Hairy Box Collections

Hi,
A fantastic splash of sunshine and warmth down here in the south. A whole weekend of it too. Make the most of it. Caroline has gone off to the Romsey Show to check out all the farm animals and I suspect take part in a bit of well earned retail therapy. Unfortunately I have just got too much to do here today, just trying to catch up on all the stuff I didn't finish off yesterday. It's that end of summer holiday time and we keep running out of bodies to get everything done in regulation time. It's a time of year when every day counts when it comes to getting the plants into their pots in time to put on a healthy spurt of growth before the light fails and temperature drops. A days growth now is worth at least a week in December, so can't afford to slow up just yet although the end is coming into sight.
Looking at the records it looks like we are slightly ahead of last year's potting timing which is good as not only will the plants benefit but we should be able to get onto the recovering of the split tunnels before the temperature drops too low. I had noted 3 that were goners but had a recount yesterday and we are up to 6, so that will add a bit of excitement when the appropriate weather pitches up. We can usually get a couple stripped and recovered in a day if we get a good uninterrupted run and the right folk on site. It's a slightly tricky undertaking, quite stressful to uncover the crop and unfurl the new sheet. No matter how still it is when you make the decision to start, the wind always gets up as the new sheet is dragged out and when the breeze gets under one of those sheets you soon know about it. Having said that, there have been few occasions when we have had to actually abandon the task completely, and once the sheet is fixed on the sense of achievement is fab.

Wooden box collections
We have made a start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals over the last couple of weeks and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan, but the more trays we know about the better.
We do have records on the ins and outs of the wooden box stock, so I have a pretty good idea of where we need to go, but if you can let us know when you are ready for a collection and roughly how many you have, that would be great. It all helps.
It may take a week or two to get to you but we will be there as soon as we efficiently can.

Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) still showing good bud and colour. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in colour, it just goes on and on. Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour.
The next 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, but they are showing off nicely. We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour. The short orange Geum varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium Rose are now showing colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.