Hairy and bare root!

Morning all,

What is going on? Sales are through the roof at the moment, this week we reached levels not usually seen until early March. Maybe the wind and rain forecast over the weekend might slow things up a bit, although having said that we already have a few orders already lined up for despatch. I suppose we have been pretty lucky with the weather, considering the time of year, so I'm not banking on this excitement to be unrelenting until the end of the summer, I'm sure there will be some hiccups along the way.

We did manage to get some other work done too, with another little dabble into some bare-root potting and a bit of a tidy up in despatch were some of the winter projects had been based. With the box making finished and all the new POS boards and pot labels filed away, the debris created could be re-homed until next winter, creating a nice big open space for the orders again. You forget how big these areas are when they get cluttered up.

The high early sales levels have caught us out a bit, because despatch should have been sorted out before we needed the space, but we got there in the end. Now there are just the rest of the overwintered plants to finish tidying up, out in the tunnels. Things were progressing as planned a month ago, but with so much time spent despatching over the last 3 weeks we have fallen behind, so time to add a few more hours to the week in order to catch up.

The irrigation treatment device is settling in nicely, as we get used to how it works and adjusting the settings etc. I still have one annoying leak, but to fix it I have needed to change about 6 parts and I never have the right combination of bits to fit. Pipestock.com must think I'm trying to buy up all their stock, as I'm ordering every other day. Glad to say that in the end the set up will be simpler and easier to maintain in the long run and in theory less likely to leak when we mess around with it. The rainfall water collection project is continuing to gather an expensive collection of parts, but has halted in actual physical progress for a few weeks. One additional feature added was that we picked up a mystery fog horn drifting across the site, which we just couldn't pin down. After blaming the local farmers for running noisy fans or similar, it turned out to be the large drain pipes we had parked under the hedge. On breezy days they act like blowing across multiple bottle tops, producing quite a deep eerie sound.

More delays on delivery of our new big truck meant we have had to have the old one serviced again and the tacho calibrated, as well as pressing it back into service in London, to cope with the delivery volumes. At £100 a day inside the M25, it's not a cheap option and one we had hoped would be well behind us by now. It must be a year since we ordered it, with the initial delivery estimate in October, which was bad enough, but multiple delays later we still don't have a date other than sometime in March. Lack of parts are taking the blame, very frustrating for all concerned.

Availability list highlights

Please do bear in mind that it is still mid-winter so our unheated plant growth, although healthy, is likely to be winter 'tight' in habit and not big, soft and lush. There isn't a lot of colour yet and where there is some, the plants are disappearing fast. A bit more warmth and we'll get another flush of varieties, I can see the signs of action, just not quite enough to send just yet.

Not in flower but always very popular at this time of year, the Alliums and Camassia bulbs are shooting nicely. It's a shame the foliage goes a bit tatty and they are impossible to handle in a pot by the time they flower, as they are both such great garden plants. Good ones for the pollinators.

Scilla sibirica have royal blue colour peaking through. An early spring stunner..

Our dwarf Narcissus varieties are starting to bud up now and look springy. They won't hang around long, as I try not to overdo volumes of this sort of plant, just in case the weather turns on me!

Pulmonaria varieties are shooting nicely after their winter trim. Trevi Fountain, Shrimps and Opal are showing tight buds. Aubretia in blue and red shades are looking bushy, nice and tight in growth habit with some occasional flower colour showing, especially in the red, but both now carrying lots of tight bud.

Another spring favourite are the Erysimum's which are coming on line now. The Red Jep and Pastel Patchwork have tight bud lurking among the foliage at the moment and the Apricot Twist are looking strong and bushy too. The all time favourite Bowles Mauve are there too but not quite as advanced as the others.

Scaboius Butterfly Blue and Pink Mist think it's spring, with bud on show.

Primula veris (Cowslip) have bud and the odd flash of very early sunshine yellow. 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries