With the tree leaves turning so quickly it’s difficult to imagine there is much more growing time left on the nursery, but I know quite a lot of lines will carry on making strong root growth for manyl weeks to come. Some lines like the Erysimum are only going into pots in the next week or two and as quite small rooted cuttings, but we know they will still need double spacing to allow for a good plant shape to form through the late autumn and winter. They get no extra heat or special lighting just keep on growing whenever the natural seasonal temperatures allow and will start budding up for an early spring flowering on a strong and bushy plant framework. Star performers, I wish they were all so accommodating!
Then there are the spring bulbs which we have just started potting, they are a huge faff to pot but again make loads of late root growth ready to support their delightful spring display. We have a special routine to follow with this crop due to their popularity with the local mice population. A few seasons ago we got caught out putting the crop straight onto the nursery beds and over a couple of weeks the entire crop of the little Snakeshead Lily (Fritillaria) got nicked or eaten. We found most of the crop a couple of months later when they started to emerge from the buried store just outside the tunnel, but by then it was too late to save them. Now we stack the whole potted and watered crop on trolleys in despatch for the autumn and early winter until they start to emerge. We can then put them down reasonably safely on the nursery given the support of a few well positioned and covered protective traps.
Summer has left, the house martins went on Monday. A huge migrating flock of them appeared over the nursery in the morning and stayed for 20 minutes or so having a good feed over the tunnels before drifting south, taking our lot with them. Never mind, their summer chattering has been replaced with an autumn mega chatter. Our conifer windbreak behind the house has become an autumnal starling roost which just at the moment is swelling rapidly in numbers. We are getting a mini murmuration display of a few hundred as the light fades, not on the huge scale of some we have seen, but still something to grab your attention if you time it right. After they all settle into the trees there is a cacophony of chatter as hundreds of them check out that they are all ok and sat in the right place. It reminds me a bit of the slightly calmer burblings you get with groups of waders on estuaries in the winter, that constant reassurance they give each other as they get on with their daily routines. ‘I’m alright are you alright?’ ‘Yes thanks I’m alright, are you all right?’ ‘Thanks, I’m alright, you all right?’ until a predator flies over and all hell lets loose.
Brilliant evening out last Saturday at the Water Buffalo farm at Broughton, very nice local beers and cider, delicious buffalo burger and some great music in a renovated old barn. Even a dance floor to express oneself on, which I might have been a bit too over-eager on (excess beer, not enough burger!). Luckily very few people we knew were there to notice my small tumble after miscalculating how gravity worked.
Keep yourselves upright, it’s easier.
Availability highlights
Autumn and winter flowering Cyclamen are just coming on line. The Cyclamen coum Cyberia series flower from now until April, showing short and dainty flowers and bud. I can see some bud still coming on the remaining autumn flowering hederifolium types but not enough to say they are ‘in flower’, they have just sold too fast! The compact and free flower Anthemis Charme are now in bud. They flower for ages.
Fresh batches of the ever popular Achillea coming on nicely with new flowers shoots appearing on several colours. There are a few nice short Nepeta Six Hills in bud at the moment. The dinky little Junior Walker has shot back after a trim to make nice bushy plants with another flower flush showing. The short Campanula carpatica is in bud again after an earlier trim. A few remaining Asters are still coming into flower.
We have a fantastic crop of Ajuga in range of leaf colours just bursting to get into the garden. Fresh batches of Euphorbia are looking nice in a range of foliage colours. Bright variegated leaves of the short tufted grass Carex Evergold are looking very neat and smart.
Wooden box returns
We have collected the majority of our wooden boxes up now but please do drop us a line if you would like us to pop in and collect any more up. Thanks.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
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