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.