Sunday 6 July 2014

Hairy pots

Good morning all.



Yet another hectic week, sending out lots of orders. Most of the planned other work has gone on hold for a bit until we can find a moment. The deliveries of next year’s young plants are already here in large numbers and rather than keeping them waiting for too long before finding their way into a pot we are repeating the trick of the past couple of years and dropping them in a big module of our peat free potting compost. Although it adds in an extra production stage it does keep the plants growing strongly and provides monster stock to pot a bit later in the summer. There are a number of benefits to this, an extra chance to grade out any rubbish, an extra large plant framework provides greater pest and disease resilience as well as stonkingly sized plants, quicker and denser compost coverage reduces weed, moss and liverwort growth, better overwintering success and a bit of extra production flexibility. That is all brilliant and if we achieve the ultimate elusive aim and sell them all too, we will be able to do it all again next year!

Had an interesting email enquiry this week questioning if anything we used on our plants (MET52 specifically mentioned) would have killed off some tiger moth caterpillars which had been feeding on a couple of our plants in the garden. The easy answer is no, but that is not altogether helpful or informative. Such a specific question was a tricky one to reply to as the amount of info you need, to try and provide that illusive useful answer is immense. How long ago were the plants bought, how did the caterpillars get on the plant (naturally or helped), were there signs of them eating stuff, weather, caterpillar death symptoms and I’m sure more questions to materialise later. I suspect a full investigation and visit would still not come up with a definitive diagnosis of the deaths but I managed to spend an hour replying, explaining how MET52 spores (an anti vine
weevil bio-insectide) had been incorporated in the compost and not on or inside the plant so not going to be the problem. This led on to the fact that having spent many thousands of pounds over the last two seasons on this remedy we found it fairly ineffective on the weevil and had now changed to applying parasitic nematodes at key times of year. Then of course a description of why this is not going to be the cause followed (live in dark damp compost and are very , very short lived in daylight etc). An explanation of bio-controls simply boosting local natural populations to achieve a degree of pest control was needed and further general assurances followed that most chemicals available nowadays to all growers are so short -lived that by the time the plants were despatched, bought, planted and rained on there would be little residue left to cause mega death to the general insect population of the nature friendly gardener. That brings us to the fundamental issue that everyone wants to buy lovely looking pest free healthy plants but just as long as we aren’t cruel to any wildlife along the way! Even using natural bio controls and predators seems to raise alarm. Can we ever win or are we all failing to get our best intentioned messages across?
Plants are good for you, your garden and nature. Plant more. Plants are good. Good, mmm, yummy plants.

Availability

The Lobelia Fan range are so strong and bushy they could burst and flower spikes are thrusting too!
Beautiful pale yellow flowers of the Eucomis autumnalis are opening, short and chunky a really eye catcher but only a few left. A few new addition for this summer is a range of hardy fuchsia’s which are wonderfully bushy and flowering nicely now.
Ajuga Black Scallop is also new on our list this year with really very dark tight foliage, a stunner.
We have a great range of good looking chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
The feathery foliage of Coreopsis Zagreb is also now supporting bright yellow colour.
Summer Penstemons growing well and looking verdant with numerous buds appearing. Lots of Hemerocallis varieties are colouring up as summer approaches.
The shorter Verbena bonariensis Lollipop are strong, shooty, and showing bud and colour. Bushy V. bonariensis are also available again with first buds showing.
Leucanthemum Broadway Lights and Banana Creme are showing their first signs of flowering, large pretty pale yellow blooms. Summer is on its way with the first buds appearing on some Crocosmia.
It seems early but many of the Asters are showing buds and to occasional open flower, a lovely range of colours.
The Helenium Waldraut and Moerheim Beauty are in stunning colour and strong stemmed although quite tall.
The traditional Dianthus are in bud, the new ‘Scent First’ (SF) series are compact and scented with some lovely colour combinations. The slightly larger classic varieties Gran’s Favourite and Hayter White are also strongly in bud. Summer campanula’s are in bud (carpatica white and posharskyana).
Achillea Desert Eve series are just producing their first buds again. Also a nice short bushy batch of The Pearl with its little white button flowers is reaching perfection.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

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