Too hot to pot

Hi,
Here comes summer again. A cracking bank holiday weekend in store for many, with possibly record temperatures again. Looks a bit too hot for me but getting back to more sensible levels in the following week.
Close to home things look ok, with several interesting nursery developments in the pipeline and the arrival and first run out of the bed cleaning beast, while further afield monstrous calamities are afoot with the glaciers disappearing and the Amazon basin apparently on fire. Then there is there is all the Brexit turmoil which I still have no real idea of what is really going on or how we are going to be affected. Hopefully it will all fall into place without too much upheaval in the end, but with the end of October only a matter of weeks away there is going to have to be some major strategy changes somewhere to get it sorted.
I am already struggling to cope with handling all the bigger stuff, it's beginning to get a bit too scary, so all I can sensibly do is focus on our little corner and try to encourage our rather weeny sphere of influence,
Celebratory cream bun on Monday evening after completing my CPC training, so I can continue to rescue Phil, our main driver, when he runs out of driving hours in the big van. All commercial drivers of vehicles over 3.5 t need to do this 35hrs of refresher training every 5 years to get there CPC driving card from the DVLA. 7 hours in the classroom feels way longer than the 12+ I spend on the nursery each day, but to be fair I did pick up a few useful bits of info over the five days. We now have new trucker road atlases with all the bridge heights and weights, just in case, and I now know that the number of rows of stitching on a racket strap denotes the weight capacity of the belt. Five stitched rows = 5 tonnes.
Thursday night saw the ITV Tonight programme take a look at the environmental impact of the plants sold in garden centres. I think there was some trade trepidation about how it might come across and although there were a few areas that where perhaps a little misleading, overall I thought it was reasonably balanced and in fact fairly muted in any level of criticism. There were plenty of chances throughout the programme for industry experts to explain what was changing which they did pretty well. For me things haven't got radical enough yet in our thought processes of how we consume so much stuff generally, but the mood is changing which is a big step in the right direction, and the acknowledgement that the consumer is looking for more a more environmentally positive experience is heartening. There wasn't enough time for them to look at the plastic use and waste in the now hugely busy catering side of the centres or the tonnes of disposable Christmas consumables that are about to invade the stores. Give me a gummed paper chain any day.
Hope you all have a good bank holiday. I am hoping for an afternoon off if I play my cards right. It's going to be too hot to pot!

Availability highlights
We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) all showing colour now with plenty of bud to still to open.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two compact pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour. Our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, they will soon be showing off nicely.
Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh flower. The short orange varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a nice tidy splash of colour. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Reception

Morning,
It's difficult to believe that there could be plenty of summer still to come as the rain beats down on the office roof. Hopefully the worst of it will be out of the way by Saturday morning and it looks like a drier spell coming for the following week, in the south anyway. It's been another hectic week as we try and press on with tunnel clearance and potting for next season, the days just seem to evaporate and suddenly it's the weekend again.
Got off to a cracking start on Monday morning, although I had an inkling that not all was well on Sunday night. I use compressed air to agitate our nematode stock solution when applying our monthly vine weevil control, which I tend to do in the late evening (nematodes don't like the UV in sunlight). On returning to the stock tank at the end of the process I turned off the air supply and shut everything down. All had gone well, reassuringly the nematodes were no longer in the tank so they hopefully must be in the crop and the last job was to turn off the compressor. As I approached, I could tell that all was not quite as it should be, it was still running and the safety valve was venting. I turned it off, hoping for the best, maybe it had got a bit hot and was briefly misbehaving. It was 11.30 on Sunday evening, I was not in the mood to investigate further. Forgot about it until I turned it on again on Monday, to get the label printing and potting underway. Struggled to get it to actually start and then it refused to turn off again once it's pressure limit was reached. After a brief bit of research I confirmed that it was a problem with the pressure switch and checked out a couple of videos to see how to change it. Luckily we have a little emergency compressor, just in case, and it had an identical pressure switch. An hour or two later we were up and running and I've spent the rest of the week trying to catch up!
Last job of the day was to drop the big van in for its 10 weekly inspection at the garage which. Lots of traffic out there on a Friday evening in the real world. Left the garage with a slightly bewildered receptionist, all my fault, I had a little moment. After a jolly greeting I mentioned that one of the gas struts that supports the overhead flap above the tail-lift had broken and could they order us a new one, at the same time I handed over the keys. After our chat I noticed that she was holding a pair of glasses that looked remarkably similar to mine and was muttering something about 'had I found these in the yard?' Slight confusion followed on my part as I took my glasses back and handed over the keys this time. Don't let me multitask, it doesn't work anymore.
Availability highlights
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) beginning to show their colour now, with the bold Emberglow the first to show, but Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are close behind. Lucifer which is our biggest and boldest red is also at last in bud. They are all slightly later than usual because our bulb supplier forgot to deliver our order and they got held back in cold storage, but they are none the worse for that.
Achillea Milly Rock Rose is still looking great, plenty of bud and colour on compact tidy plants.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely. We still have a few nice looking hardy Fuchsia left, lots of flower on tidy compact plants. We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall.
I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh flower. The short orange varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show.
We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a nice tidy splash of colour. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Our summer crop of Oxalis Iron Cross are still looking good. It has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Exciting Hairy Beast

Hi,
I think all the water leaks and breakdowns are behind us now, touch wood. We have had a whole week of nearly faultless irrigation which is such a relief. Both buggies are running well and the electrics in the tool-shed have kept dry despite some heavy downpours overflowing the barn gutters again.
Looks like a bit of a stormy weekend coming up with quite a bit of disruption already with cancelled festivals and alike. One of our younger crew is at the local Boomtown festival which is now a massive event but could be a bit of a challenge in high winds and rain, Fingers crossed it all goes ok.
This week we have been getting stuck into more tunnel clearing and potting for next seasons crops as autumn rushes towards us, were does all the time go? Having too much to do and too little time just piles on the pressure towards the end of a busy sales season. Every week potting is delayed risks more winter losses if it gets really cold or very wet, although we have been doing this long enough to know we will get there in the end. In an effort to make tunnel preparation easier we had an exciting demo this week of a mechanical assistant to help clean the muck from our production beds. It's always been a long winded operation using hoes, shovels and brushes to start the new crop on a clean base, but this big motorised rotating brush device took most of the hard work and a handy bit of time out of the operation, it was very impressive. In the past when we have looked at this sort of thing the danger of ripping up the cover and making even more work has always put us off, but this one was hardworking but gentle on the cover. There is that slightly frustrating element that all it really does is redistribute the crud rather than taking it away, but getting it released from the surface is actually the hardest job so it is a big step forward. A collecting device is on trial but we will have to wait and see if that will be up to the job. Meanwhile we have ordered the beast and with a bit of luck it might be here in a week or two, just in time to help us out over the last 8 or 9 weeks of clearing and potting. It's always exciting to buy a new toy so I'm looking forward to that particular delivery.

Availability highlights
Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) beginning to show thier colour now, with the bold Emberglow the first to show, but now Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are close behind. Lucifer which is our biggest and boldest red is also at last in bud. They are all slightly later than usual because our bulb supplier forgot to deliver our order and they got held back in cold storage, but they are none the worse for that. I may well split the order next year to get a longer season, you live and learn from most mishaps.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely.
We still have a few nice looking hardy Fuchsia left, lots of flower on tidy compact plants. I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh bud.
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater.
Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. Autumn Joy is the most popular and looking full of promise with Matrona and its rosy-purple flush looking good too.
We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a splash of colour. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Our summer crop of Oxalis are looking good. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers but triangularis has nearly all gone now.
Another popular summer special are the blue balloon flowered Platycodon Astra which are now available. Just a few left. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Neptune's wrath

Hi,
Yet another marathon week. I don't know where all the fun comes from.
The 'simple' installation of the phone system went as all new tech projects go. It took from Saturday until Tuesday lunchtime to get operational, with a further visit on Thursday for some fine tuning and fitting of another base station. Rerouting of calls covered most of the down time ok we think, so I hope no-one missed us early in the week. Really impressed with the new system , much better kit with rugged outdoor, easy to use cordless handsets with much better nursery coverage, hi-fibre broadband and the monthly charges which were substantially less than our previous supplier was asking for. I'm still slightly peeved that we were forced off our old system by escalating maintenance costs but we do have a system that is better. We did bite the bullet and buy it outright rather than leasing it, we have been stung too many times before on paying way over the odds on long-term leasing options which the phone company reps are very keen to sell.
Other expensive mending went on this week with new inverters and a pressure vessel fitted onto the irrigation pumps which means they are running perfectly again. Both pumps were misbehaving apparently which doubled the repair but at least they are talking to each other again and running much more efficiently and reliably which is a huge relief. The engineer did a lovely job with the minimum of fuss, it was a joy to part with the dosh.
Monday saw the cold water tank overfill in the loft where the ball-cock failed, no damage just a quick replacement needed, then today we sprang a leak below one of the nursery taps and in the sink water heater. Not sure what I've done to upset the water gods but they are lining up to have a pop at the moment.
On top of all that, the old mans elasticated trousers have let go, the strain was just too much.

Availability highlights
I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Cosmos Chocamocha left. Buds are visible on most and the odd dark velvety flower is open giving off that famous chocolate scent. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come.
The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely. I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh bud.
Fresh batches of the Monarda Barmy series are looking good, nice and bushy with bud in evidence, colour just a week away. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now coming into bud We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. Autumn Joy is the most popular and looking full of promise with Matrona and its rosy-purple flush looking good too.
Just for one more week we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. It is getting quite tall now but still upright. We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a splash of colour.
The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) are fast approaching flowering with the bold Emberglow was the first to show its young flower buds but now Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are showing too.
The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in flower and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers. Salvia Hot Lips is in full flow. The full red and white petal display is now showing although there aren't many left.
Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour.
We have short Campanula currently in bud, the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers. Achillea are still putting on a good show. A new compact form called Little Moonshine is on for this week, not many there but looks like a good one.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.