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.