Late and Hairy

Morning all,

Busy, busy, busy, hence the slightly late email this week. Lots to do on the nursery but nothing new there, it’s a rush of social engagements that has caught me out. The past week was pretty full with skittles twice and my first Christmas dinner, then this weekend has been bonkers. John Otway gig on Friday night, walloped 9-0 on the hockey pitch followed by a lovely dinner out on Saturday, exciting horse racing on Sunday where I lost everything (luckily Caroline backed a good one) finished off by a 35th wedding anniversary celebration entertained by a very loud young rock blues band (Raveneye) until the early hours. Bit deaf and slightly sore headed this morning trying to gather some brain cells together for a local Christmas quiz tonight. Then it’s off to the Christmas Ball at the Guildhall on Tuesday night with four dance floors and a chocolate fountain ready for impressing the bank manager on Wednesday! Luckily I’m hoping the better figures this year will do the talking for me as we continue to claw our way back from the disappointing previous few seasons. Still a way to go yet but feeling quite proud of ourselves just at the moment. Might be a bit different in a few weeks when the annual winter cash-flow crisis hits home! Roll on the spring, or is this it?
Good to see some political movement on the climate front this week, let’s hope we see some more positive changes happening from the top rather than pandering all the time to the cash gods. At some time we have to take some responsibility for what we are doing. While we wait for guidance from those above us, don’t forget it is also down to us too. Lots of little people doing little things can still make a big difference. It is still too easy to say it isn’t down to us, the media always seem keen to blame everyone else and I know the likes of China and India are chucking out lots of rubbish but we are still consuming as many resources and using as much power per person as anyone else, there are just less of us. If this issue becomes as big as it now looks like it will we could be world leaders in something again if we picked up the challenge.
Hoping to receive our next delivery of LED growing lights for the lab just before the Christmas break so I can get them fitted over the holidays. Luckily I can install these myself so the costs are kept in check, my rates are very reasonable. We recently replaced the workstation lights but these are a bit more specialist, designed specifically for growing plants under but using a lot less power (70% less) and producing less heat. The heat reduction saves power too as we don’t have to cool the growth room as much. Because the lights are on 14 hrs a day 7 days a week the pay-back period is only about 3 years and we need to gradually replace the old light units anyway as they wear out. This batch will reduce our annual electric use by another 4%, another positive nibble on our part. It would be nice to do the whole lot in one go and make an even bigger cut in consumption but we have to cut our cloth and all that.
2016 Catalogues are in production and hoping to get them out this week. I will get it uploaded on the website too so you can have a catch up on all the background detail of all things Hairy.

Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.

Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries