Sustainably hairy

Morning all,

We were spoiled this week with some really mild temperatures and even the odd flash of sunshine between the showers. I suspect we are going to pay for that luxury over the next few days, I'm hoping we don't get too hard hit by the easterly blast that's on its way. Although many outdoor jobs got put on hold, we managed to get stuck into plenty of our winter projects in relative comfort inside the tunnels and despatch areas. The refurbishment of all 18 despatch workstations is very close to completion and I'm looking forward to getting it all set out ready to roll when the spring gets going. It could almost look professional in the right light. It's one of those 'nearly' weeks.

My new 12 tonne press nearly made the grade this week as we fine tuned everything and managed to successfully stamp out some labels. But it takes two passes to complete the process which isn't ideal, so I have sent the cutter to the press supplier so they can have a play with some different machines in their workshop. Hopefully they can come up with a sensible solution and we can get going on our own plastic free label production. It won't replace the fabulous labels we get from Floramedia, but will allow us to produce near identical ones using the same plastic free materials. The next stage of this development is likely to be the replacement of our current header boards which at the moment are made of mostly card, which has just shot up in price, but they do have a ultra thin plastic coating plus sticky back plastic images attached to them. We have been trying to source sustainable alternatives to do the same job, but not everyone is as keen to 'find another way' while the current solutions 'are economic and popular'. Well I'm glad to say that, if it works, my idea to print directly onto the Floramedia B500 (plastic free but waterproofed) card and then punch out the boards on my new press, will not only eliminate the plastic content but save substantially on material costs. It might take a bit more time at this end to complete the job, but hopefully not too long. I have done a test run and outdoor trial over the last couple of months and the board stood up well, so I bit the bullet this week and ordered the die cutter for the job. Brilliant service, ordered and proofed on Thursday, made and despatched on Friday, should be here Monday. Can't wait to have a play. We will continue with the old style boards for the moment and change over once the stock runs out and new boards prove to be practical in production. I know it's not ideal to change over these things after the start of the season, but it's a fairly subtle change and we are really keen to get plastic out of the marketing package as soon as we can.

After 37 years on the nursery (started work just after primary school) I can't quite believe the amount of development going on at the moment. I must have been really bad at this game to be able find so many improvements in one winter. I know change can sometimes be quite hard to take on board, but I must admit to still finding it quite exciting trying to find solutions to problems others might not even recognise as a problem in the first place. I know we are going to have to be really on top of our game over the next few years as more and more producers take the sustainability journey and start looking at those things we have been worried about for ages. We will be aiming to continue to push the boundaries of sustainable crop production and keep ourselves ahead of the game, if for no other reason than it what gets me up in the morning. Sorry if it's too much, but I really can't help myself.

Availability list highlights

Spring time is just round the corner and quite a few of the early spring bulbs are thrusting forth. We have colour on some of the Scilla and the Snowdrops (Galanthus) so don't miss out. Our Fritillaria (snakes head lily) are looking green and chunky with the odd flower stem and bud being produced already.

The Crocus which took a rabbit haircut (or should that be hare-cut) last week, are recovering surprisingly well, so hopefully we rescued them just in time and they may make a reappearance shortly. We have nice range of Helleborous on the list. We have sold out of a couple of lines already but still have some great niger and orientalis on there.

The long flowering little Cyclamen coum are available now. They are showing great colour and will flower all winter and well into the spring. Only available this year in a mixed colour range. We have a nice range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock all propagated in our microprop lab, I can see the centre buds swelling ready to produce flower stems, so it won't be long before they do their thing.

Pulmonaria's are budding up now with some colour showing on the Blue Ensign and lovely tight bold foliage on the other two with buds swelling. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, and in the mild temperatures this week there is even the odd opening flower. I suspect with the eastern blast coming this weekend they may regret that rash gesture, but it just shows how close we are to some serious flowering activity. This early in the year their blue colouring definitely has a rosy hue, but colour is colour!

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries