Hairy pud

Morning all,

Just back from dismantling our stage display (decoration only) at the local King Somborne Horticultural show. Our little stab at looking pretty for once in the year. It’s nice to be able to show a bit of support for the local volunteers in the club who work so hard to keep these things going year on year. Despite a pretty damp day first impressions are that entry and stall takings were ok so relief all round. Even the ice creams did ok, just a few Fabs left, I didn’t realise they still made them.
It’s been a whole week of looking presentable, which makes a change for me. Last weekend we hosted a birthday tea for Caroline’s Mum who had a significant celebration which demanded a bit of extra effort and a full on family and friends gathering. Luckily we had lots of help with food provision and house preparation as we were in the usual state of chaos trying keep on top of things elsewhere. We hit on a winner by getting the help of a very local catering company (The Little Kitchen Company) who had been with us picking up an award a few weeks ago in the Winchester Guildhall. They provided us with a few foodie extras including some fab little cakes, the only issue being that we were given twice what we ordered and despite providing the nursery with nutrition for their coffee breaks, I still had to force myself to consume a chocolate brownie, vanilla sponge and coffee and walnut slice with cream and ice cream, for lunch and dinner, for 5 days in order for none to go to waste. The efforts I have to make to reduce that food waste mountain. It’s that sort of dedication that helps win awards you know!
On Thursday evening we hosted a nursery and wind turbine tour for a couple of local sustainable business groups which was quite daunting. When I booked it in back in February I rather naively thought we would be relatively quiet and back on top of things by mid-July, so we did need a little whizz around on Thursday morning to tidy up a bit and make things look a bit more together. I’m not sure whether anyone in the group really noticed as they had not been on a nursery before so it was all a new and ‘exciting’ experience for them. At least I felt it looked pretty good and it was nice to be able to have a bit of a quick sort out after a long season and things to get back to looking professional without too much fuss. The trip round went really well, more or less on time, mainly thanks to Caroline cleverly limiting my endless waffling when I got over excited.
So the house is tidy and the nursery slightly more under control, cue the cats leaving bloodied piles all over the floor. It’s like a challenge I reckon, even to the point of chucking up on the computer keyboard after a good office clean up. First nuthatch seen in the garden, a young one but it has been about all week so with luck and plenty of suet it may hang about. Need to go, I have to beautify myself for the post show pub supper, it’s early so we can all be back home tucked up by 9.30.

Availability highlights
Signs of high summer with most of the Crocosmia now in bud. The gold of George Davidson is always very popular, as is the deep red Emberglow. Star of the East has the biggest individual orange flowers of all the ones I’ve seen, a stunner. A small fresh batch of the pink Armeria are now producing plenty of bud, neat and pretty. A fresh batch of the lovely Anthemis Sauce Hollandaise is short and bushy with bud showing. Buds and some colour the last couple of this year’s batch of Phlox varieties. Buds and flowers are in abundance on the very popular Sage Hot Lips. Don’t forget that this variety does produce pure red and pure white flowers on occasions but the ‘proper’ red and white lippy ones will prevail throughout most of the summer. We have a range of mini garden Chrysanthemums in bud, in a great range of colours. Naturally very bushy (no pinching required), they will produce masses of flower from now until the frosts (these are not fully hardy plants so will not always survive a winter outside). Dinky Erodium varieties are back again, low growing and flowering for ages. Flower stems and bud are appearing on many of the Japanese Anemones already.
A few of the Asters are busting a gut to get into bud, Flora’s Delight is the first to actually show colour, many others are not far behind. Lots more to come in the next few weeks. Best crop ever so don’t miss out.
Verbascums are strong and coming up to bud. Hurry not many left. Masses of bud coming on the two deep pink flowered Lythrums. Robin is the shorter one or the two. The short Campanula posharskyana are all showing bud and looking good but not a huge number left. The ever popular Dianthus in bud and flower. Just a few varieties left. Strong and bushy, the hardy Fuchsia range is doing its thing. Loads of colour. Summer has arrived, in case you hadn’t noticed, with bud and colour showing in the remaining Hemerocallis varieties. There are fresh batches of Achillea Paprika and Terracotta in bud and flower. A fantastic range of foliage sizes and colours in our Hosta range, all showing off well. To see the colours check out the hosta pages in our flip book catalogue.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.