Hairy Stars

Morning all,
I hope you didn’t get too wet last week. We got a good drenching although luckily most of it was overnight so didn’t interfere too much on daytime fun on the nursery. Usual stuff, orders out, plants into pots or big modules, tunnels being cleared, it’s all go. When we get asked how things are going on the nursery the question is usually loaded towards ‘are you selling lots of stuff?’ and as sales start to slow it is assumed we can then take a well earned holiday in all that newly found spare time. Unfortunately there is almost more pressure at this time as we try and make the most of every day's warmth and day-length to get next year’s crops even more mega than the last years. At the same time we juggle sales, other holidays, summer casuals, and adjust everything to the weather of the day, what fun. Must admit we are both feeling a bit tired but not long now until November hols. A great motivator is when things go to plan and this week’s highlight was the successful release of our first batch of 1,000 million nematodes for the late summer/autumn bio pest control. Perfect weather, damp and cool over two evenings and the night’s drawing in meant they went on more or less in the dark, just what they like. My homemade nematode bubble-drum worked perfectly, aerating and stirring with compressed air the nematodes in the stock solution, before being sucked into the irrigation system and spread evenly over the nursery. A follow-up gentle rinse washes them off the foliage and onto the compost before they dry out.
Another late night on Wednesday when we got a surprise break in the weather and popped out into the field to watch the meteor shower. I must have seen over 15 over about an hour but with my head permanently looking up and some of them being very fleeting I may well have had a degree of blood supply curtailment adding to the overall visual effects. There were one or two monster ones which was all very exciting.
I must admit to a degree of simple naivety in my business acumen, I just want to do as good a job as we can manage and try and charge a fair price to keep the whole thing moving forwards. It still comes as a bit of a shock when I hear about businesses operating more ‘cunningly’. The milk price would be an obvious target but this time it’s nothing to do with growing stuff, its car parts. There is, I’m told, a company supplying many standard car parts to lots of manufacturers, franchisers and garages. They all apparently use the same parts for lots of vehicles and the supplier will have a single design of that part and a series of different boxes to pop the part into depending on which make of car it is required for. So those ‘genuine parts’ might not be as unique as you would think. It’s definitely an efficient system which I applaud but will those parts going to the more prestigious brands will be the same price is those going to the others? I wonder. How easily we can be deceived.

Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
We have a last small strong batch of Lobelia Fan Blue just starting to produce i'ts flower shoots for a late summer display. Only one variety (delightful mini yellow spidery flowers) left this week of our new range of compact hardy Chrysanthemums. Great little plants with masses of bud already appearing, naturally branching with no need for pinching. As well as the new Chrysanthemums we have also introduced some new mildew resistant Asters. The Aster ageratiodes varieties run a fantastically long flowering period from late July right through to November, forming neat mounds of dainty flowers. The slight downside is the restricted colour palette which currently falls in a white, pale blue, pale mauve range, but they are all real charmers. The first buds have appeared with the occasional open flower. There is also Flora’s Delight, another frikartii variety, slightly more purple than the ever popular Monch.
Verbena Lollipop is still producing its compact flowers and looking good. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants to plant out.
Achillea Moonshine is back in bud and flower and we have nice chunky Red Velvet showing bud again too.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for a great winter display
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. There is a fresh flush of Delphinium growth with buds appearing on many. There is a new flush of Oxalis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries