Hairy sales

Ok, that was one extreme to the other. After such a huge run of such low 'normal' sales this week went officially nuts! We were very luck that we still have so many of our customers closed otherwise we would never have coped with all the excitement. Not just big orders but multiple orders from several customers in the week, crazy. Although a bit scary at times we are just grateful that the wheels are turning again and not coming off.
Do take care out there and keep cool. All your suppliers will, I'm sure, be doing there absolute best to keep you supplied but it is very difficult with the short time scales to react, produce, prepare, load, find transport and all that stuff. There are going to be shortages all over the place I'm sure with such a bonkers season, no one really knows what is happening from day to day. We have managed to get some extra orders delivered today (Saturday) just to try and keep everyone stocked up as best we
can and I suspect next week will be just as manic, especially as there are gradually more customers finding ways to get open.
I also would have loved to have got this out earlier but time is so short, do I sort this or organise for more stock to get potted, or arrange the orders, or sow the herb seed for later in the summer. We have a big gang in doing extra hours clearing and potting today and an even bigger one in on Monday to prepare orders for the week. We may even get a few small local orders delivered on Monday just to try and ease the pressure on the week. We will see how it goes.
I am so thankful that we did the Plants for People project and cleared all that stock that would otherwise have gone over. It allowed us to very efficiently clear tunnels and re-pot so we have a reasonable amount of stock on the go, to hopefully see us through the next few weeks and months. It even supplied the finance and boost to morale to fuel the recovery. A week ago I was worried we had been over optimistic on the potting front and might have to give some more stock away, now I suspect we need to pot more.
We are getting most of our furloughed staff back on the nursery next week which will help alleviate some pressure I hope and with some extra new staff too we can have a real bash at staging some sort of recovery. One swallow doesn't make a summer and all that, and even a month of manic sales won't necessarily make all things well on the business front, we will just have to get through as best we can and see how the dust settles in the autumn. We will be carrying on, I'm pretty sure of that, it's just working out the structure that will be left. Another brilliant part of the plant giveaway was the fabulous financial return from all the supportive recipients, it meant that we could use the funds to fight on without (so far) having to jump through too many hoops to secure the funding through the lenders. I couldn't have come up with any sensible predictions of performance, without spending a bonkers amount of time on it and it would all have been complete guesswork, instead we concentrated on getting crops on the ground and a recovery started. So an extra special big thank you to all the volunteers and contributors who may well end up saving our business. Power to the people!
Availability list highlights
We may all have to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, if it continues in its current vein. We will as always do our best.
Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are; Not a huge number but perfect at the moment Erigeron Sea Breeze Mauve and Pink colours in bud. Erigeron Wayne Roderick really chunky and strong with buds appearing. Leucanthemum Broadway Lights is now in tight bud too, More simple flowers but creamy coloured, compact habit and strong stemmed, it's a beauty.
Tradescantia Blue and Gold are now showing good bud. Incarvillea a late emerger but rushes up to flower pretty quickly. It's up and buds are on show so don't miss it. Nice range of Dianthus Scent First varieties in bud now. Helianthus in a range of colours now in bud and showing colour.
Compact Achillea Milly Rock series (now in four colours) are chunky with bud just starting to appear. We will have batches through the summer. The Osteospermums are budding up already.
Some of the Echinacea varieties are putting up their first buds. Fresh lovely batches of Delph's and Lupins coming ready. Fast growers at this time of year and will be flowering in no time. This year we have two new Salvia varieties to accompany Hot Lips which sells in such big numbers. Amethyst Lips and Cherry Lips are great variations to join the team and will they will all be in bud very soon. Short and bushy at the moment, this is going to be the start of hopefully, a long season of Salvia sales.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Panorama

Morning all,

That was another strange week, perhaps strange is the new normal. After all the excitement of the garden centres being able to open, if they can do so safely, we wondered if we might be busy, but it was all oddly quiet until end of the week, when there was a late flurry of activity. It actually worked out beautifully for us in the end, because we got most of the clearing up and potting done to leave the nursery brimming with potential again and certainly I couldn't have pictured that position 8 weeks ago, or even 3. The extra bit of time also came in very handy as we have been fielding lots of responses from some of the Panorama viewers. We went out late on Monday night in the end, bumped off by Boris and co from our 7.30 slot, so I suspect we missed the bulk of people. Probably just as well we might have had an even bigger response. It was quite a hard hitting program with some of the other businesses covered, and pretty grim in places too. Worth watching the whole thing if you are up to it, but to help you straight onto our piece I have added a link on the Mail Chimp cover page, which takes you to an edited version of us or you can find it here https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndq29nw4nccnaf1/Hairy%20Pot%20Company.mov?dl=0. Bear in mind the shooting was finished over three weeks ago now and started early in April. Things have moved on a bit since then, the plant distribution project is complete, contributions have rolled, the nursery has been cleared of all the stock that would otherwise have gone over, the production areas cleaned and re-potted into with new crops and we have a lot of very happy neighbours. The program finished shooting fairly early in the distribution project and the outcome was a little more in doubt. To be fair everything is still in doubt we have got off to a pretty devastating start, but with plant sales getting going again and fresh stock on the ground we have a great chance of getting through to next spring. Fingers crossed.

Availability list highlights
Still no real idea what next week will bring on the orders and delivery front, but things look like they are building up, we may all have to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered, if it goes completely nuts. Luckily, but in a very disappointing way, many of our usual customers will still be closed, as we supply a lot of visitor centres which may be later in being given the green light, so that will ease a bit of potential pressure. We will as always do our best.

Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Catanache coming into bud, always does well for us.
Lovely patches of Nepeta Walkers Low and Six Hills Giant, bushy and in bud. Not a huge number but perfect at the moment Erigeron Sea Breeze Mauve and Pink colours in bud. Erigeron Wayne Roderick chunky and strong with buds appearing. Scabiosa Flutter series with first flowers showing colour and masses of bud to follow. Compact and bushy a belter. Leucanthemum Freak, large but short stemmed flowers, white and fluffy with the first flower beginning to open. Leucanthemum Broadway Lights is now in tight bud too, More simple flowers but creamy coloured, compact habit and strong stemmed, it's a beauty.
Tradescantia's are now showing good colour, not many left of most, but certainly more Blue and Gold to follow. Incarvillea, a late emerger but rushes up to flower pretty quickly. It's up and buds are on show so don't miss it. Nice range of Dianthus Scent First varieties in bud now. Helianthus in a range of colours now in bud and showing colour.
Probably the last week of Verbascum Primrose Path, nearly sold out. Short stemmed with pale yellow flowers, just fab. Compact Achillea Milly Rock series (now in four colours) are chunky with bud just starting to appear. We will have batches through the summer.
Blue colour of Campanula Clockwise showing well. A short compact scrambler, looking smart.
It must be summer, the Osteospermums are budding up already. Some of the Echinacea varieties are putting up their first buds. Fresh lovely batches of Delph's and Lupins coming ready. Fast growers at this time of year and will be flowering in no time. This year we have two new Salvia varieties to accompany Hot Lips which sells in such big numbers. Amethyst Lips and Cherry Lips are great variations to join the team and will they will all be in bud very soon. Short and bushy at the moment, this is going to be the start of hopefully, a long season of Salvia sales. Bring the cliff top to the garden with Armeria maritima, in bud now in both pink and white forms. Always popular.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy and newsworthy

Morning all,
Are we on or are we not? There's nothing quite like being able to plan your business activities to alleviate any stress levels that might have built up for some reason! By Sunday night we will know (possibly) one way or the other whether the garden centres and nurseries are allowed to reopen on Monday morning and under what rules or restrictions.
Luckily all garden centres will have their little nurseries 'out the back' ready to restock the retail area overnight and get going at very short notice, or is that just the perception most people have of how plants reach the retail areas? I had ITV on the phone on Friday asking if I wanted to do a piece on Monday morning about our reaction to garden centres reopening (assuming it happens). When I explained that we were a production nursery supplying garden centres, rather than actually a retailer/garden centre, the researcher had no idea that there was a difference. She was desperate to get hold of a retailer but all the numbers she tried just had messages saying they were shut and I was the first to answer. I gave her some of my contacts and haven't heard back so I assume she found a suitable victim, apologies if it was you!
On the subject of media appearances, did many of you notice our mention in the Saturday Daily Mail last weekend, I know one or two did. If you google 'daily mail nurseries' you should find your way to the on-line version. We had a few lovely email responses which was great, and a few well intentioned requests for free plants to Hull etc. Luckily I think most people, if they were interested, found their way to the website which nicely said what was going on and stemmed too much over excitement. We'll have to see what comes from our BBC Panorama appearance on Monday evening. I have been notified by the producer that all is prepared and we are definitely on, just no idea if it is for 30 seconds or a few minutes. She was really pleased with it, apparently the camera work was brilliant, so well done Joe the cameraman. He must of used plenty of soft focus if he made me look good! She's phoning back on Tuesday to see what I thought of it, so no excuse for avoiding it. I did ask if was going to be embarrassing to watch and she assured me it was not, so I must brace myself and bite the bullet.
Outside the sun is shining and we are so busy. After a busy week sending out a few restocking orders to a few brave centres, we worked most of the later part of the week with a full potting team and again this morning. Most of that space created by shifting the plants through the community project has rapidly been cleared, cleaned and refilled, not quite enough for my liking, but considering the reduced staffing levels a remarkable achievement by all.
After a week or two of seeing swallows passing over, we have two this morning that seem to be settling in the barn, there is a lot of chattering and diving about. The robin nesting in the potting shed, right under the tray filling table, hatched it's brood this week and is now dodging the potters to get feed into the youngsters. The partridges are pottering around and seem much tamer than usual, not quite sure where they are nesting yet, but they are keeping the fennel and chives trimmed up, Greg was stood only a meter or so away from one happily nibbling and clucking away while he filmed it. Life goes on. Take care out there.

Availability list highlights
No idea what next week will bring on the orders and delivery front, but we may all have to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered, if it goes completely nuts. Luckily, in a very disappointing way, many of our usual customers will still be closed, as we supply a lot of visitor centres which may be later in being given the green light, so that will ease a bit of potential pressure. We will as always do our best.
Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are; Catanache coming into bud, always does well for us. Erigeron Sea Breeze Mauve and Pink colours in bud. Erigeron Wayne Roderick chunky and strong with buds appearing. Scabiosa Flutter series with first flowers showing colour and masses of bud to follow. Compact and bushy a belter. Leucanthemum Freak, large but short stemmed flowers, white and fluffy with the first flower beginning to open. Incarvillea is a late emerger but rushes up to flower pretty quickly. It's up and buds are on show so don't miss it.
Nice range of Dianthus Scent First varieties in bud now. Helianthus in a range of colours now in bud. Compact Achillea Milly Rock series (now in four colours) are chunky with bud just starting to appear. We will have more batches through the summer. The Osteospermums are budding up already. Lovely patch of Nepeta Walkers Low, bushy and in bud. Not a huge number but perfect at the moment.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy hope

Morning all,

Another week flies by and here we are again putting together another availability list, but this time with a little bit more meaning behind it. The signs are encouraging that garden centres are gradually gearing up to some sort of reopening but nobody is quite sure in what sort of format it will take. I can quite understand the reasoning behind not wanting to release the brakes too soon and risking a sudden breakdown in social distancing but it is very difficult to reopen things overnight. All the perishable plants will have to be restocked as well as centres having to rethink their layouts and procedures under whatever the new rules are put in place.
Having had weeks of super stress levels and daily changing plans, we are now ramping up again for more unknowns and heavy workloads trying to manage the unlocking during potentially an intense level of peak season. The adrenaline is pumping and I'm cramping up inside just thinking about it now, and when it all does kick off I'm afraid we are not going to be able to function perfectly. Crop planning and production are all over the place, staffing options and demand both are unknowns and we still have no idea if this intensity of effort will pull us through at the end of the year. Needless to say we are going to do our very best, in a situation that is really tough for so many people in society at the moment. I just hope those lucky enough to find themselves in an easier position, will be forgiving of those of us under pressure.
Our Plants for People project is now closed and it has been a huge success. We are not out of the woods financially but we are much better off than it looked like we would be a month ago and it has given us hope. We have to thank all the hundreds of volunteers who safely delivered the plants to individual households in the local communities, as well as our hero volunteer drivers and nursery helpers who have put in so much work supporting our rather thinly stretched nursery team, we couldn't have done it without you all. We delivered to approximately 14,500 households in the end, distributing over £480,000 of plants (retail value), all over a four week period. I will never regret doing what we did. It has been such a fabulous experience.
We have spent most of the week with the potting machine going full tilt so we can restock all that newly emptied space and have loads of fresh good looking stock ready to roll in a few weeks. I'm hoping we can keep it going next week, although I can see the orders are building up already, where the retailers are refreshing their stock in anticipation of some level of reopening. Please take care out there, there are still going to be some tough times ahead, but hopefully a huge amount of good things
will come out of it in the end.
Our pot producers in Sri Lanka have been pretty anxious about our plight and the lack of a market for our plants, so it was an big relief to tell them of the success of our little project and how we have managed to cleared so much stock. We are now rattling through our existing pot stock and I was able to give the go ahead to ship the next container which is ready to roll at their end. Production of the following container will now go ahead, for delivery later in the summer, and the last one for the autumn should be ok too, barring a reversion to lockdown, which as far as the economy goes would get pretty scary. Although the overall bigger picture is still very much unknown, we do have one underlying favourable factor as a plant producer, that in times of economic downturn plant purchases are often a treat that the general public will turn to when bigger purchases are off limits. We are luckier than many, so we must count our blessings.
We've seen the first few swallows fly over the nursery this week, but none have hung around. House martins must be imminent now. Just hoping they find their way back to our house which after years of multiple nests (13+) we didn't have any last year. I really missed their chattering outside the bedroom window in the mornings, it is such a summery sound. We've made extra efforts to keep the puddle in the yard filled and the vans parked out of the way to try and attract them down for nest building muck. It's worked before and we would really welcome some more signs of summer joy to lighten our days. Fingers crossed for you all out there.

Availability list highlights
We have some customers now taking a few plants for home delivery services they have started up since the lockdown took effect, so I have updated the availability list again as best I can at the moment. We have cleared so much stock under the Plants for People project that we are quite short on a few of the lines, so we may have to adjust the order content slightly to get the numbers right, so apologies for that in advance, Circumstances do mean we are going to have to be a bit flexible at the moment. Hopefully in a week or two things might settle into some sort of normality again, although at the moment I find that hard to believe.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.