Hairy labels

Hi Everyone,

Considering this is supposed to be the quiet time of the year, we are madly busy, the time just flies by. Not so much on the orders front, although we do have some lovely Helleborus, including some of the niger varieties with flower and bud, a few little hardy Cyclamen in flower and some evergreens still looking smart. With the lack of really cold weather even quite a few of the herbs are looking pretty fresh too. Anyway I'm not particularly looking to sell much at this time of year, this is the time for all the spring preparations. Another two tunnels had their drains installed last week, despatch had a curtain vent replaced and lots of bark mulch got laid to get those weeds under control around the tunnel edges, We managed a few hours potting on one of the chillier damp days, just to get a few freshly lifted strawberries potted, a chance to try out our new little IR heaters in a real world situation. They worked perfectly, not too hot but a lot more comfortable. At only 600W each and with them all individually controlled by thermostat and motion detectors, they hardly made a dent on the electric consumption for the day (yes, I record the meter reading every morning!), plus it was windy enough to be covered by the turbines, so happy people all round. I wonder if the potting tunnel and despatch area will suddenly become a much more attractive places to work now! I know it's not exactly world shattering high tech stuff, but for us this whole development is quite a radical change. The team working on the nursery have never had the luxury of heat before, other than in the staff rooms at break-time and in the loos. It was a nuts amount to install, but the running costs should be easily manageable and hopefully a more comfortable work environment will help boost both morale and output, we'll see.

I am currently fine tuning the pot label designs for next season. The colour labels all need updating, by Floramedia, with the new UK plant passport info and we have quite a few new varieties added too. Our own herb printing plates will all need to be remade to include the new format, so I have started on the graphics to change all those, that's going to take quite a few days even before I start etching the plates and start the printing itself. On the bright side we have started the process a few weeks earlier than last year, so it shouldn't be quite so much of a panic this time. I am still waiting to hear from our plant health inspector to see if we will be give some leeway to use up the EU style label stock within the UK, or if we will have to over stick them (again), the decision hasn't been made yet as far as they know.

We now are set up with an import/export agent account, but the VAT deferment account application is still ongoing. We are making ground, even if we are still not really quite sure what is going on! Now the plants and labels for the spring are organised I was able to turn my efforts this week to trying to remove the last of the plastic ingredients from our marketing package. We have been pushing our suppliers for ages, for non-plastic replacements of the header board sticky labels, the header board waterproofing coating and the sheets of blank pot labels that we print ourselves for those small batches of plants which don't have a Floramedia label. It didn't go very well, the brakes have been applied to quite a few projects due to the covid disruption, so I'm having a rethink on how we do these things. I can get hold of A4 sheets of the Floramedia B500 label material, and I can print directly onto these through our OKI printer, but I can't get them pre-cut so that they pop out of the sheet after printing. I trialled the B500 card in a tray all last winter, spring and summer, mocked up as a header board and it lasted really well, so there may be an opportunity there to redesign that part and print directly onto the board, rather than onto a sticky label first. This has led to a major trawl of the internet into the realms of die cutting, of which I knew nothing about. Live and learn.

Oh yes, I blew the budget on a new/replacement van this week. The same design as last year's new Fiat, which has a bigger payload than the Peugeot we are replacing, and is so easy to load. Sadly the electric version only has a short range, as well as being more than twice the price, but perhaps next time. Delivery won't be until the spring, but looking forward to its arrival already, when hopefully a lot more other stuff will be returning to closer to normal.

Availability list highlights

A nice range of Helleborous are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. We have sold out of a couple of lines already but still have some great niger and orientalis on the list with some bud showing on the niger. Ajuga's are still looking great, bold fresh foliage.

We have a nice range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock. Watch out for the more unusual Dumbo which as it matures produces really big fleshy and rather hairy leaves, but this is a actually deciduous variety. The ever popular Erigeron Stallone with bud on show and the odd open flower. They will often still be in colour at Christmas. Attractive foliage colour on our range of Heuchera. Young and fresh. Those were the days.

We have the longer flowering little Cyclamen coum available now as well. Only a few ready at the moment but they will flower all winter and into the spring. Only available this year in a mixed colour range and only in limited numbers. 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries