Hairy organised chaos!

Happy New Year to you all,

The build up continues as spring rushes ever closer. Mild panic at times, which is not a great sign so early in the year, but we are investing time and cash in so many things this winter that it all look fractionally chaotic just at the moment. Not everything we have a go at works perfectly but you can be sure we either gain something or learn a lot! Just at the moment there are a load of projects well under way but not quite finished and I'm sure at each one gets ticked off everything else will fall into place.

Just one and a bit more tunnel drains to go out of 40 so that will be one big one out of the way. Plumber in on Tuesday to finally fix the 32 minor leaks in the new loo block, Still awaiting the December lab store delivery and the follow up shelving installation, electrician's still to come to finish the odd bits and bobs from the various winter works. Despatch is stacked up with drying boxes and POS boards, and we have all the individual workbenches to refit to an improved design to make life a little easier and hopefully more productive. I have some pre-cut FSC plywood coming this week for the benches and to print up some more POS boards. There is a new 3.5t box van on the way, due in at the end of next month and a bonkers amount of colour labels arriving very soon. The entire label store is being cleaned, relabelled and rearranged ready for the arrival of the labels, so they stack away neatly and in the correct order.

I have a new bit of kit coming this week, a 12 tonne hydraulic clicker press so that we can print and punch out our own non- plastic labels. It is one of the last pieces of our non-plastic marketing jigsaw to slot into place and, assuming it works, it might even save a penny or two on the current plastic option. Previously we could only get pre-perforated labels, to colour print ourselves, made out of plastic and despite hopeful predictions of changes to come over the last couple of years, none materialised, so we have taken it upon ourselves to find a way of reaching our goal. Floramedia produce the bulk of our label stock in the same non-plastic material and have kindly agreed to supply us with A4 sheets so we can produce the odds and ends ourselves. I have had the die-cutter forme already made and just need the heavy duty press to complete the job. One of this winters learning moments was that buying a hand/lever operated press producing over 1 tonne of pressure isn't enough to cut up a card sheet into 12 labels. That's a couple of hundred pounds I'm not going to see much return from!

Plant cutting back and tidying continues at pace on the nursery for all those not tied into the various projects and the lab is hectic. We are even running a bit of overtime in the lab to try and make up for all the current absences. International transport delays and quarantines means even later New Year returns to work than we had hoped which is all a bit frustrating when demand is so strong. Still, there isn't much that worrying about it will achieve, we have done what we can and at least we still have an operating business in these mad times.

The vaccines seem to be progressing well which is a great positive message and the current lockdown seems to be slowing up rates in many areas, but we are still quite anxious about the next few months. The next few weeks are obviously going to be very difficult for the whole NHS and support services and our first thoughts are for them, but looking further forward, things could still get difficult for many small businesses if infections affected us directly. It is going to be a little while before even ancient folk like me get our vaccinations and that could leave us vulnerable, but fingers crossed it all comes together and that bumper season we all think is out there, actually materialises.

Prices and catalogue for 2021

Very sorry, but the 2021 catalogue is still not quite ready yet. The perennial range is expanding a bit but otherwise much will be the same as last year's issue. The prices will rise by about 2.5% (5p) which I am hoping will cover some of the cost increases we have seen. With a bit of luck a smoother sales season and increasing sales volumes will cover the rest.

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. The niger are budding up now.

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.

A few of the early bulbs are up but a bit too early for buds just yet but a definite sign of the approaching spring. We have a good range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, although I'm not sure they will actually colour up until much warmer conditions prevail.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries