Hairy Lights

Hi

A very pleasant batch of weather coming up, warm, sunny with the odd shower, just right for a spot of garden shopping. It certainly seems to be helping sales roll along with another busy week behind us and next week already looks ok with the pre- bank holiday build up and a few advanced orders already. I know it's not like the spring should have been, but it's still a day off (for some) and credit cards usually take a pounding, especially if the weather is fine.

Slightly scary that the football season seems well underway already but I have to put that to the back of my mind as we try and push on with the potting. Another week passes with not enough done. A lack of prepared space, too many other distractions and some days with next to no one in work due to allsorts very valid reasons. It was Wednesday when I counted 10 here out of the 22 that it could have been, it was just coincidence that it all happened on one day, but we made it through so no worries really. I'm not bitter!

Anyway that's not the main excitement, that came with the arrival of an expert pump plumber on Tuesday who repaired a very expensive seal on one of our irrigation pressure pumps motors. These should give us enough woomf in the irrigation system to run multiple spray-lines at the same time, without losing performance in the nozzles. In theory we run two pumps in tandem, with the second one kicking in when water demand is high and pressure falls back. They are super efficient and ramp up their work rate as needed, rather than just turning on or off, so using far less energy. The trouble we have had for several years is that we had undiagnosed malfunctioning non-return valves on both pumps, which meant the pumps could work against each other and mess up the whole system. The result was that we could only pressurise the system with one pump running and the other turned off. This worked ok as long as we didn't have too many spray-lines on at the same time, making things difficult to manage in the hotter weather. Running the one pump did dry out the seal in the second one, which then failed when we eventually sorted out the valve issues. In a nutshell the main man replaced the seal and got the new motors on the pumps talking to each other again, so we are back to full pressure. What a joy, I can't believe we struggled for so long with only half a pump system. Now there is just the newly leaking storage tank liner to replace and sand filter to fit. 

Stunning natural wonders this week with unusually good views in the south of both the Aurora and Perseid meteor shower. We don't usually see much of the Northern Lights way down here but they peaked a couple of times through Sunday and Monday nights and after getting back from dancing late on Monday we saw a pretty, but short, rosy and green show (see attached image taken from the farm garden). The shooting stars were great too, but impossible to photo on the phone. 

Availability list.

Lovely compact and well branched batch of Verbena Lollipop now available. Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are just about ready with the some bud and flower already on show. Lots more growth and flower to come.

Tiarella wherrii are back on the list and in flower again, and the premium variety Pink Skyrocket are also ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud. Lovely foliage plants on show with Ajuga and Euphorbia displaying nicely.

The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after most of the new early Alpha range has all but sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display. Anemone japonica back on the list as summer slips by.

Some Bergenia varieties have a late flower flush as is the case with Fire and Ice with its white flowers and red stems. Fresh batches of the summer and autumn flowering mini garden Chrysanthemums are coming into bud.

Exotic Oxalis Iron Cross in flower now. Summer flowering Crocosmia are now throwing up bud and flower, Summer colour is there with the Gaura Rosy Jane and it's bicolour flowers. New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and showing good colour and bud.

Salvia's of all sorts are now growing strongly. The hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple are in bud and flower. Excellent bushy stock but not many left. Armeria Dreameria series of long season flowering Armerias are still showing plenty of colour with loads more to come. No white this year but a series of three pretty different pinks making a delightful show.

Leucanthemum La Creme and La Grande are in strong bud now with flowers open on many. The Balloon Flower Platycodon Twinkle Blue and Twinkle White are now well into bud with the odd flash of colour. So many other lines doing their thing at the moment including; Penstemon, Astilbe and Achillea don't hold back make the most of them while they are here.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.