Hairy and warm

Morning all

All quiet on the nursery sales front as this cold snap slows everyone up. The plants are looking a bit sorry for themselves in this very cold frosty weather, although it always amazes me how quickly they perk up at the first sign of any thaw. It is another extremely frosty day today with temperatures down at -7C for most of the morning having been down at -9C over night, but at least the sun is out which makes everything look spectacular. We have been lucky and avoided all but the lightest of dustings of snow, so it has just been a matter of finding things to do that keep the fingers from dropping off. There has been a lot of broken pallet cutting and wood splitting to keep the home fires burning, as well as plant and tunnel tidying. The heated prop tunnel has been a popular venue with up to five people in there at a time, which has been quite a cosy and tight fit.

We have quite a surplus of untreated broken pallet wood, so I bit the bullet last week and lashed out on a nice big workshop wood burner to take the edge off the cold at break times. We have some small infrared electrical overhead units above each individual workstation, which are great for taking the edge off the cold when you are working under them, but not quite enough for a relaxing coffee break. A 20kW wood burner however makes a lovely focal point and having fitted it on Monday it has become the centre of attention and a very popular spot to meet up. It's not very posh, just a top loading black box with a flue and no window, but it certainly chucks out some heat. We had our in-house Christmas lunch gathered around it on Thursday which was great, although not too many coats came off, as it was so cold outside. Using waste wood rather than fossil fuels keeps our carbon footprint down as well as avoiding too much waste leaving site, so a hearty win all round. Baked potatoes and all the trimmings went down well and we even heated the beans up on the burner, although the stirrer got nearly as well cooked as the beans in the end.

Not the best time for the central heating to pack up in the house but hey-ho. Luckily the wood burner is going strong and the hot water still works so it could be worse. I had terrible trouble finding a heating engineer to come and have a go at fixing it, with several local ones saying they weren't taking on any new customers at the moment. Eventually I got one booked for Monday only for him to accidentally pitch up today (Friday). Turned out to be quite useful as he was able to take a look and order a couple of parts ready to come back and do the repair next week. Let's just hope he can get the parts, otherwise we could be huddled round the fire for the festive break and although it might sound romantic, having no chance of any radiators on is definitely not! This past few nights I've been not only sleeping under the winter duvet but adding the summer one on top too. Works a treat although I did wake up in a slight panic, tangled up in a multiple duvet overload.

It has been a bit subdued here for a couple of weeks and Christmas will be a quiet one after Caroline lost her dad a couple of weekends ago. He was 97, bright as a button but had been getting increasingly frail and passed away quietly at home with the family close by. You couldn't have asked for a nicer end really, but it's still a big shock to all those left behind when these things happen. We had tea with them on the Sunday afternoon and I was getting quizzed as usual on the nursery figures and all our plans and developments for the winter and next season. He was always so interested in what everyone was up to, and he will leave a big hole in so many people's lives.

2023 Prices.

Prices for next season, if you need to know them, are attached to the Mailchimp version of this email, together with a note about why the prices have risen as they have. Naturally it all comes down to those scary rising costs. We have desperately tried to keep our price rise as low as we can as we don't want to fuel inflation ourselves, or frighten off our customers, whether they are retailers or the final consumer, but margins are already pretty tight so there isn't much slack to accommodate these increases.

Hopefully the inflationary pressures will ease a bit next year, although we already have quite a few big rises already in the pipeline. The easing international container transport costs will certainly help and if Mr Putin would take a step back, life would get much easier for everyone.

Availability list highlights

Winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum are now available in small numbers with more coming on stream for later. Most are in bud with some colour showing.

We have a good range of Helleborus in stock, to stretch those sales. The Christmas Rose Helleborus niger Advent Star have loads of flower and bud now. Not a lot of flower yet on the orientalis types but they are full of winter promise.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries and see you in 2023.

Hairy Footprint

Morning all,

Cooled off a bit this week, pretty grey and foggy here with the sun struggling to show its face. Even colder next week so bracing ourselves for that. Topped up the oil tanks this week, ready for heating the prop tunnel through the worst of the cold and the LED lights are adding a few hours to the day-length to keep the micro-prop stock growing away. It's not quite like spring in there but brighter and warmer than outside. Oil price was not too bad but we had a bit of a shock with the new electric contract signed up for this week, which starts in January. The cost for the year will nearly quadruple, although we should get a couple of thousand knocked off with the 21p energy cap in place for the first 3 months. It would be quite handy if they extended that but somehow I doubt that will happen. Sadly we did pick the cheapest option on offer, rather than the renewables option which was over £1,000 more. We decided we would be better off putting the £1,000+ saving towards installing some solar panels which we are hoping to do very soon. Another scary part of the bill was the daily standing charges which have risen from a few p to nearly £5 plus a new charge to us of a daily 'capacity charge'. That maybe the result of going to a Mickey Mouse operation for the cheapest deal (British Gas!). In the light of that increase, the smugness levels caused by having the turbines on site rose dramatically this week.

The little VW electric car we ordered in the summer of 2021 which has had its delivery delayed several times already, has just been moved again to late March 2023. We've nearly lost interest now, the excitement of  getting a new bit of kit has now worn pretty thin. Not even bothering to look forward to the delivery day any more, as it probably won't happen then either. Hey ho, worse things happen.

Made major progress this week on understanding and sensibly working out our complete Carbon Footprint, so we can map our path to Net Zero. I had a Zoom meeting with our advisors who are making major changes to their spreadsheet, so users can see exactly where all the carbon values have been put, among the huge number of categories where costs can be allocated. If anyone out there is doing this exercise I wish you luck, it's a major undertaking, but we have to start somewhere.

In the old days working out your carbon footprint revolved around your use of fuels, energy, water & waste (now called Scopes 1 and 2). You worked to reduce all these things, and pick more efficient or effective investments, and then hopefully your footprint reduced. Now we are all supposed to include Scope 3 which means putting a carbon value on all other purchases (materials, goods and services) to get a more complete picture. This is very much the right thing to look at, because for many businesses a very high proportion of their footprint will be created by their suppliers. However it is a nightmare to achieve a remotely accurate result, because so few people have a carbon value for their products or services so everything gets generalised and averaged out.

I haven't been sent the updated report yet as it is still going through the last stages of approval, but I know we have already reduced our footprint from the first report by 60 tonnes, simply by the assessors getting the maths right. On top of that there should be other major reductions with some reallocating of categories to get more realistic figures (our incoming young module plants went into 'agricultural produce' which turns out was very high carbon due to the element of farm animals in the calculation). I also have a carbon report on our own coir pot production and transport, which produced a net sequestration of carbon rather than net emissions, which should also produce a big swing in our favour. I am hoping it won't take too long to improve the accuracy of the sums and we could find ourselves with a very small carbon total to offset, then we just have to pick one or two projects to invest in to cover that offset. I'm almost excited, despite the still daunting spreadsheet and thought that this will need updating every year or so.

Wooden Box returns.

We have a barn full of dried, cleaned and stacked boxes which is very satisfying. If you have any more empties you would like us to pick up just drop us a line.

Availability list highlights

Winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum are now available in small numbers with more coming on stream for later. Most are in bud with some colour showing.

We have a good range of Helleborus in stock, to stretch those Autumn sales.

The Christmas Rose Helleborus niger Advent Star have loads of flower and bud now. Not a lot of flower yet on the orientalis types but they are full of winter promise.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy Footprint

Morning all,

A busy week as usual, lots of rushing about, ordering bits and pieces to put the nursery back together again after a hectic year. Tunnel doors, our copper dosing system, trolleys, boxes, vans and the forklift all got attention this week, with a few plants being tickled up too. The mild weather is keeping many of the plants in a growing mood with a few getting a bit too ahead of themselves for my liking. Although it's easier to work in the warm, I do like to see a bit of more cold to put the stock through a decent dormant period, ready to freshen up again with an early spring burst. Many pests are still active and multiplying which is a pain, especially as it is too late now to add more predators into the unheated tunnels. Hopefully the few that are still there are active too so we don't carry to many pests through the winter.

We had a quick tidy up early in the week in preparation for the NBIS meeting we hosted on Thursday. Luckily it was already pretty tidy so it didn't take long, but it had the desired affect and our visitors seemed suitably impressed with both the state of the nursery and all the investment we have done since they were last here, just before Covid. We had a celebrity element to the event with Pippa Greenwood in attendance in her HTA support role. It was her first visit here so I'm hoping she enjoyed what she saw. She seemed fairly excited by the time we got round, but that might have been the thought of the upcoming pub lunch! Unfortunately the group is struggling a bit on member numbers with quite a few retiring or closing their nurseries, together with a lack of new nurseries signing up. It's a shame because I know I have got a huge amount from the quarterly meetings over the last 25 years, with benchmarking and discussion of the basic financial figures, cherry picking ideas from other nurseries, avoiding things that go wrong for others, as well as the therapeutic benefits of unloading all your business woes on a regular basis to a sympathetic audience. It is called a Business Improvement Scheme and it definitely does that for us, I only have to pick up one odd idea or piece of useful information every now and then, for it to make a major difference to our bottom line or mental wellbeing. Hopefully Pippa's and the HTA's enthusiasm will attract a few more members, because we will fail before long if we can't add the spark of excitement that fresh blood can bring.

Part of this week's meeting was an great opportunity to quiz the HTA Net Zero advisor, which was really useful for getting a realistic view on the current situation, which can get a bit bewildering when you get stuck into it. In a nutshell we have all been asked to start on our journey to Net Zero but no one (the Government) has yet set out a definitive route. As a consequence it is very difficult to plan your way to your goal, especially if you have already made a good start on it and completed most of the obvious on site changes needed. The main problem is how to sensibly calculate what your entire carbon situation is, because it is potentially a very complicated sum. Until everyone has an idea what their footprint is they can't let their customers know the footprint of the goods they supply to them. If the customer doesn't know the footprint of the goods, they can't work out their own footprint. It's a bit of a Catch 22 situation but I'm sure it can be overcome. As we all get better at working it out, the numbers will gradually become more accurate and we can all work out our true impact. One tricky part is that all the extra work involved in collecting the info and working it all out, isn't productive and simply adds to costs, which in the current climate isn't a great incentive, however there are gains to be made, if it helps us focus on reducing our inputs.

A nice example of this has been our focus on reducing our own CO2 output since 2009, when we joined our first sustainable business group. We reduced our direct CO2 emissions from 121 tonnes in 2008, to 81 tonnes in 2011, and now we are at 59 tonnes. Part of this change is the reduction of electricity used (that is 'used' not imported), on site from 120,000 kWhrs/year in 2008 to 60,000 over the last year, despite actually having a lot more electrical kit on site and nearly doubling our turnover. That is an a minimum saving of 420,000 units and at least £80,000. We already have in place most of the energy savings we could make, so the recent increases in energy costs are having a relatively small impact and our bill is likely to be at least half of what it might have been. If we add in the impact of installing the wind turbines in 2011 as well, the figures look even better. Suddenly the positive financial benefits of our push for sustainability all those years ago really make economic sense. I will leave you to imagine the smug look of the author! 

Wooden Box returns.

We have a barn full of dried, cleaned and stacked boxes which is very satisfying. If you have any more empties you would like us to pick up just drop us a line.

Availability list highlights

Winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum are now available in small numbers with more coming on stream for later. Most are in bud with some colour showing, even the Silver Leaved have some bud, but not quite as many. We have a good range of Helleborus in stock, to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy therapy

Morning all,

St Ives seems an eternity away already as we slip back into all the excitement of nursery life. It's been a bit damp this week but I know we have got off lightly in comparison to some so I'm not complaining. Apparently we are now out of the hosepipe restrictions imposed in the summer, let's hope they have caught enough of this rainfall to see us through next summer. Installation of our own rainfall recycling system took a big step forward this week with all the quotes in and a ground-works contractor selected. We just need to fine tune a few details and we could be underway very soon. We have had all the hardware delivered and paid for since last winter, but struggled to get someone here to get it all dug in and constructed. We are hoping to see a system up and running before the irrigation gets going in earnest again in the spring. The current installation will see plenty of rainfall collection for immediate reuse and some extra storage, but not to the extent that we can hold enough of the winter rainfall to see us through most of the year. That will be the next stage and although relatively simple to do, it will need planning applications, more engineering input and another big dollop of investment. We are not looking at a mega lake but a fair size pond and with us being on a slope will need some careful calculations for cutting and filling of the ground and banks. Firstly we need to see how much water we can collect and use in stage one of the plan and maybe stage two can hold off a bit longer, we'll see. The tricky financial part of the whole job is that the investment is big but the current savings are negligible, which makes it a short term loser on the books. What it will do is future proof the nursery from possible water restrictions or changes to abstraction rules, which in the current climate emergency, we think makes it a sensible investment.

We are hosting our NBIS group this coming week, so will need to have a quick sweep round and tidy the place up a bit, so we can give a passing impression of professionalism. It must be pre-covid that they were last here, so there will be quite a few new bits to show off (staff kit, despatch heating and cooling set up, 20t label press, new labels, wooden box printing and assembly line (table and hammer), new potting machine set up and the highlight of the tour, the new loo's). The real highlight is usually lunch at the pub in reality, plus fancy biscuits round the meeting table. It's really just a glorified, but very valuable, therapy session for most of us, and with the way things are going we will certainly need a bit of talking therapy to overcome some of our current anxieties.

We had a good week on the maintenance front with the stripping of a damaged polytunnel cover and the replacement of all the timber frame components which had completely rotted away. I had looked at the forecast early in the week and guessed Friday might be the only chance to get it covered up again before the return of more unsettled weather, so the rush was on to get the reconstruction completed in time while dodging the rain. I love it when a plan comes together, and sure enough the sun was out on Friday morning with low winds and by 10.00am we had it on, stretched and fixed. Just in time as the winds picked up soon after and clouds rolled in. That's not luck, that's great management!

Struggling to recover my pre-holiday physic with holiday treats for coffee plus mega polish homemade cakes all week. So difficult to say no, one wouldn't wish to appear rude. The layered chocolate sponge, with thick cream layers, and nutty praline, topped off with a Ferrero Rocher was epic, and wrote off any hope of a quick recovery from the holiday excesses. Just a couple more pieces to go and then definitely watching the calories until Christmas.

Wooden Box returns.

We have a barn full of dried, cleaned and stacked boxes which is very satisfying. If you have any more empties you would like us to pick up just drop us a line. It may take a little while to get there as we are not on the road very much now, but we will get there eventually.

Availability list highlights

The range is getting quite low now as the autumn lines sell out or finish flowering.

Winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum are now available in small numbers with more coming on stream for later. Most are in bud with some colour showing, even the Silver Leaved have some bud, but not quite as many which is why I haven't yet marked them as flowering on the main list.

We have a good range of Helleborus in stock, to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy economy

Morning all,

It feels like September out there today, lovely warm sunshine and a gentle breeze, a perfect day for a bit of light autumn gardening. Hopefully there are still a few active gardeners out there who have not run out of cash yet. I know there will be plenty of retailers out there hoping that the pre Christmas spending isn't dented too hard, as this has become such a busy time for many centres and we don't want anyone to start the New Year in too much of a negative mood. All the indications are that many growers are taking an understandably cautious approach to next year's production targets, with so many challenges already in the system let alone whatever else is going to pop up.

Having recently finished our annual stock-take and seeing all the costs lined up in one document it feels pretty scary when I think of the implications that has on prices and shrinking margins. Just as we start making a sensible recovery from the Covid disruption it all gets threatened again by cost increases the like of which we have never seen before. The danger, as an aging nurseryman, is that I fail to react in a sensible commercial manner. I don't really get out much and witness on a daily basis just how much everything costs nowadays, so I can very easily undervalue the products we sell and fail to allow for any reward for the work undertaken over the year, or worse still, return to making a loss and then finding it difficult to justify continuing. This in turn puts not just our nursery jobs at risk, but the financial wellbeing of the village in Sri Lanka that make our pots. In a nut shell this is building up to announcing a fairly weighty price increase for 2023 which I will let you know about by email over the next few days. I am going to keep it as low as I can, at a lower rate than our costs are actually rising and we will try and make up any shortfall with increases in efficiency and reducing waste. It's going to be achallenging season for everyone, consumers, staff, retailers and suppliers, but hopefully the inflation pressures will ease in the not too distant future with settling energy and food prices and we can get back to some sort of normality, if we can remember what that was like!

I have just got back from two weeks out in the real world and come back with having lost too many pounds in currency and gained too many in weight, thank goodness for elasticated waistbands. Sharing a big rented house near the sea with friends was just the break we needed, despite wind and rain on all but 2 days. We saw some fantastic seas, views and wildlife as well as a lot of menus, empty plates and crumpled pasty bags. Can't believe it's over already and we are back on the nursery, but I don't think there's much more give in the elastic so it's just as well.

Between the showers the light was brilliant and we had some great sightings including, feeding Blue Fin Tuna leaping out of the sea just off the coastguard station in St Ives, multiple Black Redstarts in the garden of the house, a Water Rail running across the road near Lands End, a peregrine falcon attacking a flock of starlings and masses of waders in Hayle Estuary. Now time to knuckle down to minimal meals and less beer, otherwise I am going to have to up size to a new wardrobe.

The nursery is looking pretty smart on our return, the wood store got rebuilt with a fresh cladding of matching pallets and a new floor, the broken trolley shelves are all sorted and repaired where we can. Doors, vents and blinds have been repaired and re-clad, lots of plants mulched and wooden boxes made and I can see the office floor, I had forgotten it was that colour! With my mum is residence the house got a spring clean too so I am thinking we must go away more often.

Wooden Box returns.

We have a barn full of dried, cleaned and stacked boxes which is very satisfying. If you have any more empties you would like us to pick up just drop us a line. It may take a little while to get there as we are not on the road very much now, but we will get there eventually.

Availability list highlights

The range is getting quite low now as the autumn lines sell out or finish flowering.

Winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum are now available in small numbers with more coming on stream for later. Most are in bud with some colour showing, even the Silver Leaved have some bud, but not quite as many which is why I haven't yet marked them as flowering on the main list.

We have a good range of Helleborus in stock, to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise. Evergreen Lithodora are still looking smart, as are the Liriope.

Erigeron Stallone still in flower although quite big plants now. Likely to still be in flower at the end of the year if we don't hit a sudden mini ice age. Ours outside the back door, is usually still showing colour at Christmas.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy Tornado

Morning all,

Just a quick note to say that the attached list should cover both this coming week and the one after that.

Sales are going to take a breather over the next couple of weeks, as the availability takes a dip while the stock goes through that rather sad autumn dull patch. We have some strong Helleborous and a few odds and ends, but the other winter stock is yet to come into its own. Some of the spring bulbs are already showing a few shoots but not strongly enough to offer for sale yet and the winter/spring flowering Cyclamen coum are well on the way but not quite ready.

We had a lucky escape last Sunday when a tornado ripped through Up Somborne, a village which we can see from here, just down the valley, it ripped up sheds, greenhouses and knocked down trees and telegraph poles. It only lasted a few moments but did a lot of damage, with the telephone lines still awaiting repair and plenty of clearing up work still to do. I shudder to think what would be left of our tunnels if that had happened here. I'm sure the crops would be ok as they are not heated, but the chaos of re-sheeting at this time of year would have been a nightmare. Unfortunately the tunnels are not very insurable structures despite our reliance on them, but hey-ho, most of the time they are no trouble.

We are busy mulching the tops of the pots at the moment and knocking up another batch of wooden marketing trays ready for the spring rush. The mulching reduces the liverwort growth on the compost surface overwinter, which in turn saves on tidying time in despatch when we are run off our feet in the spring. It always hurts, doing so much work on the crop so far in advance of a sale, but we know it pays in the long run, so any temptation to cut back on labour at this quieter time and save a few pounds is resisted as much as I dare. The cash-flow has already begun its post sales season descent, but hopefully spring sales will rush along and save us before the wolves pitch up. We have plenty of spring bulbs which should get those early sales back on track, just as long as someone out there still has some cash to spend.

I did hear this week that in Holland a lot of the bedding growers have cut back hugely on their young plant orders, especially for the early crops, because to their reliance on heating to get them through the cooler periods. The costs are now so high that it simply isn't worth growing the crops. The same is happening in the UK with both heated plant production and heated salad crops, with the heating costs and labour shortages making the crops so unprofitable it is safer to shut up shop and sit it out. Overall it could create opportunities for cold grown ornamental crops to claim extra shelf space, but who is going be brave enough to grow extra in such a financially strained economy? I know most growers are being very conservative in their forecasts for 2023 so there could well be shortages again next year if demand turns out to be ok, time will tell. In the past plants usually fair pretty well in a recession, even if the big treats (cars and holidays) take a dive, the little treats still have their more affordable appeal. The unknown element this time, is will the cost of living crisis be worse than anything we have witnessed before and affect the little sales too? We will have to wait and see.

Wooden Box returns.

I have a barn full of dried, cleaned and stacked boxes which is very satisfying. We still have a few dotted about at a few sites, but the vast majority are now back home. If you have any empties you would like us to pick up just drop us a line. It may take a little while to get there as we are not on the road quite as much now, but we will get there eventually.

We have about 10,000 boxes in total, which on average get used 3 to 4 times a year and last about 10 years. Repetitive use is the key to their success, because at £10 each we can't afford not to have them out there earning their keep. The more times we are able to reuse them, the cheaper the cost to us and ultimately the customer. They have a huge potential stock value and quite an expensive annual repair and replacement cost with 1,000 new boxes a year needed to maintain stock levels.

Availability list highlights

The range is getting quite low now as the autumn lines sell out or finish flowering. We will have a good colour range in the winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum coming on again in a few weeks, just not quite ready yet.

We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise. Evergreen Lithodora looking smart as are the Liriope.

I added a range of hardy Agapanthus varieties which are mostly evergreen, they are looking so strong I thought, why not? Erigeron Stallone still in flower although quite big plants now. Likely to still be in flower at the end of the year if we don't hit a sudden mini ice age. Ours outside the back door, is usually still showing colour at Christmas.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy reflections

Morning all,

Mild but unsettled seems to be the order of the day, and the same will the weather over the next week or two. The trees round us are looking stunning and very autumnal with quite a few already shedding a lot of leaves. Difficult to believe it was so dry only a few weeks ago with puddles all over the place at the moment. We are still officially in a hose pipe ban here but I think with all the other excitement in the news the thoughts of drought have already faded from most people's memories.

We are pressing on with our long term project to collect and use more rainwater harvested from our tunnels and barn. I worked out earlier that over the last 3 winters 'we' have hand dug nearly 2km of trenches between the tunnels to incorporate french drains and connecting pipe-work. We just have to get the last few bits or infrastructure in place to join it all together to clean and collect it (twin sumps) and install some pipes and a pump to move it to a new storage tank. Unfortunately it isn't a project that will save us any money as the cost of the limited amount of borehole water we currently use is so cheap, especially when we use the turbines to run the pumps. But with water use generally coming under so much pressure we feel it is the right thing to do and should help future proof the nurseries water security, especially if we manage to catch enough extra to fill a big pond over winter.

My mild but unsettling part of the week was giving a talk at a local village hall to the new gardening club. It's something I never do, standing up and waffling in public scares the pants off me and I avoid it like the plague. This one-off was a specific request from the club to update them all on how Covid and the Lockdowns affected the nursery, especially after our Plants For People giveaway during the first Lockdown. They had all had deliveries of pots over those mad three weeks and were keen to hear how it all went once it was over. After all the generous donations we had received at that time it was a request difficult to refuse and after two previous cancellations due to more covid outbreaks this week the chickens finally came home to roast.

That first lockdown period was something we sort of remembered but actually had mostly blanked out, especially as we have been so busy since then. I thought I could just pen a few words and fly by the seat of my pants as I do most days, but I quickly realised that to get a more accurate picture I had to be quite specific with a lot of the facts and timings. This meant a thorough setting of the scene prior to that first lockdown and a precise recall of the events during it. I set it all out on my second ever Powerpoint presentation, what fun, and trawled through a load of Google pages and in the end read a lot of emails sent around the period. This was at that moment I was reminded myself of the enormity of what happened, the fears and unknowns at the time for everyone were tough enough, but to have to embark on some hair-brained scheme that no-one else had tried on this scale in an effort to save a 36 year old business, was taking a step into the complete unknown. Luckily the emails helped hugely with setting out all the timings for what happened and forced me to recall the day to day development of the idea and its deployment. In retrospect the project all went brilliantly and did more than we could have hoped for, we gave away over 90,000 pots to about 15,000 households, but of course at the time we had no idea what the next day would bring, let alone the next year. I managed to set it all out in a fairly coherent manner without reading too many upsetting emails and off we went.

The talk started brilliantly with the overhead projector refusing to speak to the laptop, but after a 30 minute delay, turning it all off and on again worked perfectly. The microphone battery ran out after 10 minutes and I forgot to check the clock to see how long I had, but otherwise all went swimmingly. Well over an hour later, with hardly anyone falling asleep I finished up a job well done. Lots of people were amazed at what we had done, before, during and after that lockdown and all very pleased that things had turned out so well. Caroline says she had to hold back a tear when I was talking through the early lockdown drama, so I think I hit the mark about right. I only mentioned the National Front once (meant to say National Trust) and hardly swore at all so .all in all not as bad as I had feared.

Availability list highlights

The range is getting quite low now as the autumn lines sell out or finish flowering. We will have a good colour range in the winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum coming on again in a few weeks, just not quite ready yet. We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise. Evergreen Lithodora looking smart as are the Liriope.

I added a range of hardy Agapanthus varieties which are mostly evergreen, they are looking so strong I thought, why not? Erigeron Stallone still in flower although quite big plants now. Likely to still be in flower at the end of the year if we don't hit a sudden mini ice age. Our outside the back door is usually showing colour at Christmas.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy offset?

Morning all, 

Potting is all done, and no compost left so I can't even be tempted to slip a few more through. We have had a thorough clean up in the potting tunnel and emptied out the new machine so we can oil up all the nuts and chains etc and get a grease gun to all the bearings etc. The compost that goes through the machine is quite abrasive and damp so I'm hoping this action will get the machine through the winter in better condition and it will last for a few extra years. Certainly a 'feel good' job, it almost looks like we are professionals. Everyone else is getting stuck into the pot mulching, trying to get a layer in place before the liverwort gets too much of a hold and slows up the trimming back later.

Trying to get to a position of 'net zero' on carbon output is the new favourite business target out there, and there are loads of people offering to help measure your performance to assist you on your way. As a business very interested on being as sustainable as we can be, while retaining a sensible level of commercialism, it is something I thought we should be able to have a good stab at and achieve this goal early on in the game. We have had quite a bit of experience over the years in measuring and reducing our direct carbon output in the areas we can actually measure ourselves. We have looked closely at energy use, waste output, transport emissions etc, but the one thing that has always bugged me was how do you measure the carbon cost of all the things you buy into the business. All those materials (pots, trays, tunnels, compost, young plants, consumables etc) plus all those services we use (accountants, waste disposal, electricians, servicing companies etc). All those things have a carbon cost, but I doubt if at this stage many of our suppliers could give us a carbon cost of what they deliver. At this point the net-carbon advisors start to apply generic estimated values based on the amount of money you spend with each supplier, allocated to very generalised groups and here things start to get a bit out of control, to the point of the whole exercise becoming farcical.

We put a lot of work into measuring and reducing our direct carbon emissions over the years and as a company our direct carbon output is just over 8 tonnes per year which is not bad considering we are employing 26 people, producing 450,000 hairy pots and a similar number of micro-propagated modules. However in the overall report carried out for us, they have estimated we also lose 51 tonnes from 'fugitive emissions' (I had to look this up, it means leaks from pressurise equipment), which can't be right, plus 751 tonnes from all our purchasing and material use! There is no breakdown of what materials or services these values have been allocated to, so how we are supposed to find a way to reduce them I'm not sure. I suspect the answer lies in the conclusion of the report, that to make ourselves net zero we pay someone (possibly the team who do the report!) to buy carbon offsets and fund carbon capturing projects.

I am awaiting to a response to a whole series of queries I made, but I suspect they would rather I take the easy way out and just pay up for carbon offsetting, which would currently cost just over £6,000. What I am actually now doing is gently harassing our suppliers for their carbon footprints for the materials and services they provide. I suspect that quite a few of the sort of things we are buying in have, either minimal carbon output, or indeed a negative one. We spend a monster amount on our coir pots for which I now actually have a carbon footprint and it comes out at a healthy negative figure, even after all the production, packing and transport costs are allocated. This is because the two main ingredients are coconuts and rubber sap which are both harvested from perennial tree crops which sequester carbon. I suspect there will be a similar outcome for the bamboo skewers which are also harvested from perennial croppers, but those sums are yet to be done.

The main issue I have with the whole thing, across all industries, is that most people will be working from guesstimates and generic data which doesn't actually help anyone. A quick payment to carbon offsetting and you are free to call yourself net zero. Even more frightening was an offer we had from our bank to work out our carbon footprint from our bank account activity, how accurate or meaningful is that going to be? The idea of these projects is that we find ways to improve but so far I see little evidence of this going to happen for most participants.

Wooden box returns

We have collecting up lots of our wooden boxes already, but if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or two to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise. Evergreen Lithodora looking smart as are the Liriope. I added a range of hardy Agapanthus varieties which are mostly evergreen, they are looking so strong I thought, why not?

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy bulbs

Morning all,

Nine Red Kites were circling over the nursery a couple of hours ago, the most I have ever seen together in these parts. What a difference a few years makes, it wasn't long ago when they were a major rarity. It was perfect weather for them, a stiff breeze and clear, bright visibility, they were just scouting the ground and dancing on the wind, a lovely sight.

Back down to earth and we are nearly through with the annual stocktaking, just a few more tunnels to count. Our usual stock-taker is off work at the moment so two new ones have been armed with clipboards and calculators and sent off into the wilds. They are doing a grand job but just as I thought we might get it all tied up, one got called away and the other distracted by us selling some of the stock! Not a bad thing at this time of year as the bank balance lurches back in the wrong direction and a long winter looms. Luckily our 'Spring' sales get going in January, weather permitting, so not too long to wait before it all kicks off again.

Finished potting the spring bulbs today which was a relief for all. It always starts off as a bit of a novelty, counting the bulbs into the pots and getting them the right way up, but after a couple of weeks of it we can't wait for it to end. That should mark the end of this year's potting, but I just might slip a few modules though the machine on Monday to finish up the last tiny bit of compost in the compost bay. Then we can have a proper end of season clear up in the potting tunnel, clean and service the machine and perhaps update the facilities again so we can be even more efficient next spring. Then a round of buns might be the order of the day, in celebration of another milestone in the production season. Any excuse will do.

After being unable to tempt any ground-works contractors to help us out getting our water recycling sumps, pumps, pipe- works and tanks installed, I suddenly have two on the hook at the same time. I have been in contact with both for months but after one site visit from each, nothing happened. I was beginning to think it was my long lived talent resurfacing, for being unable to get the attention of the waiter, but this week has seen a flurry of visits and correspondence and I think something might actually get done in the not too distant future. I have had all the kit lying about and paid for since March so it will be good to see some action.

One of the big winter jobs coming up is constructing another new batch of our wooden marketing trays to keep stock levels healthy. We can't afford to run out during the season as it makes life really difficult and it simply isn't practical to construct them during those hectic months. Luckily timber prices have dropped back slightly, although still at levels 4 times higher than we were paying 3 years ago, and today we took delivery of 6 pallets of component parts all ready to print, treat and construct over the next 4 months. That will be enough to replace or repair about 10% of our stock and give us a few spares just in case. Although the total cost of a new box is now pushing past £10, the long term economics of using them still work for us. The average life of a box is currently 12+ years and we reuse the box just over three times each year, so we are averaging 40 uses out of each tray. I know we are achieving many more uses out of a lot of the boxes where we are able to get them back quickly, so special thanks to all those returning theirs in a timely manner, it only works with your help.

Wooden box returns

We have collecting up lots of our wooden boxes already, but if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or two to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Japanese Anemones are flushing nice. Plenty of strong flower stems although the plants are getting quite tall now. Erigeron Stallone is still in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas! Autumns' flowerers are on the march with more and more Asters coming into bud and colour.

We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise. Tiarella with it's pretty 'foam flowers' are looking great. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera. Evergreen Lithodora looking smart as are the Liriope. I added a range of hardy Agapanthus varieties which are mostly evergreen, they are looking so strong I thought, why not?

Best wishes,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy counting

Morning all,

End of the month already and feeling a bit autumnal as the rain patters on the roof of the office and wind turn the turbines.

It's that time of year again for us, another financial year ends and all the fun of stocktaking gets underway. A weekend packed with counting and spreadsheet filling, never my favourite job, although when it's finished it gets us off to a lovely clean start, where we know exactly where we stand and all the stock lists are up to date and accurate, well for a couple of weeks anyway. Despite a disappointing summer with all those scorching hot days and slightly subdued sales, we are hopeful that we have kept travelling in a positive direction and will be able keep the bank happy enough to see us through the winter. Our stock levels are going to be up a bit, so we will have plenty of plants for a busy spring (fingers crossed), and we have secured plenty of dry stock in advance, to secure both the supply and fix the prices. It's been an expensive exercise and I'm sure the bank and accountant would rather we had the cash in hand instead, but I'm moderately confident that our plant sales will hold up well, given some reasonable spring weather.

The national economic mood is not exactly buoyant at the moment and I do wonder what might be coming round the corner next, but we are where we are, and we are still looking to make the most of it. Luckily we haven't got to make any major purchases over the next few months that involve dollars, although if things don't improve, the container shipping cost reductions we have seen over the last few weeks are going to be more than wiped out by the exchange rate changes.

The spring bulbs arrived this week and we were able to get stuck straight into potting them which is great. I hate leaving them in their boxes any longer than I have to, some varieties can really suffer if not dealt with quickly. We have done our usual trick of potting them all onto trolleys to keep them out of reach of the mice and voles, at least until they start to shoot when we put them down in the tunnels. In the past we have had entire crops wiped out by the little tykes, but we seem to have the upper hand at the moment (famous last words). Fritillaria are the tastiest and the one we have to put on the highest shelves.

We have decided to keep on some of our summer staff further into the autumn, with a run of long term sickness hitting us badly. A couple of home falls, and two illnesses have knocked out four staff for several weeks if not months, and we still need to get through a lot of stuff. Even without many sales over the next few months, there is a big list of jobs to get through and I really don't want to fall too far behind.

The cooler evenings prompted the lighting of the wood-burner a couple of times this week, just to take the edge off. We usually burn wood but occasionally stick on some rolled up waste paper (like the old accounts), but the burnt paper does have a tendency to slow the airflow allowing small pockets of gases to build and then ignite. These wood-burner 'farts' blow a smoke ring through the door seal prompting a quick opening of the vents to increase airflow. Last week we had such an episode which inexplicably led to one of those joyous uncontrollable reoccurring fits of the giggles. A single comment about 'trapped wind' set us both off with repeated attacks, pebble-dashing the fireplace with dinner and drinks. No explanation for it, just one of those mad stress relieving moments. Felt much better, especially once the mess was cleared up. 

Wooden box returns

We have collecting up lots of our wooden boxes already, but if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or two to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

We have our our dwarf garden Chrysanthemums in bud, showing flashes of colour. Japanese Anemones are flushing nice. Plenty of strong flower stems although the plants are getting quite tall now. Erigeron Stallone is still in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas!

Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud and colour. We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Gaura Rosy Jane looking fab with lots of buds.. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera. Evergreen Lithodora looking smart as are the Liriope.

I added a range of hardy Agapanthus varieties which are mostly evergreen, they are looking so strong I thought, why not?

Best wishes, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy economy

Morning all,

The stunning funeral on Monday started off a strange week. Those events in London already seem like a month ago, partly to do with so much happening on the nursery over the week and partly because the earlier events were so other worldly and unique. I'm not much of a royalist but it was superbly done, I just hope the family do get some time to take it all in and recover a bit before things get too hectic again.

Meanwhile back at base someone has been making a few investments to improve things on site even further. Late summer is the time when the overdraft doesn't look as scary as it can do in the depths of winter, the purse strings get a little looser and I find a few ways in which we could make life better. It usually involves a lot of internet shopping for shiny new tools and a few risky purchases on something that seemed like a good idea at the time. Someone has to keep the economy going!

We have topped up the snips and garden scissor stocks ready for the big winter cut back with a bargain bulk shop, bought in a new cover for the big irrigation tank and took delivery of yet another very expensive container of coir pots ready for 2023 potting. A large roll of thick woollen capillary matting came in for experimenting with in the bottom of our boxes, together with a special slightly scary electric fabric cutter to slice it up with.

Our pest control expert told us of a great vermin control device which we instantly ordered, if it works we are hoping do away with using other less palatable methods. They are already in position so we will know very soon how effective they are. Being in arable country we have in the past struggled to keep vermin under control, although we have been more successful in recent years, they can still do a lot of damage especially overwinter when other food sources are in short supply. I'm sure it will be better than the pigeon scarer I bought years ago which endlessly played the calls of various predators, the pigeons were immune to it but it drove the rest of us nuts. Luckily it eventually shorted out never to be heard again. In the summer we witnessed the novelty of a very clean van when it returned from the mending man, which has prompted the purchase of a bright yellow pressure washer to see if we can repeat the experience occasionally,

Time flies and all that, but sometimes we do get untimely reminders that we need to make the most of what we have and how quickly things can change. The Queens passing was one of those moments, but things moved a bit closer to home this week with the news that our most experienced member of the team had had a fall at home and broken her thigh bone. She has been plated up by the good old NHS and is staying with them while she recovers her mobility again, which hopefully won't be too long. We are all missing her and hoping she makes a great recovery and that we will see her again soon.

Take care out there.

Wooden box returns

We are collecting up lots of our wooden boxes at the moment, so if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or three to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

We have our dwarf garden Chrysanthemums in bud, showing flashes of colour. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem. Erigeron Stallone is still in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas!

Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud and colour.

We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. No flower yet but full of winter promise. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great.

Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Best wishes,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy refresher

 Morning all,

A bank holiday weekend coming up like no other I suspect.

We still have so much to get done before the autumn sets in for good, it's difficult to know what to do next. As sales slow up I am always hopeful that the jobs will fly by and we will tick off loads of stuff really quickly, but with cooler weather and talk of ground frosts not far away from us time is slipping by. It's dark when I wake up and dusky when I come in, which seems to have sneaked up on me really fast.

We had an educational week with three of us taking our refresher forklift training on Thursday. An all day session with practical and theory tests in the afternoon, the time flew by. I can't say I enjoy being tested anymore (if ever) especially as I now have the memory span of a gnat, and there were a few quite challenging questions which weren't common sense, they were straight memory recall. Anyway we all passing with (low) flying colours and are refreshed with a flush of righteousness in our updated fork-lifting techniques.

We are still waiting to hear at what level our nursery electric charges are going to be capped, we know it's coming but no idea at what rate. Hopefully it will be at a similar level to the domestic cap, which would still more than double our bill, but not quadruple it, which was on the cards a fortnight ago. Perhaps the caps will calm things down a bit on the inflation front and we can look forward with a bit more positivity, especially as we move into a new era.

We are rapidly approaching the end of the month and the end of our financial year, so stock sheets are being prepared for the big count. I'm pretty sure stock levels are up on last year, due to some earlier late summer potting and several early and large stock purchases chasing the best price deals. Plant sales usually do pretty well in troubled economic times, as people forgo big money purchases but still treat themselves to a little something for the garden or windowsill. Fingers crossed those plant sales are there in the coming spring as we have a lot of stock to get through.

It's been a good week for local wildlife spotting with hedgehogs up and about, Red Kites cruising over the nursery multiple times a day, Pied and Grey wagtails feeding in the tunnels, bats hunting along the hedges and big numbers of frogs, toads and newts being spotted in the tunnels despite the hot summer. But the highlight of the week was a massive flock of feeding house martins and swallows diving about over the house and nursery. There must have been way over 100 birds but impossible to count as they moved so fast, chaotically and over quite a big area. They hung about for an hour or two then headed off south. Hopefully one day they will return and breed here again. We used to get loads of house martin nests on the house and the odd swallow nest in the shed and barn but have had nether for two or three years now and we really miss them.

Wooden box returns

We are collecting up lots of our wooden boxes at the moment, so if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or three to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Time flies and we have our dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud, showing flashes of colour. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Erigeron Stallone is back in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas!

Cyclamen hederifolium are nearly gone already after bumper sales. An autumn flowering type just a few white ones left, Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud and colour.

We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. No flower yet but full of winter promise. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great.

Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Take care out thrre,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy life

Morning all,

We are all in a slight state of shock after the sudden and sad news of the passing of the Queen, so I'm holding back on any flippant reporting of life on the nursery this week while everyone gets their heads round the resulting upheaval this is all going to cause. Hopefully we will be able to quickly focus on all the joyful and positive stuff that resulted from such a long and fulfilled life, rather than be too sad for too long. We are going to have to muster up some positive drive pretty quickly to see us through the next year or two, so perhaps a bit of rejoicing of a life well lived and looking forward with hope to a new era will help in the end.

Normal service should be resumed next week.

Wooden box returns

We are collecting up lots of our wooden boxes at the moment, so if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or three to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Time flies and we have our dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud, showing flashes of colour. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Erigeron Stallone is back in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas!

Cyclamen hederifolium are nearly gone already after bumper sales. An autumn flowering type both colours are looking good, Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud and colour. We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. No flower yet but full of winter promise.

Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages.Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Take care out there,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy positivity

Morning,

Thankfully the grass is greening up again with a little bit of steady rain. No floods yet, but we are still desperate for more to get out of this drought situation. We have been trying to find some positive stuff to focus on to help alleviate all the rubbish in the news, so we have had another man in to take a look at our rain collection installation and the possibility of installing a few solar panels which would move us in a positive cost direction. We are doing some fresh sourcing of timber to try and keep our wooden box costs in check after huge rises over the past couple of years and I have signed up again with our pot makers with a schedule for next year's deliveries, which should give them the confidence to keep up their good work in these challenging times. We have our fingers crossed that container costs continue to fall over the next 12 months which should happen if world trade falters as expected (every cloud and all that). 

We are approaching the winter with a lot of lovely things tucked under our belts. We have good numbers of plants potted and growing away nicely after slightly earlier potting, we have nearly enough pots in stock already to cover all of next year's output (mission critical, they have very long lead times which can lead to nervous waits for any delayed deliveries), There's two years supply of bamboo skewers in the barn (bought in bulk to keep price from going too high) and good stock levels of wooden marketing trays ready for next year's sales. It does all dent the cash-flow a bit but it should all generate cash again in the coming season. We have employed a few more summer staff this year so not only did we start potting earlier but we have also been pot topping earlier, to reduce the amount of liverwort establishing on the compost surface before the winter. This should save us loads of time later and make for tidier plants at despatch in the spring, so improving overall productivity which is going to be so important over the next year.

I used the bank holiday weekend for a little distractive activity, taking on a potential clearout in the house garage. I've not been in there for a long time and now I wish I had left it alone! Our old Standard Pennant (1959) is in there, all covered up and un-started for probably 5 or 6 years, and now covered in a telltale line of sawdust. We have a bad case of woodworm in all the roof supports and window frames which if untreated could have been big trouble for the roof structure. Luckily the walls and floor are concrete and part of the roof support is steel so the wooden components are not a major structural feature. However action was needed so I have cleaned out one half (the side without the car) and treated all the wood I can get a brush onto, Today I volunteered a gang from the nursery to help move the car from one side of the garage to the other. It took 6 of us to move it, pushing it out was easy, but pushing it back up a gravel slope and up over a concrete lip while the tires were soft and the brakes binding was a sweaty and grunty performance. As the responsible and managerial element of the team I took my rightful place at the steering wheel to guide her successfully home. This weekend will now be spent clearing out the other side and treating the timber, what fun. I think we'll leave the car in its new position!

We are starting to collect up quite a lot of our hairy pot wooden boxes now, so if anyone has a batch ready to return please do drop me a reminder. I have a list of a few of you already and we will get round to you over the next few weeks. Next week might be a bit quiet as we seem to have lost nearly everyone to holidays, something to do with the schools going back and prices dropping back to more sensible rates. Roll on November when St Ives rates drop to my kind of level!

Availability list highlights

Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already, An autumn flowering type they are both looking good,

Time flies and we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come. Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages.

Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many left now. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy and Reuseable

Morning all,

Bank holiday weekend, hooray. Nearly managed a quiet weekend, but we have a big microprop order to go out Tuesday morning that got delayed from a couple of weeks ago and it all needs tarting up again, loading and labelling, so no feet up just yet. Hoping over the three days for a little down time, especially as the weather looks more manageable, off to the local fancy eating pub tonight for a treat, so looking forward to that. The tiny portions help with calorie intake I'm told!

Sales have been ticking over but have not really recovered from the heat waves and ongoing hosepipe bans, it's a shame but at least it gives us a chance to catch up on tunnel clearing and potting which has been in full swing. I would like to say we are ahead of ourselves on the potting front, but I think it would be more accurate to say we aren't as far behind as usual! Whatever it is, it's better than before, which definitely reduces stress levels as the nights draw in and should give us even chunkier stock next spring.

This week was my quarterly therapy session with our NBIS group, I get off the site, meet up with other nursery folk, have the luxury of a pub lunch and hear about everyone else's woes before inflicting them with mine. It's great to unload to a sympathetic, if sometimes cheekily abusive, audience. As usual I picked up some valuable tips and info plus a general feel of how everyone was managing through these crazy economic times. Sadly the turmoil of the last few years has had its casualties with one of the group last week deciding to close their business before things got too far out of hand. Always a difficult thing to hear about let alone go through, so our thoughts are with all those affected especially the management team and employees who are out of a job at very short notice.

A surprise like that, as a business owner, brings home just how many people are reliant on how well Caroline and I do our jobs. We are going to have to get to grips with how best we handle the current economic chaos to try and keep the business not just afloat but moving forwards. 

Costs are going nuts, not just for the business but for all our staff too and I desperately want to keep prices from racing away to silly levels and denting sales. It's going to be a very difficult balance to make and I think we are going to have to be flexible on all fronts. Despite making efficiency improvements each and every year, we still have a few more tweaks to add in this coming year, which should partially mitigate what I expect will be a significant wage rise in the spring, All our other major costs have increased on a scale we have never seen before, compost, wooden boxes (up 160%), pots (up 22%), young plants, diesel and 3rd party transport costs, heating oil and imported electricity (likely to be up over 400% in January). I am thankful that we have in place so much reusable stuff, we rarely buy any growing/handling trays which must be 25+ years old now, the wooden marketing trays get multiple uses and last ages so only need partial replacement each year, the Danish trolley system works beautifully as a packing system (barring the occasional shelf collapse) and our relatively new transport fleet should keep us going for a few more seasons deliveries without too much more investment (famous last words). The turbines are making an increasingly valuable contribution too and hopefully we might be able to add a few solar panels to our renewable energy mix over the next year. One day some of those huge increases should fall back again to a degree and we can relax a bit but not just yet.

Availability list highlights

Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. An ongoing flush of buds on the Geum Lemon Drops, don't miss out they won't hang about long. Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already, An autumn flowering type they are both looking good,

Time flies and we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come. Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. The late performing Cerostigma plumbaginoides have their first buds appearing and the odd deep blue flower opening.

Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many left now. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds and colour are visible. Crocosmia are going well. Showing colour now and looking great but not many left. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy amphibians

Morning all, 

Relief at last with cooler temperatures and some welcome rain. Luckily we avoided any torrential downpours we just kept catching the edge of everything. Definitely need a lot more but at least the ground is now damp under foot rather than baked hard. The plants are looking happier on the nursery with the moisture from the irrigation hanging around for much longer and reducing stresses all round. Working hours are back to normal and work rates recovering so back to trying to catch up. The race to autumn is on as we try to get on top of the tunnel clearing and get the potting completed in a timely manner, that rule of 'one weeks growth in summer being worth three in the autumn' haunts me at this time of year as we race to get mature enough plants ready to overwinter successfully.

Water levels in the main nursery pond had shrunk to an extremely low level last week, so we took the opportunity to strip out the water weed growth in there which was choking up the open water. A job we had been looking at for a couple of years now. Luckily the frogs, newts and toads have been finding there way in there ok to breed, but the lack of open water definitely reduced the activity of the dragonflies and damsel flies which used to visit and breed every year. Our tunnels make a great environment for the amphibians, loads of insects to feed on and plenty of damp to keep them healthy, especially when you think how dry our chalk gardens and fields are in weather like we have had. We are constantly uncovering and disturbing them as we work through the crops, they can give quite a surprise when they suddenly burst into life especially when you get a good sized frog or toad. The newts go for a completely different tactic, lying on their backs with their legs in the air showing their orange striped bellies and playing dead. Even if you flip them over they don't move, you can watch them for signs of life and nothing shows until you look away, look back and they have gone.

VW have just let us know that our electric car has been delayed again, now due late December, bit bored with it all now after now 4 delays and what will be at least an 18 month wait. Hey ho, worse things happen, but I do wonder about the havoc it must be creating with their finances.

Humming bird hawk moths are about now, I've spotted these amazing moths over the last few days doing their hummingbird impressions around some of the flowers in our trough outside the office. Sometimes you just have to stop and marvel.

Bank holiday coming up next weekend, then it's back to school for all the youngsters, can't believe it's that late in the year already. I had one customer mention preparations were already underway for Christmas! Shoot me now. Mind you I think we had better all be prepared for some budget trimming this time round, things are looking a bit tight on the economic front, although luckily small yummy plants have usually done OK even in the darkest of recessions in the past. Fingers crossed.

Availability list highlights

Still plenty of lovely looking stock despite the heat, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches. An ongoing flush of buds on the Geum Lemon Drops, don't miss out they won't hang about long. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds and colour are visible. Autumn's flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud.

Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already, An autumn flowering type they are both looking good. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. The late performing Cerostigma plumbaginoides have their first buds appearing and the odd deep blue flower opening. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds.

Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many left now. Crocosmia are going well. Showing colour now and looking great but not many left. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Fresh batch of the cerise/red Penstemon Garnet are in bud again, with colour flashes. Time flies and we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come. Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvia Amethyst Lips looking good.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy reflections

Morning all,

Just a couple of scorchers to go and then thankfully some cooler weather to follow next week. Looks like a few thunderstorms might be on the cards but still no bog standard rain for the south on the horizon. The weather and water situation has definitely hit both our production and plant sales. We haven't been able to do the work we wanted, hours have been reduced and demand has slipped. Not a lot we can do about it in the short term so just have to do our best.

Sorry the list is a bit late this week, it has been hard to find the time to get out and check what's there! Luckily the irrigation system has just about coped, but I know how quickly it can all go wrong as the odd nozzle blows off or tap gets accidentally turned off, so we are always on tenterhooks and checking how things look as we work around the site.

I have had to start turning the news off as it there seem to be so many pretty catastrophic reports. I know ignoring them won't make them go away, but at least I can try on focus on some more positive aspects of life and get some energy back. The clear skies have meant great night time moon views this past week and hopefully we might get good sightings of the meteor shower due over the next few days. Nothing like some stellar activity to improve marvel levels.

Last weekend before trekking out on my first jive evening for 5 months, I did a bit of research online for a few tips to remind me what I'm supposed to be doing. In the end I picked up some decent thoughts on making the most out of my time here. For someone with a need for a degree of freedom in most things I do, to cope with memory, discipline and balance frailties, being able to adjust what I do on my own whim is a must. Modern jive is a dance which suits me, as I get to, more or less, make it up as I go. There are a vast number of moves (of which I can remember only a few) most of which are fairly relaxed about accurate feet positioning, they just need a good lead from the chap (or lead dancer). My main worry is usually about remembering a selection of different moves during the dance, working out what might come next and how to execute them. I have seen this problem affect the dancing style of many a chap, with the temptation to try and make it an olympic event of a dance, doing the widest variety and the most complex of moves in an effort to look like you know what you are doing. The best advice online I found, was not about the moves, but a reminder that the aim for the lead was to make his partner look and feel good. Each one will be different just as each tune is different, and picking up on what works for each is a key skill. A laugh or smile from a partner on the floor is the best reward, you have provided what they wanted and it encourages you to relax and do more. It definitely works on the dance floor and for many in life too. Aren't many of the happiest and most dynamic people those who are driven by doing things for others. I know the financial situation is pretty scary, but money isn't everything, there are other rewards out there, we just have to recognise and enjoy them. 

Availability list highlights

Still plenty of lovely looking stock despite the heat, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches. A surprise flush of buds on the Geum Lemon Drops, don't miss out they won't hang about long. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds and colour are visible

Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already, An autumn flowering type they are looking good,

Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. The late performing Cerostigma plumbaginoides have their first buds appearing and the odd deep blue flower opening.

Gaura looking fab with lots of buds, as have the Rhodanthemum, both good selling summer favourites. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many left now. Crocosmia are going well. Showing colour now and looking great. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants.

Loads of bud and pretty little flowers showing on both Calamintha compact varieties. Fresh batch of the cerise/red Penstemon Garnet are in bud again, with colour flashes. Time flies and we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come. Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvia Lips series are doing their thing, Amethyst Lips looking the best. Plenty of bud to come on the little alpine Lewisia, already showing colour in attractive mixed pastel shades

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy future

 Morning all,

Having trouble finding very much to be excited about, everything seems to be going wrong, Russia messing about with everything, China now joining in the fun, climate change still looming large, government in turmoil and unfocussed as they slag each other off to become leader, inflation going nuts, and now interest rates stepping up, with warnings of more to come, I am wondering what's next?

We are raring to go now with all three small vans back on the road, after the one new Fiat was held up at the menders for over 8 weeks waiting for parts. Mind you the next day did have the inevitable follow up setback, with two punctures on the other Fiat, one quick, one slow and on opposite sides of the van. All sorted now so no worries.

Struggling a bit at the moment coping with life's realities. All the old looking people on the TV turn out to be younger than me, which can't be right, and I struggle to believe the price of a cup of coffee these days. I suddenly don't recognise any of the names of the hip bands, when we both used to be fairly up together with at least some of the genres Why isn't it proper music anymore and how can Mick Jagger be nearly 80. How come the new millennium started so long ago and why did I waste so much time training to cope with the millennium bug!. Where has all the time gone and what is an exit strategy! Many of our friends have taking early retirement and are swanning about keeping themselves busy, mostly buying caravans it seems. There is still so much to do here, how are we going to fit it all in? I suspect a day off might help, it all gets a bit much by this time of the year.

A replacement pair of elasticated waistband trousers heralds an evening out tomorrow. Haven't been for a jive evening since March when we got so busy and the loss of my only good pair to the nursery has hampered my return. Not sure I can remember how to do it, but I'm told it's as easy as falling off a log, and with my dancing skills looks a lot like it too!

Great England performance last Sunday and some lovely Commonwealth Games coverage, both generating fun and positive vibes. Certainly the men's football game could learn plenty from the ladies, as they could from many other sports (rugby, hockey etc). The lack of respect in the men's game for the officials, the behaviour and attitudes on the pitch and in the stands are so out of line with proper sport and life in the outside world. Given a chance we can be positive and upbeat, yet there is so much pressure to push us in the opposite direction. Now may be the time when we need to harness some of that positivity and fun in order to see us through some tough economic months. Most of us are still very privileged to have what we have and going without a few luxuries is something we can bear with a smile given the right approach.

Availability list highlights

Plenty of lovely looking stock, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches.

Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible. Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already.

Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already. An autumn flowering type they are looking good. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages.

The late performing Cerostigma plumbaginoides have their first buds appearing and the odd deep blue flower opening. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds, as have the Rhodanthemum, both good selling summer favourites. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many yet but more to follow. Crocosmia are going well. Showing colour now and looking great.

Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. A surprise flush of buds on the Geum Lemon Drops, don't miss out they won't hang about long. Loads of bud and pretty little flowers showing on both Calamintha compact varieties. Fresh batch of the cerise/red Penstemon Garnet are in bud again, colour flashes.

Time flies and already we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come. Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvias Lips series are doing their thing. Plenty of bud to come on the little alpine Lewisia, already showing colour in attractive mixed pastel shades Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy pots

Morning,

We seem to have gone into some sort of recovery mode after the excess heat of last week. I don't think I quite appreciated how much work we lost over that week and with a few illnesses and holiday breaks this week we just haven't been able to get to the potting machine. We had no space prepared so have had to divert the potting team into tunnel clearance. Sales did recover well this week, which was great but time consuming, and plenty more stock arrived for potting. Definitely no rest for the wicked just yet although Saturday potting has been cancelled, so I might get a short lie in.

Energy prices are still nuts, but we did have an object lesson this week in how much we rely on it and how hard life is without it. There was planned maintenance/replacement of some local electric poles on Wednesday, which meant no power all day. Despite the advanced warning it still took a couple of hours to run cables here and there so that we could operate everything once our large, but noisy generator was fired up. Luckily I had prefilled the tank and checked the battery so it did fire up first time. It is an ancient tractor engine based unit, very agricultural but it does the job. Good thing that we don't have fussy neighbours!

Next week sees our third container of pots arrive with one more to come in a couple of months. Things have got slightly out of kilter with deliveries this year with the extra pots now squeezed on board to help combat the extra shipping costs. It looks like we are going to have to find a bit more storage space somewhere to house the increase in overwintered stock levels. In reality we are fairly stuffed if we don't have the pots here and building up a bit of a stockpile does give us more security against production disruption later, if not helping much with the cash-flow now. Unfortunately the costs like everything else have shot up again, the last load was nearly 30% higher than last year and it may be even more this time because the exchange rates have gone against us while the shipping has dropped back a bit. We'll see.

Hopefully sales won't be hit too hard by our local domestic hosepipe ban which comes into force on Monday. Desperate for a bit of rain here, but none forecast for us in the next 10 days. Watched the BBC program 'Big Oil v The World' last night, it opened my eyes to how much effort and cash the US oil industry ploughed into discrediting the climate change science over the last 30+ years. Capitalism maybe our way of doing things, but taken to the extreme it may well have done us all in. Fingers crossed we can salvage something at this late stage although I have my doubts. There are still too many thinking of themselves first and not the future generations to follow. Do more now, don't leave it to others.

Availability list highlights

Plenty of lovely looking stock, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible

Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. The late performing Cerostigma plumbaginoides have their first buds appearing and the odd deep blue flower opening.

Gaura looking fab with lots of buds, as have the Rhodanthemum, both good selling summer favourites. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many yet but more to follow. Crocosmia are going well. Showing colour now and looking great.

Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely foliage on display from both of the Heuchera and Ajuga ranges. Loads of bud and pretty little flowers showing on both Calamintha compact varieties. Fresh batch of the cerise/red Penstemon Garnet are in bud again, colour not far away. Time flies and already we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come.

Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already, An autumn flowering type they are looking good, The Rose pink ones are the biggest at the moment. Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvias are doing their thing,

Large daisy flowers of our Leucathemum range are ready to shine. All are compact varieties. Summer flowering hardy Fuchsia Tom Thumb are looking good with plenty of bud and flower. Plenty of bud to come on the little alpine Lewisia, already showing colour in attractive mixed pastel shades

Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy skewers

Morning all,

That was a madly hot few days, I don't want any more thanks

I think we got off lightly in comparison to some, our maximum didn't reach 40C but we weren't too far off. If you add in the tunnel factor it was pretty unbearable. We took some precautionary measures to keep everyone as safe as we could, starting early and finishing at midday before the heat built up too much. Not the most productive of nursery days but a relief to all to be able to hide in a darkened room until it passed. We left the orders until the cooler end of the week which seemed to work ok. I had been thinking we could give the Saturday potting a miss from this week, but we missed out on so many production hours, we are going to have another thrash tomorrow, just to try and keep on top of it all. Plants keep turning up to be potted, so I hope you are all prepared to tuck into a shed load of lovely plants next spring and clear them away otherwise there is going to be one hell of a compost heap.

I managed to research some higher rates for the exported electricity we send into the grid from our wind turbines. I had been a bit surprised by the rate we had been offered by our current electric company on our 12 month contract (less than 9p/unit) when wholesale electric prices are well over 20p (34p last week). I was offered just under 22p and snapped it up feeling we get a nice boost to our income. The feeling of success lasted about 2 hours when the bill for our autumn potted bulbs arrived in my inbox, wiping out all the gain I had made on the turbines. At least we have the turbines, which will save us a fortune next year after our current import contract ends and the cost triples at a stroke (no cap on commercial electric prices). It's a mad world out there.

We picked up our next batch of the bamboo skewers this week, 5 months late and up in price of course. I did manage to do a deal by buying two years worth of stock, so if anyone runs short of sushi skewers you know where to come as we now have over 1.2 million of them!

This week I managed to wrestle a few hundred Agapanthus plugs from the lab in an effort to get a small range established in our pots before the winter comes. We grow about 100 varieties in there but are only allowed to grow on a few as the others are propagated under license for specialist growers. It has always seemed daft to grow so many and only rarely having them on the main nursery, so hopefully we will get potting timing right and we have some strong stock next spring. More jam tomorrow.

Availability list highlights

With the predicted heat wave early next week, we are very likely to delay most deliveries until later in the week, for the wellbeing of staff, plants and drivers. Hope this will work out ok.

Plenty of lovely looking stock, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches.

Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Erigeron karvenskianus Stallone are back on the list, plenty of bud and flower again and raring to go. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds, as have the Rhodanthemum, both good selling summer favourites. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many yet but more to follow.

First summer buds of Crocosmia are showing well. Close to colour now and looking good. Time flies and already we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come.

Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already, An autumn flowering type they are looking good, The Rose pink ones are the biggest at the moment.

Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvias are doing their thing. Dianthus in a good range of colours, bushy, lots of bud and well scented once the flowers open. Large daisy flowers of our Leucathemum range are ready to shine. All are compact varieties.

Summer flowering hardy Fuchsia looking good with buds on show for most. The tiny white flowered Hawkshead is always popular as are the garden favourite Tom Thumb.

Plenty of bud to come on the little alpine Lewisia, already showing colour in attractive mixed pastel shades.

Nice short plants of Achillea Moonshine in bud and looking strong. The compact Milly Rock range has recovered from a nursery hair cut with a fresh flush of compact leaves and buds. Oxalis Iron Cross looking good with their red flowers and bicolour foliage..

Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible. 

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy trepidation

Morning all

Bit tense here about the predicted record temperatures for early next week. It has been tough enough this week keeping everyone healthy, cool and hydrated but mid to high 30's is scary. I'm hopeless in the heat which doesn't help. We do have air-con in the micro-prop lab to control temperatures in the growth room and work area, so that should be fine, but the rest of us are going to have to adapt things to cope. A combination of early starting, time off, working in only shaded and fanned areas will hopefully see some work safely done before we give up and hide in a darkened room. Fingers crossed they might have overhyped the forecast, plus it also is due to cool dramatically on Wednesday, so I'm trying not to panic unduly.

We have had a little extra help this week with a very good work experience young chap called Max from a local school, who has impressed us all with his application, work and communication. It is a shame he has picked the hottest two weeks of the summer to work on a nursery full of polytunnels, but it has worked out very well. We also started a new lady from Ukraine in the lab on a part time basis while she and her family settle into the UK. We luckily had a relative of hers to help on day one with translation, so things got off to  a very positive start. She is massively overqualified to be working for us, but until she gets the language skills up together and moves on, we get the benefit of her efforts. Hearing a little of the recent family background makes our own worries appear rather trivial, but I'm glad to say they appear to be looking at things with a surprisingly positive and bright approach.

This last couple of weeks I have been harvesting Erigeron seed from my little collection of stock plants in the end of one tunnel. This weather has been perfect for ripening the tiny flower heads although they can be a challenge to pick. I can understand now why they charge £100 per gram for this one. They flower continually from one end of the season to the other and the seed heads mature in a similar way with the added 'pear characteristic', one minute they are not ready and the next they've gone past it. The tiny fluffy seed-heads are not only tricky to spot among the flowers but and as you approach them the slightest touch on another stem flicks the whole lot on the floor before I can get finger and thumb to them. It's a good job we are not retail as the language can get a bit colourful. I developed a trick earlier in the year of standing a couple of pots on top of some seed trays so that they sowed themselves directly into the tray. After a bit of rearranging of the deposited seed I left them to germinate. This worked brilliantly for producing plants for late summer and overwintering, but I now need dry seed to sow in the spring, hence the twice daily trip to the stock plants for a bit of swearing.

Availability list highlights

With the predicted heat wave early next week, we are very likely to delay most deliveries until later in the week, for the wellbeing of staff, plants and drivers. Hope this will work out ok.

Plenty of lovely looking stock, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches if it's not too hot!

Erigeron karvenskianus Stallone are back on the list, plenty of bud and flower again and raring to go. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds, as have the Rhodanthemum, both good selling summer favourites. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many yet but more to follow.

First summer buds of Crocosmia are just poking through the leaves. Close to colour now and looking good. Time flies and already we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come.

Last batch of Nemesia Wisey Vanilla is ready to go, with bud, colour and best of all that strong vanilla scent. Just a few left. Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvias are doing their thing,

Fresh crops of Dianthus in a good range of colours, bushy, lots of bud and well scented once the flowers open. Large white daisy flowers of our Leucathemum range are ready to shine. All are compact varieties. Summer flowering hardy Fuchsia looking good with buds on show for most. The tiny white flowered Hawkshead is always popular as are the garden favourite Tom Thumb.

Plenty of bud to come on the little alpine Lewisia, already showing colour in attractive mixed pastel shades. Nice short plants of Achillea Moonshine in bud and looking strong. The compact Milly Rock range has recovered from a nursery hair cut with a fresh flush of compact leaves and buds.

Summer must be on its way with the appearance of the Oxalis. Both forms are now in flower with lots to follow. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible,

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries