Hairy concentration

Morning all, 

Pre Easter tension is building as the weather looks like warming up again just in time for the big weekend. I can't really remember a time when Easter meant putting your feet up and enjoying a few days off, to us it adds up to over excited buyers, both at the wholesale and consumer levels and a mad juggling match trying to keep everyone happy. All those days lost to 'holiday' and such a short time slot to get a mega number of deliveries done, both in the pre Easter week and the following one (if the weather has been good).

Don't forget many of you will be closed on the Sunday so don't overdo it! Gone are those Easters of many moons ago, when everywhere was open and things really did go nuts on that weekend. We will be working our socks off to get all the stock ready and delivered in time, but I must advise you now that with the forecast looking fair, we are likely to still be delivering on Good Friday and possibly into Saturday. We will do our best to avoid this scenario but we physically can't always squeeze everything in if it turns into a monster couple of weeks. Touch wood we will have our new big van which is due to be picked up on Saturday, plus three other small ones, and providing we get enough healthy drivers this week we will be whizzing about.

Please do get your orders in early as this will help efficient use of resources although it still might not come any quicker! Any later orders we will do our best with but we will possibly not be as flexible as we can be on some other weeks.

It is peak season now so there are never enough hours in the day and the first couple of days in the week are always quite stressful as we try and sort out all the deliveries and get a few out pronto as early as we can to clear a few out of the way. On occasions my commitment to keeping everyone occupied at full tilt early in the week can lead to near misses, so please learn by my mistake this week. We are on the edge, just keeping up with events and the complex organisation, but I did miss coffee break to stay ahead of everyone which worked well. By noon I was hopping from foot to foot unable to find the moment to visit the new facilities when I just had to give in and retire. At this point you go onto automatic, I know how long it takes to get there, the movements (so to speak) to get in, locked and prepared and there we go. Unfortunately this time I was in for a surprise, no access. I had put on my boxers the wrong way round and an accident was only narrowly avoided! Classic lesson learnt, accidents happen so easily, just a moments lapse in concentration and you're in trouble, so take care out there.

Wooden box returns appeal

Just a quick note to say thanks to all those being very prompt with their box returns, it does help us make good use of these expensive items. The more times we use them, the lower the cost of packing and marketing, which benefits us all in these times of increasing financial pressure. Can I make an appeal to anyone using our empty boxes as part of their display constructions, to try and find some alternative materials to use. Each box costs us £10 to replace and it doesn't take many to disappear into such a display for large amounts of valuable box stock to be left unused by us. Not only do we have to buy more boxes to cover our needs but those empty boxes sitting there are not earning their keep with us, which increases our costs and consequently our prices to you.

We are getting quite low on boxes already. As the season continues returns start to match the outgoings, but at the moment we are still using more than the boxes returned, which is ok as we still have some in stock, but prompt recovery is vital. 

Availability list highlights

A couple of the Geraniums are throwing out flower buds already, the sun and warmth has moved them on. Both are great performers in sun or shade with subtle flower displays. Samobor has really dark purple small flowers over dramatic dark blotched leaves and nodosum has small pretty pinky/purple flowers and goes on and on all summer.

Not a huge number left but Primula Millers Crimson are starting to produce flower buds, still very tight but they are there. All the Ajuga varieties have suddenly shot up their low flower shoots. The odd violet-blue bloom opening in the warmth. Low growing Erodiums in both colours are budding now, ready to flower all summer long.

Dicentra spectabilis are shooting and showing bud already. They are very tight short plants at the moment but will very quickly gain size and volume. Easy to handle at this stage, less easy the bigger they get, due to their fleshy nature.

Alliums are shooting nicely and now showing the odd tight bud. Good ones for the pollinators. Spring favourite the Erysimum's are now in bud.

We have some lovely batches of Salvia nemerosa varieties bulking up well with several varieties already in bud. A spring flush of healthy shoot growth on our overwintered Phlox range, all looking very strong. Best crop ever. 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries