Hairy Raspberry

Morning all,
Not sure about my thoughts for this week. Still plenty of good looking stuff to sell and sales are still bowling along nicely. The weather has calmed down a bit which makes life easier on the nursery and we have buckets of fresh raspberries. One of my highlights of the year is a lunchtime treat of fresh raspberries eaten with Green and Blacks dark chocolate chunks, mmmm. Unfortunately I’m feeling a bit anxious about the implications of the Budget disclosures earlier in the week. As one of those exploitative nasty employers paying low wages we look like being hit pretty hard by the new national living wage over the next few years, on top of the new pension charges set to hit us in the next 18 months. I’m not sure at the moment quite what the full effect will be but with such a labour intensive set up as ours some things are going to have to change over that time. The new rates will see many of the lowest wages rise by 10% each year over the next 4 years. This will surely hit hard areas like care industries, veg and fruit picking, retailing and hospitality workers and although I love to see people being paid sensible wages I wonder where the money is going to come from to cover it. Some must be funded by higher prices and others by higher costs to organisations like the NHS and local authorities who are hardly flush at the moment. Rather quietly the zero carbon emission target for new house builds had been dropped by the new government saving an estimated £2,500 per property. A small initial saving with long term effects and a big opportunity missed at a time when large scale house building is set to be encouraged. With luck I’ll be gone before the shit really hits the fan, so why am I so cross? I struggled to the summon the enthusiasm to buy my food rations for the week this morning, as their didn’t seem much point, but I was brought back to earth with a bump as Caroline rolled her eyes in my direction from the other side of the trolley. I thoughtfully rolled them back and made my selection, 7 bars of Green and Blacks.
Well done to Neil Grant (young trendy garden centre star) for winning the Observers Small Business Leader 2015 and our Elaine for sticking it out here for nearly 30 years despite the poor pay and regular beatings.

Availability highlights
Purple spikes of Liatris are now showing colour, bushy and strong but not very many left.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. Lovely compact plants of Verbena Lollipop now showing colour. Eucomis autumnalis coming into bud and flower now, a compact summer display of its delightful pale yellow columnar flower spikes.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. Golden forms of George Davidson and Sunglow now also showing bud. Summer colour from the Lobelia Fan series already just showing. Burgundy is stonkingly bushy and a great colour. The pastel yellows and oranges of Kniphofia Flamenco are showing nicely but not many left.Don’t miss out on a great fresh crop of Geranium Black Beauty, lots of bud coming and some blue flowers open. The popular dwarf Eryngium Blue Hobbit is in bud now (isn’t there a film out again?) 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. Still plenty of fresh Erigeron karvinskianus shooting all over the place with masses of bud and flower.
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. The short Campanulas are in bud, a real taste of summer (carpatica blue, white and posharskyana) The 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 and the lovely pale yellow Moonshine. Just a few Sunray left but with masses of bud. Stunning amounts of bud and flower on both Oxalis varieties, great pot fulls.
Just coming into 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.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries