Not very sunny this weekend, but a nice drop of rain and cooler temperatures keep most of the plants in good condition which is great for us and hopefully keeps things ticking along in the plant sales areas around the country. A steadily warming drier week coming up so a nice start for the tennis.

We had a quieter week on the sales front although quite a few more holes appeared in the stock so things are looking more positive than a few weeks ago. Flowering stock seems to be the flavour of the season this year which is not too surprising given the competition for space. Most lines that have come into colour have sold through well but we have definitely seen a lack of demand for those items we usually only sell in leaf which does limit plant diversity in the border but you can’t argue against sales volumes.

Mega couple of weeks went to see Elvis Costello in Basingstoke on Thursday. Just brilliant. No support, just the band for nearly three hours. Just like the last time I saw him over 30 years ago, before most of you were born I suspect. Not the most dynamic audience I’ve seen but everyone had a good time and lots of memories were captured on various personal devices. I still prefer the personal device fitted between my ears despite its unreliability and its habit of crashing when saturated with beer. This week we are going to see Marcus Bonfanti in Portsmouth www.marcusbonfanti.com/ who is a brilliant young blues chap. Check out the website and the great new album, look past the long hair and listen, it’s really real unmanufactured talent.

Availability

Fantastic Salvia’s are all very well budded and showing great colour, still lovely chunky plants. Numbers dwindling quickly, get them at their peak.

Campanula carpatica short and chunky with masses of buds coming. Available in blue or white.

Echinacea has sold really strongly this year. We still have a few left and they are now producing buds on strong stems. B oth the White Swan and Magus (magenta/purple) are looking good but watch out the stock won’t be here for long.

Summer must be here as most of the Hemerocallis are showing bud with some colour on the ever-flowering Stella de Oro. The dark flowering Verbascum Cherry Helen and the Pink Petticoats are showing colour and looking strong.

Anthemis EC Buxton has masses of chunky bud ready to open into their stunningly pretty daisy flowers.

Plenty of bud coming on the Garden Pinks Dianthus. Gran’s Favourite and Cranmere Pool are the most advanced on the flowering front.

The bright tiny scrambling flowers of Dianthus Brilliancy and Flashing Light are now shouting.

The perennial purple cornflower Centaurea deabata is showing off its first flowers and looking strong.

Exotic Oxalis is up and in bud. Purple foliage and pale pink flowers of O. triangularis are stunning. The short pretty pale yellow Digitalis Carillion is showing colour.

Just a few Catananche left. The first buds are opening into the lovely sky blue summery flowers. Very strong Tradescatia plants in many colours with bud and flower colour in abundance.

The ever popular Geums have plenty of bud and colour coming now.

We have our best Japanese Anemones ever at the moment, stonkingly bushy plants. Hadspen Abundance is showing signs of flowering already and looking great.

Campanula glomerata Acaulis in bud and showing colour, short and bushy. Dicentra spectabilis is showing a second flowering flush and looks nice.

The Hostas are very chunky and yummy this year too, get them before the slugs do!

Carex Evergold and Ice Dance both look fantastic.

Nature notes

A very exciting couple of days on the local bird spotting front. In all my years in Hampshire I’ve not heard let alone seen Turtle Doves. The local paper a couple of weeks ago mentioned how scarce they are becoming locally yet yesterday Caroline heard one in the garden. We sat and listened to it for 20 minutes but couldn’t see it in the tree branches. It moved from one side of the garden to the other unobserved despite three of us watching. Then this morning, while walking the nursery updating the lists, I heard it again. Luckily I had the binoculars in the office but still couldn’t see it. A bit later it called again and it was in the one small tree in the yard, but still hidden. I kept a watch on the tree and after a few false alarms it flew out. I followed it down to the bottom of the nursery where it landed on a branch next to a second one! A great view of these stunners for a minute or so before they disappeared into the branches again. They are still calling. New visitors for the summer maybe.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries