Hairy frustration

Hi

Spring is in the air today, sunshine, light breeze and no wet stuff. I feel a rush of activity coming on, I'd better get the pills ready. I suspect there may be a build up of stock to clear on some sites after the prolonged poor weather, but at some point the dam will burst and we will be rushing about with our sieves trying to hold back the flow!

A bit of a juggle this past week on the transport front, with two vans out of action from the middle of the week. Good job it's a quiet time! Still no joy on the long term garage stay for our Fiat, it must be three weeks now and this is its seventh visit this year for the same fault. Official Fiat head-office technicians are now directing operations but still no fix. The six month old one was also in for three days with the warning message that the ad-blue injector was faulty and that turned out to be a switch on the clutch. I have no idea how one relates to the other but it seems ok at the moment with the new switch installed. I did ask one of the drivers to double check the oil level before taking it in, just to make sure it looked like we were taking good care of it, only to be told it didn't have a dipstick. That was a first for me and to be honest I didn't really believe it, but sure enough there is a sticker on the engine cover saying there is no dipstick, 'check oil level on the cab display'. Now we all know how reliable the electric sensors on these things are, it's just another bit to go wrong. And another thing, a clipped plastic wing mirror broke the little plastic cover over the indicator bulb, and that means a new wing mirror is needed, because you can't replace the little bulb cover. The mirror is full of electrics and consequently hugely expensive, why not make them mendable it is such a waste. Sometimes you wonder whether the designers of these things have ever thought about how they are used and what is likely to happen to them in the real world. Ok rant over, let's think about something more positive.

Our Dutch peat-free module supplier popped in this week just to check up that all was well with our orders and whether we needed the mix adjusting. He is so on the ball about getting peat-free supplies sorted into the young plant propagators throughout Europe. It all seems to be gaining momentum and most propagators are running a lot of trials at the moment, in an effort to meet the growing demand, but whether they will be there for the 2026 targets of the RHS and National Trust centres is fairly doubtful. I'm hoping they are being a bit pessimistic in their progress and in fact there will be at least some lines moving into peat-free more quickly, otherwise stock availability for those early target sites is going to be very restricted. We have about a year to go before we need to be potting the first of the 2026 crops and that is a short time in an annually seasonal business, fingers crossed quick progress is made.

All rest and no play and all that, meant a late night out last Saturday at the Spring Jive Ball in Verwood. Themed on the film 'Grease' there was a lot of dressing up by many of the attendees. The male Sandy's were a bit creepy, although I do remember a time when I got away with skin tight PVC, at about the same time as the peroxide hair! Luckily for me there was plenty of rock and lively jive music played and some great dancers ready to rock away the nursery blues.

Availability list.

Camassia Alba and the multi stemmed blue flowering Maybelle are both showing early bud. The excellent newcomer Allium Ostara is up and looking particularly smart with buds just appearing in the leaf bases. Allium Cristophii has just started budding, they are tight down among the leaves at the moment but a little more warmth and sunshine and they will be away. The ever popular Allium Purple Sensation is showing well now, although I've not spotted any buds yet..

The last of our spring bulbs to show up is Chionodoxa, which is now showing its pretty short blue flowers, Just a few left. Intense blue flowers on Lithodora Compact Blue are now opening. The bronzed green ferny leaves of Polemonium Heaven Scent look well and pale blue flower buds are now opening. A fresh tight batch that we gave the Chelsea chop a few weeks ago have now shot back and are doing well.

Ipheion uniflorum still producing its pale blue flowers are looking well. Multiple Hosta varieties are bursting through, with One Man's Treasure looking really smart with deep green leaves and very dark stems. All propagated in our own micro-prop lab, we have a great selection. Summer stars the Agapanthus are now making strong growth after their winter dormancy period. Like the Hostas they are all propagated in our microprop lab and have overwintered well. We don't often have very many, but we have made a bigger effort with them over the last year so we can get them as far as a hairy pot rather than selling them all to other growers! 

Bergenia are now showing colour. Lavender Munstead are looking fab with early bud now showing above a fresh tight flush of foliage. Sometimes I get a bit jealous of the advanced growth achieved under frost-free glass or those imports from a warmer climate, but just at the moment I don't think you could wish for a better Lavender Munstead crop than the one we have on the nursery. Just a few smaller Hidcote left and most of the others are gone, although there should be more later in the season.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.