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.
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