Monday 20 July 2015

Hairy Breakout

Morning all,
Massively busy again last week and still plenty of stock looking yummy. A bit of a splurge on microprop sales over the next few weeks seems to mark a bit of a resurgence of grower confidence as stock gets potted on for next year. It’s not setting the world alight but it all helps making ends meet. Still more young plant stock has been arriving, ready to grow on for next season, just need to find the time to make space for it all and get stuck in. The stock we have already moved on is growing away really well but that in itself adds to the pressure to get other things moved on asap, just not enough hours in the day at this time of year.
Big day tomorrow with whole months meat ration to be eaten in one marathon big family session. It’s BBQ time down on the farm celebrating Caroline’s mums birthday. Weather forecast not brilliant but animal protein levels look promising. Sadly no beach body for me this summer, several weeks of excessive home grown fruit consumption and appropriate accompaniments are taking their toll, but delicious none the less. I’m always so full of determination when I step off the scales at the end of the day but it all evaporates as the fridge door opens. On top of it all last week’s slip into comfort eating of numerous bars of dark chocolate to accompany the raspberry glut took me back to teenage levels of dermatological trauma. Lesson learnt, well for a week or two anyway.
Swallows are sitting on the nest again, their first batch lost out to the early cold, second batch of 5 fledged and moved out and now a third lot are hopefully on their way. While we only ever get a single swallow nest we have 15 occupied house martin nests on the house although they only have the one hatching each year. Their mass feeding and chattering in the evening is a joyful part the summer and when all the youngsters get airborne later it’s a sky full of chaos, love it.

Availability highlights
Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.I have just started listing a new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing. They are naturally branching with no need for pinching in a lovely colour range. Probably a week or two before much colour appears but cracking plants, Grommit.
Fresh batches of Echinacea now coming on stream, plenty of bud coming on the Pow Wow varieties, Cheyenne Spirit and Prairie Splendour. Flavour of the month it seems. Platycodon Astra Blue is in bud with some colour appearing. Intense blue colouring.The summer flower stems of the Crocosmia are now emerging, pushed on by the higher temperatures. Lucifer has the best scarlet colour making it the most popular although it does get very tall in the pot, Emberglow is tidier yet still impressive. Orange upright flowers of Mistral looking good and the golden varieties of George Davidson and Sunglow now also showing bud.
The Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are beginning to bud up nicely with colour showing on many. Most of the varieties we grow have a delicious scent, classic cottage garden flowers. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour.Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour. We have one last batch of Rudbeckia Goldsturm looking monstrously strong and the first signs are there of the flower shoots appearing. A great favourite.
The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana)
Our hardy Fuchsias are producing their seemingly endless supply of bud and flower. Summer sunshine in a pot, Coreopsis are looking brilliant, colour on the Sunfire and plenty of bud on the feathery leaved golden flowered Zagreb.Now in bud and flower are our great range of Leucanthemums. All are now showing colour, all stonkingly bushy plants.Banana Creme has very attractive large daisy flowers of varying shades of cream/pale yellow. Lacrosse is a lovely short white with attractive petal feathering and Snow Lady is a classic compact white.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

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