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

Hot and Hairy

Morning all,

Back to the punishing hot weather again, who would work on a nursery in this sort of weather? Looks like it might be set in for quite a few days so no point fretting about it really, it is what it is. The rest of the farming side of the family will be pleased, as harvest is about to kick off and moisture levels in the grain look pretty perfect at the moment. The last thing they will be wanting to do this year is burning up any fuel drying the crops before storage,

We had another hectic week getting the orders out, tunnel clearing and potting next spring's crops. All the usual challenges with holidays and illness knocking out nearly a quarter of the team over the week and the newest Fiat van still at the garage awaiting parts from Italy. It is all under warranty which is ok on the cost side, but we have been without it now since the beginning of June and the main part not due for arrival until late next week. In theory we could have hired a van, with all the usual headaches of how to get the trolleys on board securely and the very low payloads, but our decision to keep the old van instead of trading it in worked out well.

As production turns its focus to next season and we start refilling the tunnels again, doubts pop up about how much do we pot? How much is the cost of living crisis going to affect sales in the coming year. All those gains made by the gardening industry during covid could be lost by a lack of consumer cash. We are continuing to be fairly bold in our own outlook while hopefully not getting too carried away. I have been sowing loads of herb seed this week for some of the overwintered crops. It's something I often leave a bit tight, only just leaving enough time to achieve the ideal crop growth before the days get to short for productive growing. Even just a week can make such a difference, one gained in July is worth about 3 in October, so I'm making an extra effort to get them in early this year. Part of the problem is that the summer is much longer in my head than it is in reality, I always think I have plenty of time and consequently get caught out.

My mental activity is definitely suffering at the moment, a combination of great age and being a bit overtired has led to some very frustrating behaviour while tending my seed sowing. I had to bend over to insert some labels in a row of trays and my glasses kept slipping off. Sensibly I removed them and put them down, not on the bed or trolley path where I may tread on them, but on the paths raised lip, out of harm's way. Within 30 seconds I had stood on the path edge straight onto the glasses, I chose a few choice phrases and soldiered on. Live and learn. Apparently not, within another minute I pulled the trolley along catching and running over the doomed specs, I couldn't believe it, who could possibly work with this idiot? 

Availability list highlights

Plenty of lovely looking stock, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches. Erigeron karvenskianus Stallone are back on the list, plenty of bud again and raring to go. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds, as have the Rhodanthemum, both good selling summer favourites.

First summer buds of Crocosmia are just poking through the leaves. A couple of weeks away from colour yet but 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. Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvias are doing their thing, The Lips series are growing in popularity and are lovely and bushy. Then all the ever popular nemerosa types are great too. Bud and colour on show for most.

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 Mrs Popple.

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

Batches of the Dreameria series of Armeria are bulking up on flower numbers. Selected for their very long flowering period and large flower size they promise to be a great new garden addition. Summer must be on its way with the appearance of the Oxalis. Both forms are now in flower with lots of follow on bud. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible, Penstemons are coming online now with buds now showing on the Garnet. Fresh batches again of Digitalis and Delphinium but catch them quick before they get too big.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy production

Morning all,

Back to a better time this week with slightly fewer distractions than the previous couple of weeks. Still so busy there are few moments to spare. As soon as sales dip even if only slightly, we are desperate to get space cleared and the potting machine going again. The backlog of young plants at this time of year adds quite a lot of pressure to the workload, we know that the quicker we get things potted the fewer losses we get and the bigger the plants are when we get to the winter. As each week goes by the more young plants arrive and it will be like this for several more weeks to come. Quite a few of the smallest plants we will pop into our big plug trays, to keep them growing and produce a bigger stronger plant by the time they are potted later on, which does spread the load a bit. I'm glad to say that we appear not to have overdone the production numbers as badly as we did last year (I hesitate to admit that should read 'I' and not 'we'). This time last summer we ended up giving away a large number of plants to the local surgeries, vaccination centres and hospitals, which was amvery positive thing to be involved in, but it didn't do the nursery business or productivity many favours, other than clearing some space without getting too depressed. We won't know for a few weeks yet how much I may have overdone things this time, but it looks ok at the moment, we are able clear tunnels as we go through each week, just about keeping ahead of the potting team. We are as usual fairly dependant on the weather and how the consumers are feeling in these economically challenging times. Hopefully a small occasional treat of a plant for the garden will keep things positive for those who can still afford it. Historically smaller plant sales have usually faired very well in times of recession so I am not too downhearted at the situation, we just need to be very careful on our purchasing and cost control.

Had a bit of a shock (electric!) this week when I found out that my brother in law is getting nearly double the rate paid for his exported electricity than we are and to rub salt into the wound he is with the same energy company as us. I phoned the company up to find why this might be and it turned out that it was because he was solar powered and we are wind. The low wind speeds last year (and this one) have meant they have had to buy-in expensive power to cover their shortfall and so they are not paying the wind generators as much, in order to rebalance the books. While I understand the idea, it doesn't seem quite right that our electricity is worth less than 9p/unit when the wholesale rate is well over 20p and the solar customers are being paid over 15p. He was a bit embarrassed by the company strategy and reckoned it would come back up in a year or two but now we have to make a decision as to whether we wait or jump ship for a better offer.

Night off tonight and being taken out to the pub for a meal and just remembered I still haven't replenished the trouser department. It's either the Rupert bear look again or DJ. I know DJ might seem over the top but I can remember, not so long ago, going to Zizzi's in full DJ kit on my way to a ball at the Guildhall. My nephew gave me a lift into town and I repaid him by buying his supper. He joined in the spirit by wearing his DJ too, we caused quite a stir!

Availability list highlights

Plenty of lovely looking stock, don't hold back, get some bud and colour on those benches. Erigeron karvenskianus Stallone are back on the list, plenty of bud again and raring to go. First summer buds of Crocosmia are just poking through the leaves. A couple of weeks away from colour yet but looking good. Time flies and already we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come.

Ever popular summer flowering perennial Salvias are doing their thing, The Lips series are growing in popularity and are lovely and bushy. Then all the ever popular nemerosa types are great too. Bud and colour on show for most. 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 Mrs Popple. Nice short plants of Achillea Moonshine and Terracotta in bud and looking strong. Batches of the Dreameria series of Armeria are bulking up on flower numbers. Selected for their very long flowering period and large flower size they promise to be a great new garden addition.

Summer must be on its way with the appearance of the Oxalis. Both forms are now in flower with lots of follow on bud. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy and swelling buds are visible, Gaura looking fab with lots of buds, as have the Rhodanthemum, both good selling summer favourites. Penstemons are coming online now with buds now showing on the Garnet. Fresh batches again of Digitalis and Delphinium but catch them quick before they get too big.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries