certainly looking forward to another exciting year with a few changes on the cards over next few months but this time without spending too much of the pension fund! Last winter's investments like the solar and battery installation are going well, the seed sowing kit promises extra production efficiency next year and I can't find too much more to spend on upgrading the electrics. The overdraft was secured for the winter and next season this week and the bank manager was certainly pleased that I was reigning back a bit. Just a computer upgrade to do before the season starts in earnest and what could possibly go wrong with that?

Have a great Christmas and be cool.

Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three major changes next year in how we prepare our plants for delivery to retailers. We are aware that some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. The plants thrive over long periods when kept here on the nursery, the irrigation is pretty accurate and applied in a timely manner in the correct volumes, and the nutrition levels are set to give long lasting healthy growth. But once we set them free, the real world isn't always so kind to them. As I have mentioned previously peat-free compost mixes struggle to hold onto as much water as peat and also don't grip the nutrients as tightly either. When added to the extra breathability of our Hairy Pots, quicker drying out can be an issue, especially if the ideal of 'little and often' applications of water is not a practical option. When the plants dry out they then tend to get over watered which flushes out the available nutrients resulting in premature deterioration in condition. To help reduce these stresses and provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are doing the following;

1/ Adding a reusable, recycled wool capillary mat in the bottom of each tray which will hold onto extra water for the plants to take up. These are expensive and will need to be returned for reuse with the boxes.

2/ Adding extra wetting agent at despatch to allow the compost to hold onto more water and rewet more easily if dry.

3/ Adding a dose of organic slow release feed as a top dressing to compensate for any leaching of nutrients.

It will be interesting to see what a difference these measures will take over the coming season, hopefully it will lead to more sales all round.

Prices for 2026.

As all years seem to be, it's been a challenging one, with one big increase in particular adding to our costs, on top of all the usual inflation+ pressures on virtually all materials and young plant costs. I know it's the same for everyone, but the 10% addition to labour costs, made up of the minimum wage increases and higher NI payments, has hit us hard. Labour is far and away our biggest cost and although we try to be more efficient year on year, it is impossible to keep pace with such big changes. We have increased prices by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%.

Availability list.

Get ready for winter flowers by stocking up on our Helleborus range. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking really good with bud and some red colour showing too.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form, the first few flowers are already showing with heaps more to come over the coming months. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on endlessly flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Some Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour but this has been brought on by the mild winter so far. They may take a slight backward step if it gets properly cold, but they are all pretty tough. Spring bulbs are just around the corner and should make the list in the early in the New Year.

Seasonal best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy cheer

 

Hi 

The rain is pattering on the roof as I type this, not great for festive cheer and fevered seasonal shopping, but hopefully it won't impact your own Christmas displays and sales too much. We had our first mince pies this week and put up our very modest mess room tree and the same tatty decorations which appear every year. Sometimes it's not the trendy colour scheme that matters it's the warmth and familiarity of getting out the same set of second-hand garlands and baubles to set the scene. Our own tree is also up but not quite decorated yet. The lights failed and I'm awaiting a fresh set before that gets done, but I have put a picture of it from a previous year on the cover of our Mail Chimp emails. You won't believe it but I made this myself, or maybe you would! A few old wooden venetian blind slats and some 2 x 2 was all it took and the homemade mini paper chains top it all off. We've had the same tree since 2008 and the paper chains I must have knocked up about three years prior to that, as I have pictures of those on the MK1 version of the wooden tree where I screwed pieces of dormant beech hedge branches to another piece of 2 x 2. That one didn't last as well as MK2.

Great trip up to New Leaf Nurseries with our reinvigorated NBIS group this week. Good attendance and plenty of new ideas to cherry pick and bring home, as well as catching up with the general mood of growers from across the ornamental sector. I can't say it was bubbling with huge anticipation of mega sales and profitability, but everyone was definitely looking forward with a positive hat on despite horror stories of banks letting long term customers down, with the comment by one bank manager that banks weren't in the business of taking risks. So it's the same old story; The bank is will lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. The other scary topic of conversation was the increasing costs of labour and how dependant we all are on it. I just had an email from the NFU reporting that when the rise comes in next April (4.1% increase) the minimum wage rates will have increased by 52% in five years which I struggled to believe, however I have checked our figures and we are certainly at about 50% over that period, no wonder margins have been getting harder to find when this is our biggest single production cost.

New improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three major changes next year to how we prepare our plants for delivery to retailers. We are aware that some sites do struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. The plants thrive when kept here on the nursery over long periods, the irrigation is pretty accurate and applied in a timely manner in the correct volumes, and the nutrition levels are set to give long lasting healthy growth. But once we set them free the real world isn't always so kind to them. As I mentioned last week peat-free compost mixes struggle to hold onto as much water as peat and also don't grip the nutrients as tightly either. When added to the extra breathability of our Hairy Pots, quicker drying out can be an issue, especially if the ideal of 'little and often' applications of water is not a practical option. When the plants dry out they then tend to get over watered which flushes out the available nutrients resulting in premature deterioration in condition. To help reduce these stresses and provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are doing the following;

1/ Adding a reusable, recycled wool capillary mat in the bottom of each tray which will hold onto extra water for the plants to take up. These are expensive and will need to be returned for reuse with the boxes.

2/ Adding extra wetting agent at despatch to allow the compost to hold onto more water and rewet more easily if dry.

3/ Adding a dose of organic slow release feed as a top dressing to compensate for any leaching of nutrients.

It will be interesting to see what a difference these measures will take over the coming season, hopefully it will lead to more sales all round.

Prices for 2026.

As all years seem to be, it's been a challenging one, with one big increase in particular adding to our costs, on top of all the usual inflation+ pressures on virtually all materials and young plant costs. I know it's the same for everyone, but the 10% addition to labour costs, made up of the minimum wage increases and higher NI payments, has hit us hard. Labour is far and away our biggest cost and although we try to be more efficient year on year, it is impossible to keep pace with such big changes. As optimistic as ever, we have increased prices by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%, possibly not enough, but it is what we believe to be an acceptable change. We are hoping that even more improvements in productivity, together with growing sales volumes, will help us maintain a sustainable margin, but we will have to review the position again in 12 months time.

Availability list.

Get ready for winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking really good with bud and some red colour showing too.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form, the first few flowers are already showing with heaps more to come over the coming months. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on endlessly flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy and free

Hi 

A week of big events with the Budget yesterday having more leaks than our Hairy Pots, and a day out attending the RHS Peat Free Conference at Wisley. The Budget has been talked about enough already with endless coverage on the telly for what seems like weeks, so I will concentrate on something a bit closer to home with a fun filled conference report.

I do have to say the attendance was really encouraging with the hall packed with growers, most of whom seem to be well on the way to getting to peat-free potting, if not quite so close to managing to cover all areas of their propagation supply. It's coming together but just not quite there yet.

There were some blasts from the past present which stirred up a few feelings I didn't expect on the day. The opening speaker was the chief cheese from a multiple DIY retail chain who we had some dealings with 20+ years ago, in those heady days when we thought we would do ok selling in bulk to the big boys. It took 9 years of painful stress, hard work and losses, combined with the bullying arrogance that most supermarkets seem to employ when handling grower/farming suppliers before we could extradite ourselves from a very negative position. A bit of NLP training reminded us that we did actually have a choice in how we went forward, either go bust being beaten up by the big boys, or downsize and lose it all, doing something we believed in, by going Hairy! Luckily the latter option turned out to be a good call in the long run.

The focus was very definitely on peat-free at the conference and there was quite a bit of debate as to how it was being accepted, or not, by the gardening public. The performance and quality of many retail composts was questioned with a lot of consumers losing heart in going peat-free after some bad experiences. There appear to be two main reasons behind this, one being the variable nature of available retail mixes, with a lack of clarity as to which ones were any good. and the second being the big differences between how you look after a peat compost compared with peat-free. It looks like the quality variability will have a solution fairly soon with new standards, testing and certification coming in over the next couple of years to flag up those that will do the job intended.

The change in compost management may be slightly more tricky to achieve, as it does involve a bit of a rethink in how peat- free composts are treated to get the best out of them. Here in a nutshell is the theory behind the changes needed. Firstly the micro structure of peat fibres is naturally brilliant at holding onto water and fertilisers, whilst the ingredients of peat-free mixes are pretty good at it, but not as good. So a peat-free compost will run out of water quicker, and although the plants grown will not use more water, the compost may not have it available over the whole period the plant needs it. The solution is not to increase the amount of water given but increase the regularity of application. Little and often is the key. The fact that the plant nutrients are also not held so tightly in the mix means they are more susceptible to leaching out if over, or too heavily, watered. Little and often is again the solution.

Interestingly the RHS surveyed their members and the number one concern is the environment and climate change and the RHS seem to have interpreted this reply to mean that everything must be peat-free asap, conveniently forgetting about the widespread use of single use plastics within the industry. Be careful what you think you understand from surveys, it's all in the wording of the question. Personally I suspect that plastics pollution and it's use is higher on most gardeners agenda. 

Prices for 2026.

As all years seem to be, it's been a challenging one, with one big increase in particular adding to our costs, on top of all the usual inflation+ pressures on virtually all materials and young plant costs. I know it's the same for everyone, but the 10% addition to labour costs, made up of the minimum wage increases and higher NI payments, has hit us hard. Labour is far and away our biggest cost and although we try to be more efficient year on year, it is impossible to keep pace with such big changes. As optimistic as ever, we have increased prices by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%, possibly not enough, but it is what we believe to be an acceptable change. We are hoping that even more improvements in productivity, together with growing sales volumes, will help us maintain a sustainable margin, but we will have to review the position again in 12 months time.

Wooden box collecting is just about done..

We have already collected up most of our reusable wooden boxes ready for cleaning, drying and repair if needed, before they go into winter storage. If you have any boxes ready to go just drop us a line and we will pick them up when next in your area. It may take a week or two to get round but we will get there eventually.

Availability list.

Get ready for winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking really good with plenty of bud and some red colour too.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form, the first odd flower is already now showing with heaps more to come over the coming months. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on endlessly flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy calculations

Hi.

This week has felt like one of the longest in recent history as I have been stuck behind a desk slogging through multiple spreadsheets trying to make decisions on what young plants and seed to buy for next year's cropping. It's always a brain aching task but made far more complex this time by the need to adapt our young plant sourcing to finding a wider range in peat-free modules. While most young plant producers have been reducing peat use for a while, not all have managed to go completely peat-free, but by changing suppliers, some variety adjustments and by trying to produce more ourselves we can achieve a slightly wider range produced without using peat based modules. Then comes the numbers game, what reductions in volume do we make to those lines we can only get in peat-based modules, to keep the range up to date with the best new varieties for those non National Trust and RHS customers who are still allowing us to use these suppliers. There are also often huge cost implications to changing suppliers for many plants, they may use a bigger module size which adds to the costs or they are simply a more expensive supplier due to economies of scale or lower levels of automation, another factor that needs bringing into this years decision making.

We are still making good progress with developing more dependable propagation composts and using our newly acquired tray filling and seed sowing machinery, but the range we can produce is restricted. We are legally unable to propagate the newest and best licensed varieties and because we are buying seed in such small volumes our material costs are far higher than the big boys. A good example would be Calamintha Marvellete which is a seed raised range but we have to pay about £35 for enough seed to sow a tray of 250 modules but I could buy the finished tray ready to pot for £50. By the time you add costs of the tray, compost and labour it is not an attractive proposition. I sowed a test tray last summer and potted less than 50 plants from it due to losses during production, so there is the risk element to add in there too. Luckily not all seed is as expensive as this but then you can miss out on the new good stuff. While being 100% peat-free is a very commendable policy, it's a huge rush, effort and expense to remove the last 0.4% of peat left in our overall compost usage and rather detracts from our efforts to do all the other sustainable stuff we have been developing over the years, but hey-ho the customer knows best! I've completed 2 plant orders so far, out of the 6 needed for the bulk of our crops, so a solid slog over today and the weekend might see most of the decisions made, I just need to stay awake long enough to get it finished.

After collecting all the data for last year's sales for each variety, current plant and label stock levels and the above planned young plant purchasing and our own seed and cutting production for next year, the last spreadsheet to fill is the pot label order then I can relax and take a break.

Back on the nursery the real work is ongoing with the spring bulb potting all but finished. It's a slow old job, even with the potting machine doing all the pot filling and hole drilling. It's the counting out of the little ones that takes the most time as well as getting the bigger ones all pointing in the right direction at a sensible depth. Luckily it's a time of year when there are not too many other demands on our time so it feels like we can afford to get it right. As usual several of the tastiest varieties have been potted, watered and mulched before loading back onto tightly shelved danish trolleys. This keeps them off the ground and hopefully out of the way of temptation from the mice which have in the past caused havoc. One year we lost the entire crop of Fritillaria, which is a big crop for us. The mice had been in and removed the vast majority of bulbs and hidden them away for winter feasting. We found a lot of them later in the winter, tucked away in heaps around the site, but unfortunately they were beyond recovery as a crop. Lesson learnt.

Wooden box collecting is well underway.

We have already collected up a good proportion of our reusable wooden boxes ready for cleaning, drying and repair if needed, before they go into winter storage. If you have any ready to go just drop us a line and we will pick them up when next in your area. It may take a week or two to get round but we will get there eventually. We try to put together a good number of collections on each trip as it is always painful sending out the van without any paying cargo, but each tray does cost £10 to replace so it does pay for us to make the effort.

Availability list.

Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking great with plenty of bud and some red colour too.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form, the first odd flower is already now showing with heaps more to come over the coming months. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on endlessly flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Most other late flowering stock has just the remnants of colour showing, so I can no longer really mark them up as being in bud and flower as I'm not sure how much longer they will show themselves nicely.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.