Hairy and Deaf

Morning all,
Even more fabulous stock coming into its peak this week so still no room for rambling this week. If you get the chance go and see The Strypes, best band we’ve seen for years, if not ever. Young, talented, energetic, exciting accessible music and very loud. Even the audience was young, well with a few notable exceptions. Must get Caroline’s birthday present sorted, I need more than a bag of organic spinach this time!

Availability highlights
Our nice short Tiarella (Foam Flower) are showing plenty of bud and flower now, a very pretty cream show. A new crop for this spring is Digitalis Silver Fox. Lovely silver/grey foliage which is showing strong multiple flower shoots (white flowered). It doesn’t get too tall and looks perfect just now.
Incarvillea has suddenly leapt out of the compost and started producing flower shoots and colour. Exotic in appearance. Candelabra primulas (x bullesiana) in bud, Mixed colours putting on a lovely show but needs a damp planting spot. Just a few Stokesia left in bud. The big flowers always surprise me on such short plants. (Memory of a goldfish) Just coming into bud is our great range of Leucanthemums. Several varieties this year running alongside the ever popular dwarf classics of Snow Lady and Silver Princess. All stonkingly bushy plants, Lacrosse has pretty white petals with a little spoon shape on the end of each, Sante is a stunningly frilly double and Real Dream, Banana Creme and Broadway Lights all carry very attractive flowers of varying shades of cream/yellow.
One of Carolines favourites is Sea Lavender (Limonium) which often gets overlooked. Perhaps just too subtle for some,  but it has lovely reddening foliage as it ages as well as it’s wafty summer flowers. Just throwing up its flower shoots now. Salvia’s Sensation Blue and Sensation Rose are producing strong bud and good colour. The Gaillardia range is producing plenty of bud now. The delightful Messa Yellow are a favourite of mine but the bolder Arizona Red and bicolour Arizona Sun put on a great show too. More Peach to come later. The dwarf upright Polemonium Bambino Blue is now in bud, the odd bold blue flower showing.
Fabulous crops of Gallery Lupins, Delpiniums and Digitalis Dalmation will be on stream for just a few more weeks. Hollyhocks (Alcea) are also strong and bushy, ideal condition to sell and plant before they shoot for the stars.Astilbes all have masses of tight bud showing, Dark red (Fanal), white (Deutschland), dark pink (Rhienland) and delightful pale pink of Peach Blossom.Geranium Brookside is nicely in colour at the moment with their blue flowers opening. Clear large pink flowers of Geranium sang. Striatum are doing their thing, a delightful ground hugging show. Geum’s are in bud and flower, Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw have buds and flowers opening on strong stems looking fantastic.
Papaver Garden Gnome looking fresh and vigorous with their first plump buds appearing among the leaves and the occasional flower opening. We have several more Veronica’s this season which are looking fab, Buds are appearing on nice compact plants although not sure yet how long before the colour appears. The best varieties are Inspire Blue (very blue), Red Fox (deep pink/red) and Baby Doll (lovely flouncy pink and short!).
We have a lot more Achillea varieties this year, there are flower shoots and buds most. The Desert Eve range are very compact, the others are short but not quite as ground hugging. All monster plants, I can’t believe how strong they all are. Coreopsis Sunfire puts on a great summer show and we have lovely bushy plants with the first buds nestling in the tops. Last year we grew the popular Erigeron karvinskianus for the first time and sold out in a week. This year’s crop is much bigger and we have several batches to see us through the next couple of months. Other Erigeron are approaching flowering. The low growing Sea Breeze varieties have a masses of buds, especially the pink one, although not many left. Delightful little flowers of Erodium’s are showing well with months of colour to follow. The Phlox Flame varieties are showing really strong bushy growth. Best Phlox we have ever had.
Herbs coming along nicely as the range begins to grow. Still not warm enough yet for those basil plants, they really need some warmth to get going.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries