Hairy news

Hi Everyone,
Still busy on sales again this week and still desperately short of herbs although I think I can see a recovery appearing. Trouble is that every time I think things are getting closer to normal another batch runs out!. Hopefully it is two steps forward and one back now, rather than a couple of weeks ago when it was the opposite. Again we managed to fulfil quite a few orders with a selection of our own choice of the herbs and again squeezed through to the end of the week. I'm going to have to offer the same service next week as numbers are still pretty low and batches are selling through so quickly. Hopefully a proper herb list will be on the cards for next weekend. Plenty of garden mint, sage, parsley, basil and coriander in the mixes for next week, so good stocks of many of the most popular lines.
The perennial list is still short too although there are lots more in the pipeline. The race to get through the orders, the emergency recovery potting and potting next spring's crops potting is definitely on. More modules arrived last week and despite my best intentions, getting the previous couple of weeks deliveries into pots largely failed which was a bit frustrating. A combination of lots of orders (good news, not complaining really), running out of potting compost, some well earned holiday taken by a few staff and the very hot weather, all combined to reduce potting to two days rather than the four we managed the previous week. Mind you we did clear a couple more tunnels in preparation and there are several more very empty tunnels ready for a final tidy and clean up, so we are primed. Perhaps next week will see a surge of potting again and we will start to catch up.
The distractions to potting are all around, as things return to a bit closer to normality. The frenetic sales of a few weeks ago are new resulting in the return of large numbers of our lovely wooden trays which all need a clean out before reuse. Exactly how it should be, but another job that we haven't done much of for the last 3 months thanks to this bizarre situation. In fact it is quite a relief really as we were getting quite low on box stock here but now suddenly the returns are more than keeping pace with sales so the cleaned boxes just go straight out again.
The massive herb sales this year has meant the wooden label printing machine has seen loads of use over the last few weeks, only just managing to keep ahead of the orders being processed. I try to get a large amount printed over the winter and early spring to avoid this sort of scenario, but a combination of factors even before the massive upturn, scuppered us on this master plan. The biggest distraction was replacing all the printing plates with ones with the new plant passport info which was a huge job. Thank goodness we got it all in place in good time. At the time it was a time consuming job, a big cost and we thought a huge inconvenience, although a necessary one. Little did we realise what lay round the corner. Now we know what a proper inconvenience is.

Availability list highlights
As already mentioned herbs stocks are now at an all time low and can only offer a mix of our own choice. Just let me know how many you can manage with for the moment and we will put something tasty together if we can. We have more stock growing but not quite ready yet.
We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, but as always we will be doing our best, most of the time it seems to be working ok, bar the very occasional brain freeze on my part.
Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Eucomis autumnalis are just beginning to throw up their pale yellow flowers, an exotic plant for the garden. Most of our Hemerocalis are now in bud, short and stocky Crimson Pirate has the odd flash of dark colour showing. Osteospermum Tresco Purple are back on the list again, hopefully enough for several more weeks! There are more batches on the way for these beauties too.
The Salvia Hot Lips and Amethyst Lips are back on line this week. I've seen both coming into colour on the odd plant left from the earliest potted batches, they make a great pair. I wasn't sure about adding to the Hot Lips colour range, these additions don't always come off but I am impressed. The purple and white combination on Amethyst Lips is fab. I wish I had been able to secure more Cherry Lips too, which although a more subtle difference in colour to Hot Lips is still a great colour
combination. More next year, which will hopefully be a bit less chaotic. The current batches on offer are very close to showing bud and colour but I sacrificed the first flowers to get a stronger bushier plant. I think it will pay in the end. There are a lot coming to get ready!
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.