Hairy and nail biting

Hi,

So much coming into flower at the moment I don't have much waffle room this week, which must be a relief.

Caroline has already left for her big football game tonight, with Southampton playing the second leg of their play-off match with everything poised at 0-0 from leg one. Could be a Wembley final next weekend if they win. Hopefully all goes well or it could be a long weekend.

Good news on the van this week with Fiat head office agreeing to replace a part rather than continuing to try to reprogram a sensor management solution, under warrantee, to cure our long running issue. Not only has it been in 7 times over the last 5 months but they have had it for 7 weeks on this occasion. In theory we might get it back on Tuesday or Wednesday providing they remember to put it through its MOT which ran out last month. Fingers crossed we get back to full strength soon.

We could have done with it this week, it has been really busy which was a relief, other than the extra juggling excitement added, with so much more to despatch. Double the volume of the previous week was a bit of a shock, but everything left the site ok and fingers crossed it all got there in one piece.

Much against the image of a nurseryman's lifestyle, gardening is not a pastime either of us take much part in really, having spent all day and 7 days a week sorting out plants, the thought of doing it for pleasure doesn't really register. We have a very relaxed garden as you may tell from the cover picture which just illustrates how much beauty you can get from a modest amount of effort. The daisies and buttercups are spectacular at the moment and the cow parsley is at its peak!

Gig tomorrow night with a boogie-woogie/swing band playing at King Somborne village hall. Could be a lie-in on Sunday if it's as good as it sounds. Bit anxious about the colourful suit the singer is wearing in the promo shot, I prefer the music to do the talking. That said, I know we are very lucky to have such an active music scene in the village, Somborne Sessions have run a season of concerts for many years and it's supported strongly by the locals, which is how it should be.

Availability list.

Summer stars the Agapanthus are now making strong growth after the winter. Lapis Lazuli is already producing buds. The first batch of frost sensitive Salvia Love and Wishes is now ready to roll. The first of its endless summer flowers are already on show with so much more to come. Salvia's of all sorts are now growing strongly and producing the first of many flowers.

Masses of bud and colour to come with the Bidens summer range. Already making an eye catching show they look fab. The earliest batches of Dianthus are producing flower stems and tight bud. All are scented varieties and very bushy. Fresh batches of Aquilegia have been saved from the bunnies or deer, not sure which, and now looking great with early signs of flower activity and colour.

Summer colour is on its way with the Gaura range doing it's thing. Hoping to have a good run of availability over the next few months but they are selling so fast there may be the odd short break.

A new crop this year is Nepeta Kitten Around which I saw at the Ball-Colgrave open day last summer. It is really very compact in the pot making an attractive flowering plant, not too straggly. It gets a bit bigger in the garden once established but looks great in the pot before then. I just have the one batch this year to test it out, maybe more next time.

A few trays are ready of the new Gaillardia Guapa series we are trying out. Strong and compact the first buds are already there. There will be more colours to come later. Many of the Leucanthemums are coming into tight bud now. The scrambling Campanula posharskyana is chunky and now producing plenty of bud.

Rhodanthemum's are also in bud, although I don't have huge numbers just yet so don't get carried away. We have some fresh batches of several short bushy Erysimums in bud, just the flash of colour here and there. Last few Lupins for this year, get them before they get too big or sell out! Phlox subulata varieties are all producing loads of bud and colour, a great early performer in a nice range of colours. Multiple Hosta varieties are looking great. All propagated in our own micro-prop lab, we have a super selection.

Favourite border classics Verbena bonariensis and Lollipop are back on line. I have several batches on the way so we can keep the plant size in the pot manageable. Fresh crops of Erigeron karv. Stallone with its tiny multicolour daisy flowers that come all summer long are back on the list. No bud just yet but flower shoots are appearing.

On the herb front summer has arrived with our first batches of Basil and Lemon Verbena now ready. I am always a bit cautious with volumes on the earlier batches as they are not keen on cold weather and we sometimes get caught out. Fingers crossed the forecast is right and we should get away with it.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

 

Hairy Sunshine

Hi

Wow, what a lot of sunshine, both we and the plants have loved it. The is a sudden flush of growth and bud production which is great to see and for the first time this year it doesn't seem too much of a risk to remove ones vest, stringy or otherwise. A lot of the Winter/spring potting has jumped onto the availability, with a few nice early surprises like the Salvia Amistad which is such a summer favourite these days and already looking great. The lack of overnight frosts has benefited this rather risky first batch for us (no heat protection here) and growth looks clean and fresh. I also gambled on an earlier sowing of Basils of various sorts too, which are also looking good although won't be ready for another week, maybe two.

Bedding sales are obviously in full swing as our sales didn't benefit from quite the upswing we had hoped for after a mostly fair bank holiday weekend. Not too worried yet, our peak sales weeks last year were not for another week or two, after the weather turned from cold to hot almost overnight and again the bedding sold through its early/mid May flush.

We have been making the most of a little extra time by moving some more of the munched crops into more protected tunnels and calling on the services again of our night time caretaker who has taken care of a few of the culprits. The re-growth is quite dramatic so hopefully we will still get some fab plants out of them, just a few weeks later than expected.

Potting stuttered this week with the shortage of days and we are a bit tight for space too, but there are loads of lovely plants coming on stream over the next few weeks, with a few new ones amongst them. The is a new range of Helenium and new series of sturdier compact Gaillardia, both of which are looking very promising. Euphorbia Miner's Merlot is another newbie that has appeared on the list this season, as a replacement for E. am. Rubra which has been suffering from a lack of vigour for a while. This variety has a really strong deep colour which fades to a greener hue as it ages, very pleased with its performance so far.

New suspension pump on the oldest van has worked a treat and was well tested this week as it is still covering the missing FFFFFiat. I am beginning to wonder if it will ever come back. Well timed compost delivery on Tuesday this week, just as we ran out and an equally well timed container of pots due in on Monday as we get down to our last couple of pallets (two days worth!). We usually have 20 of so in stock as a back up, so this was a bit tight with delays thanks to the Gulf shipping chaos. Each week we get a Riverford veg delivery which we love, although the best bit as far as I am concerned is the notes that comes with it from either Guy, who started the whole thing, or one of his growers. There are so many levels where we connect with their trials and tribulations yet Guy always seems to find something positive to bring out the other side. This week's was a bit more troubling as he described the difficulties of finding sources for his early organic spuds. Most of his expert growers have given up their farms, either down to old age, poor returns and now because of a lack of people willing to harvest the crops. The tricky part apparently is finding the harvesters for the winter cauliflower crop which rotate with the spuds. The Eastern Europeans did it for years and now they have all but disappeared. Guy is also losing a couple of his long standing European staff to either return home or take up warmer, drier and better paid jobs, a worrying time for the future of the industry as a whole, especially the fruit and veg boys and girls.

Availability list.

Summer stars the Agapanthus are now making strong growth after the winter. Lapis Lazuli is already producing buds. Salvia's of all sorts are now growing strongly and producing the first of many flowers.

The earliest batches of Dianthus are now producing flower stems and tight bud. All are scented varieties and very bushy. The highly scented Nemesia Wisley Vanilla are already in flower and will keep going until the first frosts. I have the first few trays ready of the new Gaillardia Guapa series we are trying out. Strong and compact the first buds are already there. There will be more colours to come later.

The scrambling Campanula posharskyana is chunky and now producing plenty of bud. Rhodanthemum's are also in bud, although I don't have huge numbers just yet so don't get carried away. Intense blue flowers on Lithodora Compact Blue are now open. We have some fresh batches of several short bushy Erysimums in bud, just the flash of colour here and there.

Phlox subulata varieites are all producing bud and colour, a great early performer in a nice range of colours. Multiple Hosta varieties are looking great. All propagated in our own micro-prop lab, we have  a super selection. Favourite border classic Verbena bonariensis are back on line. I have several batches on the way so we can keep the plant size in the pot managable. Fresh crops of Erigeron karv. Stallone with its tiny multicolour daisy flowers that come all summer long are back on the list. No bud just yet but they will only be a week or two away. Loads more to come.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Million

Hi

Bank Holiday time again but not quite the forecast for a bonanza, but not too bad. Let's hope the rain holds off for you. This week was manageable despite the continued shortage of vans, but next week may be more of a challenge with just the four days to get everything delivered. We are picking orders on Monday, ready for Tuesday, but not delivering until Tuesday. This should get us off to a flying start to the week and hopefully everything else will fall into place as usual.

Pot stocks are definitely running low to feed the ever hungry potting machine and the young plants just keep pitching up wanting to be potted. Still hoping the season really kicks off soon or at least keeps going for a long while so we can find homes for all this upcoming stock. I am wondering if my Autumn optimism, as I looked through the cutting catalogues, may have been a bit over the top. I can't bring myself not to pot these lovely plants that keep turning up, so fingers crossed the sun does make an appearance soon and we don't end up with a bit of a compost heap at the end of the season!

Even with all this stock I still wish I had more of some things. Herbs have been selling very strongly and we have now hit that 'hungry gap' between the overwintered stock which are mostly sold through and the fresh crops which are waiting for some sunshine to get going. Most lines are ok but we are now out of rosemary, thyme and lavenders for a couple of weeks, so apologies for that. I can't quite believe where all the Lavender went, we were drowning in them a few weeks ago! Some of the thymes didn't like the wet dull weather and the Rosemary just sold in huge volumes early on, possibly a sign of replacements still being purchased for the losses in the cold during the previous winter when we also lost a lot of our stock.

The wildlife here continues to feed on the stock as well, with a major influx of pigeons causing havoc on some stocks. I had some lovely batches of Aquilegia reaching saleable size last weekend and virtually overnight they got stripped down to leaf stalks. We have had to move them to the netted Phlox tunnel where the other vulnerable crops are kept, but their dietary preferences seem to be widening as we catch them trying more and more lines. The rabbits had a visitor last weekend so their numbers have reduced significantly, although the next day a Muntjac deer was spotted grazing in one of the tunnels before being chased back over the fence. Something tells me we may have to heighten our fences over the next winter.

On the positive side the swallows are back on the nursery and looking to set up home in the donkey shed again. Even more excitingly we went out to a rural wedding venue last weekend and on our way back to the car park at close to midnight, we heard a nightingale in full song, it was just delightful. We hadn't heard one for 15 years or so. I went back to tell the other revellers but for some reason they didn't want to come out in the rain to stand in the car park and listen to birdsong!

We had a cracking night of thunderstorms this week which woke us up and kept us awake with the ferocity of the bangs and crashes. A whole load of electrical kit lost the plot and tripped out, but not everything. One security camera, one turbine, one network hub switch, part of the house phone system, the lab consumer unit and the potting shed. It took a few hours to track down all the issues and a visit from the our brilliant local telephone engineer to get the computer/alarm and telephone network almost fully operational again. Just one blown network switch to replace with a more robust one and we will be back to full strength.

The oldest van had a new air suspension compressor fitted which means it too is back to full strength and able to lift a full load rather than being a bit wheezy. I'm wondering if I might get one as well.

Best night out this week was last night when we both spent ten minutes (at 9.00 pm) in the electricity shed watching the turbine generation meter turn over to register 1 million units. Slightly disappointing that it turned out that the meter only goes to 999,999 and on 1 million it goes back to zero! Live and learn. Slept well that night, the excitement was just too much. 

Availability list.

Camassia Alba and the blue flowering Maybelle are both showing multiple buds. Maybelle is particularly good. The earliest batches of Dianthus are now producing flower stems and tight bud. All are scented varieties and very bushy. The highly scented Nemesia Wisley Vanilla are already in flower and will keep going until the first frosts. You'll never guess what it so strongly smells of!

The scrambling Campanula posharskyana is chunky and now producing plenty of bud. Rhodanthemum's are also in bud, although I don't have huge numbers just yet so don't get carried away. Intense blue flowers on Lithodora Compact Blue are now open. Phlox subulata varieites are producing bud and colour, a great early performer in a nice range of colours.

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. Lapis Lazuli is already producing buds.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.