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