Hairy and Ancient

Morning all,
Still plenty of colour and fab looking stock so definitely don’t hold back!
That was a heck of a week. Mega party weekend preceded the National Plant Show set up on Monday and then two nights away and two days of chat and enthusiasm. Not sure which was most exhausting, probably the over excited sustained enthusiasm. Loads of orders on the nursery on top of everything else, even before any new customers and piles of young plants coming in for next year’s output. By the time I got to Thursday evening I wasn’t really sure if I was coming or going, but now the weekend is here I can pause gather my thoughts and breathe again.Naturally the highlight was meeting all our lovely customers at the show and pressing the flesh with prospective new ones who might be reading this pap for the first time, so hello to you all, and on with the important stuff.
The combined emotional impact of such an intensive week is scary, you can see how some less lucky souls might throw a bit of a wobbly. Luckily the combination of friends and family scattered through it all kept my feet reasonably close to the ground. The weekend saw 90th birthday lunch, 25th  wedding anniversary and 21st birthday feast and dancing and Sunday drinks with the villagers. Excesses all over the place and very achy legs for the next day or two after serious dad dancing by many aging souls. I must have caught the sun too because something gave me a pretty sore head along the way. For the few days of the plant show we were lucky enough to stay with friends nearby, very relaxed with fantastic home cooking and challenging entertainment thrown in. I am now initiated in the basics of discoidal technology and very excited about it too! Our host and tame archaeologist has located a very rare site nearby with what he believes to be a collection of very old scattered flint cores, flakes and tools, but not ‘modern’ new (5,000 years ago) and middle stone age stuff (7,000+ years ago), which he has already recorded, this is pre-human Neanderthal kit (40,000+ years). The flint is knapped using different techniques (discoidal) and has a deep patina quite different from the ‘new’ stuff. Handling these artefacts is just mind blowing, what a lucky chap I bet you’re thinking. Let’s hope our technology keeps us going as long as flint did.
Back up to date with our current availability highlights
Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, masses of bud coming and a some blue flowers opening. The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with the odd open flower. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic garden flowers.
Our dwarf strong pink Verbascum Pink Kisses are looking great, showing colour and loads of bud coming too. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud. Veronica have colour showing now. Delightful Catananche looking lush with flower stems and buds appearing on both colours. Very attractive plants and very popular when buds and flower are showing. Sold very quickly last year so took a gamble on extra this year, don’t miss out. Digitalis Dalmatian varieties all now in bud and showing colour, strong compact plants with spotted foxglove flowers.
The short Campanula's are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue and posharskyana) Our hardy Fuchsias are just beginning to produce their seemingly endless supply of buds. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on Zagreb and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. A few Sunray left with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls. Just coming into bud are our great range of Leucanthemums Snow Lady and Lacrosse have flowers now opening. All stonkingly bushy plants, Banana Creme has masses of bud, very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Our Daylily range is throwing up its flower shoots now, summer must be just round the corner. Loads of Hemerocallis Black Prince this year, but likely to still disappear fast so don’t dither, get it quick!
Our lovely short Tiarella (Foam Flower) are showing plenty of bud and flower now, a very pretty cream show. Great ground cover plants in a good range, the Ajugas are topping their lovely foliage display with their late spring flowers. Delightful little flowers of Erodium’s are showing well with months of flower colour to come. Herbs coming along nicely as the range begins to grow. The Basils are starting now as the temperature begins to rise. Lavenders are coming into bud, and some of the pretty and tasty thymes too. Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries