Hairy professionalism

Morning all,

It's been a glorious week in Winchester, warmer than it was in August and all set to continue into this weekend. Looks like we might all get a bit more autumnal weather going into next week but nothing too dramatic.

Sales have gone quite quiet which has meant lots of tray collecting, tunnel clearing and potting, but the pressure remains with the race to get everything potted before too long. The spring bulb compost and the bulbs themselves arrived a week early, just to add to the backlog of work but they will hold until we are ready.

My hopes of an easy run into taking part in the AIPH conference discussion panel on sustainable marketing evaporated pretty quickly. I had to rustle up a profile and find a mug shot to decorate their website first and then produce an online presentation with visual commentary to illustrate our 'sustainable journey'. Many years ago I did manage to put some images on the Powerpoint, but never with any degree of professionalism. Luckily we have a management consultant currently helping us clear tunnels and get the potting done and he has put in some extra hours this week to get something out there. It was still down to me to provide the video commentary and sort out the content but Andy made it look pretty slick and not the embarrassing mess it could have been if I had been given free reign. It still took the best part of two days to compile and play about with and to top it off, the final stage, the video recording, was a nightmare. It is scary how odd your own voice sounds on playback and how old the bloke looks when he is staring back at you from the corner of the screen. Luckily the software allows you to rerecord over each individual slide, otherwise I would still be there, trying to get all the words out in the right order. It's a good job the outtakes aren't recorded as it got a bit colourful at times. I did it in the evening so I wouldn't be disturbed, but I didn't expect it to take 'till gone midnight to finish it off. Anyway it's all done, downloaded and up on the conference website so there's no going back now.

A much appreciated evening off on Wednesday, with a trip round a new suite of sustainable buildings at Winchester University with our local Sustainable Business Network group. It was our first physical meeting since Covid started, up so it was great to be back and see how everyone fared. At £40 million the building was a bit beyond our budget but the amount of clever stuff and 'well being' design features was astonishing. I had been quite excited to have put in motion controlled heaters in despatch and the potting shed, but this was on a different level. The contemplation room and meeting pods, wrap around chairs to reduce disturbance, all furniture wired up for plugging in devices, air vents in the floor and ceiling it was nuts. There were holes cut in walls lined with cushions, earphones and usb sockets, where students could tuck themselves away to escape the world. I wonder how many of the graduates are going to be looking for work on a nursery once there are done? Might be a bit of a shock. Maybe I'm being short sighted and we should all be installing cubby holes for staff and customers to crawl into and escape the world.

Autumn wooden box collections have started

Lots of our wooden trays have already been collected up, but 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. 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. 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 still flowering, looking strong and pretty. Asters are coming along with colour showing. 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 also 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