Monday 30 June 2014

Hairy Show

Good morning all.

What a hectic week. The fabulous drugs provided by casualty last weekend worked a treat on my back, I got to the National Plant Show and survived in a fully vertical position the whole time. Thanks have to go to heroic niece Emily who did all the van driving (the drugs meant I was off that role) and a lot of the stand building as well as attending with me selling the hairy pot ideas over both days. We both had a great time seeing lots of old, new and potential customers in a positive, relaxed, buoyant and plant promoting atmosphere. Voice was a bit hoarse by the end of two days but very well worth the trip. Really pleased with the stand appearance, just perfect for what we wanted to achieve and we did get a recommendation from the stand judges at the awards which was nice. Although what we do isn’t everyone’s cup of tea it is always great to see when someone really connects and they get as excited as us about looking at plant production and sales in a different way. The samples of the new 2015 perennial labels we had on show with their bamboo skewer, extra practicality and depth of information with bar and QR coding were a nice illustration of how we continually look at improving our product as we forge a new way forward. Big thanks also to Susan and Brian for reviving us each evening with delicious sustenance, great comfort and company, it was like a mini holiday in the country, in fact I suspect that was the summer holiday. Luckily the drugs kept me off the home brewed cider on offer, otherwise the days might have been much harder!

I will attach a bit of the first info available about the new labels for 2015, just in case you didn’t see us at the show. Still sending out plenty of plants which is great, the weather is being kind so far and the bit of rain we had will keep things moist in the gardens and hopefully keep things moving.

Keep it up there are plenty of plants to go!

Availability

The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too!

Verbascum Primrose Path, a stunning short pale yellow variety, has just started to show flower colour, a great plant. Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher.

A few new additions for this summer are a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and budding up nic ely now and there are also new dahlia’s who’s dark foliage and bushy habit look great, flowering just around the corner.

Talking of dark foliage, Ajuga Black Scallop is new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner. Another new one this summer is Veronica Spode Blue, a dinky short variety with an endless show of pale blue flowers. We have a small range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time.

Coreopsis Sunray and Corey Yellow have plenty of bud nestling in fresh green foliage. The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour. Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant.

Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are just beginning to bud up as summer approaches.

The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud. Bushy V. bonariensis are also available again. New Leucanthemum varieties to us (Lacrosse and Banana Creme) are showing their first signs of flowering, as are the pretty pale yellow Broadway Lights.

Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on some Crocosmia.

The Helenium Waldraut and Moerheim Beauty are in stunning colour and strong stemmed although quite tall.

The traditional Dianthus, the garden pinks, are also in bud, the new ‘Scent First’ (SF) series are compact and as the name suggests fantastically scented with some lovely colour combinations. Some of the slightly larger classic varieties Doris and Hayter White are also strongly in bud.

Catananche are coming into strong bud now, their delightful papery blue flowers just a moment away, although selling throughfast. We have a batch of the pretty white form as well this year which are also in bud. Just a few left now. Oxalis Iron Cross are carrying their red buds and flowers above its pretty two tone foliage.

Summer campanula’s are in bud (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana).

Achillea Summer Pastels and Paprika with plenty of bud and some colour. A new batch of the lovely compact Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again.

Edibles

We are having a play with a couple of new strawberry lines to us, Toscana (very dark pink flowers) and Roman (pretty pale pink and now a few very tasty fruit), both have long flowering and fruiting seasons. Quality control in despatch means any ripe fruit is taken care of to prevent red juice contamination of the van!

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

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