Hairy ordering

Hi,

Summer blast in the south for the next few days which should make outdoor pastimes very popular for a little while longer. It's going to be a shock when the cold weather eventually pitches up after another warm Autumn so far. Only a few weeks until our little annual break in Cornwall, can't wait, but I can't really believe we will be togged up in our winter kit striding out along the cliff-tops and into warm dark smoky pubs for vital sustenance. This will be the first really long trip testing out the range of the electric car, so slightly anxious about that as St Ives last year had very few, if any, public chargers. Tesco in Carbis Bay had a couple of little ones but it's not a holiday venue we frequent very often. I'm sure it will be just fine, we already know we can get there without a recharge and that's the main thing. If we can't get home we will just have to stay longer.

The bulk of our spring bulbs arrived for potting this week, so busy getting those into pots now. It's a slow old process counting out the right number into each pot, at the right depth, topping up, traying up then mulching, putting down and watering. We have had 11 people in the team over the last couple of days and still potted less than 4 people would if potting standard sized modules. There is no shortcut, it just has to be done right to get a good enough grade-out at despatch in the spring, thankfully it is a relatively quiet time of year,

The big admin job completed this week was getting the main plant orders for potting next year out to our numerous suppliers. I haven't added it all up yet but I know I have ordered more from every one of them, so we are going to have our work cut out getting it all potted and finding room for it all. Hopefully the weather and consumer demand will be on our side from reasonably early in the year, so we can clear crops quickly and make sufficient space for it all. I have dropped a few lines that were either giving us problems or not selling well enough and replaced them with a lot more. Having had a little more time to research my ordering this year I did get a bit carried away with ordering new varieties, it was just all too tempting. Hopefully they will be super popular and fly off the shelves. I will try and get sorted with an updated full plant list for next year before we go away, so you can update your systems or fantasise about the spring sales boom to come.

The next couple of weeks may be a bit tense as the chickens come home to roost in the end of year accounts, which ended last week. Initial figures will be my own and always treated with a hint of scepticism, although it is one area at college where I did pick up some useful skills. To date we have been feeling fairly positive about the year, seeing increased sales, improving efficiency and reduced wastage, which hopefully will balance out some of those increasing costs. We have always managed to keep our annual prices rise at below the prevailing inflation rate and I often worry that one day this practice will bite me on the bum, but touch wood we have got away with it so far, I can still see room for more efficiencies to work on over the coming season, so I'm sure we will manage it again, but it's those annual accounts giving our bank confidence, and the cash-flow, that will determine our future, as it does every year.

A surprise extra tunnel to cover next week. We had just cleverly replaced the wood side rails without completely removing the cover, when someone noticed two new splits had appeared over the end hoops. We might have patched it if it had just been one, but two means it's ready to pop all over. We have a spare cover in stock, some perfect re-covering weather due on Monday and a crack team to get it stretched and fixed tightly in no time at all, so no worries there.

Availability list.

Cyclamen coum pink and white forms are already on the list and showing the occasional bud. These will usually flower from October through until well into Spring, with a tasteful sprinkling of flowers rather than being drowned in them.

There are already a few flowers on the Helleborus niger varieties so Santa can't be far away! A new variety of H. orientalis for us is Halcyon Early Dark Red and it has surprised us by showing a few buds already. We have plenty of Sedum Autumn Joy in bud this year for that classic autumn show and pollinator jamboree. We cut it back early to make it flower on a more manageable short stem, so beware it will be taller in the garden next year.

The ever-giving Erigeron karv. Stallone is available in bud again this week and should be around for ages as this is our big overwintering batch we are into now. If the weather is with us we often still have colour up to Christmas. Tiarella are looking healthy with plenty of flower. Masses of colour on the new batch of Erodium Bishops Form which should flower for quite a while yet. Foliage colour looking smart on Ajuga and Heuchera always popular autumn lines.

Wooden box collections

If you have any of our wooden boxes ready to return and aren't expecting to order anytime soon, then please do drop us an email and let us know. A rough idea of numbers might be handy but not essential. We will get to you as soon as we have a vehicle with space in your area. Thanks

Take care out there,  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries