Hairy ambition

Morning all,

A lovely sunny and warm spell of weather here over the last couple of weeks and it looks set to continue for a few more days yet. Not much in the way of wind to turn the turbines but you can't have everything. At least the newly potted stock is having a good growth spurt which is reassuring.

Not a lot to report this week, lots more potting done, although as usual not as much as I had hoped! We had a host of holidays and illness again this week which left us a bit short on every day this week. Luckily still no Covid outbreaks, a couple of scares, but disruptive none the less.

We set free our last main batch of predators this week, it will be too cool fairly soon for them to be active enough to dent the pest populations, but they seem to have done a reasonable job in keeping any major outbreaks at bay. We used quite a lot more Lacewing larvae this season to spot treat any larger aphid outbreaks or susceptible crops. They are quite aggressive little tykes and need putting in amongst an active pest food source, otherwise they start eating each other. They are one of those introductions that needs a certain degree of pest presence to succeed which is why we do have a base level of pests on occasions, it is just a matter of trying to get the right balance. We spend a lot of the 4 weekly introductions and it is sometimes a difficult thing to justify. You can't usually see them doing their thing after you let them go, they just disappear into the crops, we just have to trust that the reason we don't often have any major pest outbreaks is because they are doing their thing. Touch wood, we haven't seen as much leaf hopper this year but we are not a 100% sure why. There isn't a specific commercial predator available yet and they were becoming a bit of a problem. They used to be taken out by some of the more generalised pesticides years ago but now we are not using them they rather came to the fore. We have been using red sticky traps hanging just above the most susceptible crops, which attract them quite well and are especially effective in knocking back the overwintering populations. The extra lacewing larvae through the summer could be helping too as they have a very varied diet, or maybe it just wasn't a good year for the leaf hopper!

Might have made a mistake this week in signing up to be on a sustainability marketing discussion panel at an upcoming international horticultural conference. I tried to put them off but failed and first rehearsal is now on Monday, for the event on the 30th. It seems to involve a load of stuff I don't do, social media, group presentation software, mug-shots, profiles it's an alien world out there. Good job I've got nothing better to do, I am wondering how little I can get away with!

Autumn wooden box collections have started

We are starting to hoover up our wooden trays from many customers already, so if you have a collection of trays ready to go, please do drop me an email and we will call in a pick them up as soon as we are in your area. The barn is already starting to fill up with pallets of cleaned stock all tucked away ready for next season. There is a small stack of damaged ones to repair or replace, which is just part of the usual process for us, so don't worry if there is some damage, we like to get back as many as we can. At a replacement cost now in excess of £10 a box now we can't afford to lose too many.  

Availability list highlights

Running low on Cyclamen hederifolium already, but the longer flowering Cyclamen coum varieties are coming along with the odd flower opening already. This coum series we are growing flowers continuously from September to April given reasonable winter conditions, it is really hardy although the number of flowers open at any one time is more subtle and modest than some of the very showy modern less hardy pot cyclamen. A favourite of ours. Anemone varieties coming into bud and flower. Some are quite tall now but strong stemmed. Oxalis Iron Cross with two tone leaves and red/pink flowers. A fresh short bushy batch in bud and ready to go, only a few left. Fresh batches of bushy dwarf Bran Series Chrysanthemum coming on with bud appearing, nearly all gone now.

The repeat flowering Hemerocallis Big Time Happy is flushing again with bud and flower, looking strong and pretty. Fresh batches of Salvia Sensation and Marvel series are looking good, buds about to appear if not there already. Asters are coming along with bud now appearing. We have some colourful foliage plants in stock, silver leaved Stachys and Artemesia, purple leaved Heuchera. Euphorbia are there in a range of colours too and the stripy golden grass Carex Evergold. We have some really strong and colourful Ajugas to watch out for.

The variegated foliage of Pulmonaria Opal and Mageste are very smart, ready to build up to their spring flower display. Osteospermum Tresco Purple are still selling well with flowers and buds opening. Our two forms of Erodium have lots of tiny open flowers all over the plant surface with plenty of bud to follow. 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries