Hairy Hope

Morning all,

Wow that was a busy week. That little burst of warmth and sunshine obviously opened up the purses of those new gardeners out there. Despite last year breaking records all over the place we only had 4 weeks with more sales than this past week. That is insanely early for us to reach that sort of level, and to be honest slightly scary. The weather seems to have slipped back a bit now so I'm half hoping demand will pause a little too and give us a chance to do all the potting that was planned for the month. We did manage just over two days of potting and it went pretty well after last week's hiccup of a valve failure resulting in the 'take-off arm' not taking off. A new valve was sent really quickly from Rotomation UK who are always so helpful when rescuing us from disaster, I fitted in one evening in the newly LED lit potting tunnel, and it worked perfectly first time. I must be getting the hang of this lark.

New 20 tonne press arriving next week, as an upgrade to the 12t one that came last month which wasn't quite man enough for t he job. 20t seems a bit excessive to cut a thin bit of card but that what it took on the trials they did with our cutter and card we sent up.. We have had to put in a new 3 phase socket to run the bigger version, so it's been quite an effort, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly once it arrives.

We had our fist APHA inspection of imported bulbs this week, all went smoothly, no major problems other than a missing csv file on our Peach application (not our fault). The most animated the inspector got was over our fabulous new nursery loo facilities, which I suspect are a tad above the luxury level she usually encounters!

The flash of warmer weather has produced a slight flush of growth in some plants, but it is still is really early, so growth is still quite slow in many plants, with some still not breaking ground yet, so please do be patient, a widening range will rush along all too soon, once we get a few more weeks into the spring. Mind you it is still quite exciting, even at my ripe old age to see nature waking up as the day length increases. I forgot to report the arrival of our frogspawn a couple of weeks ago. I still marvel how over a few hours the pond they use changes from a quiet still backwater, to a seething mass of croaking bodies splashing about. The always lay the spawn in the same spot in the same pond every year. It lasts about a week and then they all disappear again.

There is another birthday looming next week. Luckily Covid this year won't spoil my usual celebrations, which consist of a walk to the nursery and then a walk home again a bit later. With a bit of luck there might be some covid safe cakes for all who make it to work that day too, I think that is enough excitement at my age, we don't want any accidents to spoil things.

I had the best present this afternoon, which was a bit early I know, but very welcome. With just a days notice I received my Oxford vaccine and am now recovering sitting at this desk. Super efficient crew at the Holiday Inn in Winchester, organised by the local rural surgeries, lots of very jolly and positive NHS staff and volunteers shepherded us through the system really quickly. Two people ahead of me in the queue on arrival, straight in, painless injection (so far) and 15 mins on Candy Crush before the short drive home. I can't quite believe it has happened. It is only now I'm thinking about it, that a little tear is welling, it sort of marks a turning point when things really might start to feel a bit less scary and unknown. It'll be interesting to see if I feel a bit less anxious over the next few days and perhaps a bit more excited about what might be round the corner.

Availability list highlights

Sadly our herb range is going to be very light for a few weeks until the fresh stocks have made enough size. Massive demand has caught us out to a degree and the rabbits haven't helped either. Our overwintered range is always a bit limited, just because of the nature of many of the herbs, which may not respond well to being grown overwinter without heat. Fresh crops are on the way we will just have to wait a bit. We have big numbers coming through, we just need the plants to grow quicker. Our Fritillaria (snakes head lily) are looking green and chunky with more and more bud being produced already.

Many of our short Narcissus varieties are now in bud and some showing colour, short and stocky and full of spring promise. Perfect pot present for the eco earth mothers out there! Not huge numbers left so don't hang about. Glimpses of the strong blues of Scilla sibirica are beginning to show, spring is on the way.

Anemone blanda Blue Shades have appeared now, popping up all over the pot and immediately showing bud. 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, as well as their very smart dappled foliage. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, and in the mild temperatures last week there was even the odd opening flower. I suspect with the eastern blast will have dented 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